Customer Reviews

Cuban-Jewish Journeys: Searching for Identity, Home, and History in Miami

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I found Bettinger-Lopez's work very impressive, especially considering that the vast majority of her research was conducted for an undergraduate thesis. Bettinger-Lopez clearly spent a great deal of time conducting personal interviews and was able to get "inside" the Cuban-Jewish community. As the daughter of a Cuban-Jewish emigre to the U.S. (to New York) who still has many Cuban-Jewish friends and family members in Miami, I truly enjoyed the author's vivid, detailed portraits of the community. Bettinger-Lopez also provided interesting anthropologic and feminist analysis of the Cuban-Jewish community. I did, however, find one aspect of the book troubling, and that is Bettinger-Lopez's tendency to frequently inject herself and her personal issues into the analysis of the people that she interviews. While this technique is interesting at times, it comes off as mildly self-centered and lacks the detachment required of a primary source researcher. Overall, I recommend the book and especially recommend it to Cuban-Jews and their descendants.