More than 100 years before the Cuban Revolution of 1959 sparked an exodus that created today's prominent Cuban-American presence, Cubans were settling in New York City in what became largest community of Latin Americans in the nineteenth-century Northeast. Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution brings this community to vivid life, tracing its formation and how it was shaped by both the sugar trade and the long struggle for independence from Spain. New York became the primary destination for Cuban emigres in search of an education, opportunity, wealth, to start a new life or forget an old one, to evade royal authority, plot a revolution, experience freedom, or buy and sell goods. Lisandro Perez beautifully weaves together their stories, showing the rise of a little-known but vibrant community that represents the origins of New York City's Latino presence. Historically rich and engrossing, Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution immerses the reader in the drama of Cuban New York.
