On December 17th 2014, when the U.S. and Cuba announced they would reestablish diplomatic relations, no one was less surprised than Tom Hayden, who had already set out to assess the historical lead up to normalization in a new book. Hayden’s access and personal history put him in a unique position to offer insight on U.S-Cuban relations, historically and post normalization.
The new book Listen, Yankee: Why Cuba Matters is an account of Cuban politics from a longtime observer of Cuba and, Hayden’s memoir as a U.S revolutionary student leader and founder of Students for a Democratic Society. The book is based in part on conversations between Hayden and Ricardo Alarcón, a top leader of the Cuban revolution, foreign minister, and UN representative.
