Introduction

I was born in Cuba and lived there through high school. History was one of my favorite subjects, and I particularly enjoyed reading about Cuba’s many struggles for its independence. When I went to college in the United States, I found out that many of the facts I had learned about Cuban history were taught quite differently in American high schools and colleges. The thought crossed my mind to go to original documents to determine how these events actually occurred. But I did not, rationalizing at the time that some day historians would eventually get to the bottom of these events.