To Change the World: My Years in Cuba

To Change the World: My Years in Cuba by Randall, Margaret. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780813544328.

In To Change the World, the legendary writer and poet Margaret Randall chronicles her decade in Cuba from 1969 to 1980. Both a highly personal memoir and an examination of the revolutions great achievements and painful mistakes, the book paints a portrait of the island during a difficult, dramatic, and exciting time. Randall gives readers an inside look at her childrens education, the process through which new law was enacted, the ins and outs of healthcare, employment, internationalism, culture, and ordinary peoples lives. She explores issues of censorship and repression, describing how Cuban writers and artists faced them. She recounts one of the countrys last beauty pageants, shows us a night of Peoples Court, and takes us with her when she shops for her familys food rations. Key figures of the revolution appear throughout, and Randall reveals aspects of their lives never before seen. More than fifty black and white photographs, most by the author, add depth and richness to this astute and illuminating memoir. Written with a poets ear, depicted with a photographers eye, and filled with a feminist vision, To Change the Worldùneither an apology nor gratuitous attackùadds immensely to the existing literature on revolutionary Cuba.