BEFORE THE BIRTHDAY PARTY Instructions
This story takes place in Cuba in the 1990s. The Revolution was already at least 30 years old at that point. An important historical aspect to Cuba at this time is that the Soviet Union (The communist union of countries of Eastern Europe, with Russia being its largest member) had just collapsed. They could no longer give financial assistance to Cuba as they had been from the 1960s-1990. This assistance allowed Cuba to maintain its socialist government in exchange for allowing the USSR (United Soviet Socialist Republic) to use Cuba in any number of ways. The most well-known of those ways involved the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s, when the USSR placed a nuclear weapon in Cuba facing the US, a mere 90 miles away. I give you this background so that you understand it was financially devastating for Cuba to lose the assistance of the USSR as their economy basically collapsed the 1990s. This short story documents ways that average Cuban families dealt with extreme shortages on the island. I would like you to discuss the different creative ways that this particular family faced those challenges. What lengths did this mother go to in order to have a decent birthday party for her child? Can you relate to her determination?
This should be answered in a full page.
