{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008H3K3KE?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"B008H3K3KE","authors":["Louis A. Pérez Jr.","Louis A. P?rez"],"book_id":"9780807858998","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780807858998","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807858998.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","description":"With this masterful work, Louis A. Pérez Jr. transforms the way we view Cuba and its relationship with the United States. On Becoming Cuban is a sweeping cultural history of the sustained encounter between the peoples of the two countries and of the ways that this encounter helped shape Cubans' identity, nationality, and sense of modernity from the early 1850s until the revolution of 1959. Using an enormous range of Cuban and U.S. sources — from archival records and oral interviews to popular magazines, novels, and motion pictures — Pérez reveals a powerful web of everyday, bilateral connections between the United States and Cuba and shows how U.S. cultural forms had a critical influence on the development of Cubans' sense of themselves as a people and as a nation. He also articulates the cultural context for the revolution that erupted in Cuba in 1959. In the middle of the twentieth century, Pérez argues, when economic hard times and political crises combined to make Cubans painfully aware that their American-influenced expectations of prosperity and modernity would not be realized, the stage was set for revolution.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780807858998","publication_date":"20080310","publisher":"The University of North Carolina Press","slug":"on-becoming-cuban","subtitle":"Identity, Nationality, and Culture","title":"On Becoming Cuban"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS041010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Cuban History","score":0.8449,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SOC008050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Caribbean & Latin American Studies","score":0.7798,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Caribbean & Latin American Criticism","score":0.7448,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS041010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Cuban History","score":0.8449,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SOC008050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Caribbean & Latin American Studies","score":0.7798,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Caribbean & Latin American Criticism","score":0.7448,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"high","label":"19th-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036060","confidence_band":"high","label":"20th-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS041010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Cuban History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Cuban History","score":0.8449,"slug":"cuban-history"},{"label":"Caribbean & Latin American Studies","score":0.7798,"slug":"caribbean-latin-american-studies"},{"label":"Caribbean & Latin American Criticism","score":0.7448,"slug":"caribbean-latin-american-criticism"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Cuban History","Good for readers interested in culture","Good for fans of History"],"related_lists":[{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-soc008050-caribbean-latin-american-studies","title":"Caribbean & Latin American Studies Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-soc008050-caribbean-latin-american-studies"}],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Louis A. Pérez Jr.","Drew Birdseye","Audible Studios","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780807872109","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807872109.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":18.9637,"title":"Cuba in the American Imagination","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780807872109"},{"authors":["Paul Ryer"],"book_id":"9780826521194","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780826521194.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":17.1643,"title":"Beyond Cuban Waters","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780826521194"},{"authors":["Carrie Hamilton","Elizabeth Dore"],"book_id":"9781469618913","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781469618913.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":16.754,"title":"Sexual Revolutions in Cuba","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781469618913"},{"authors":["Aviva Chomsky","Barry Carr","Alfredo Prieto","Pamela Maria Smorkaloff"],"book_id":"9781478003939","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478003939.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":14.8012,"title":"The Cuba Reader","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781478003939"},{"authors":["Samuel Farber"],"book_id":"9780807856734","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807856734.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":14.7749,"title":"The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780807856734"},{"authors":["Louis A Pérez Jr."],"book_id":"9781478032007","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478032007.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":14.4536,"title":"Colonial Reckoning","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781478032007"},{"authors":["Antoni Kapcia"],"book_id":"9781859733318","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781859733318.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":14.4299,"title":"Cuba","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781859733318"},{"authors":["Jaime Suchlicki"],"book_id":"9781574884364","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781574884364.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":14.4248,"title":"Cuba","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781574884364"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:popular culture"],"label":"Culture","score":0.0808,"slug":"culture"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:market relationships"],"label":"Relationships","score":0.0492,"slug":"relationships"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Culture, Relationships.","Reading lane: Cuban History and Caribbean & Latin American Studies.","Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":16,"goodreads_ratings_count":52,"goodreads_reviews_count":6,"quality_score":0.8611}}