Cuban Studies 45 features two special dossiers: the first discusses the history and workings of the the Cuban constitution and the need to revisit it along with civil and political rights; the second offers new perspectives on the history of health, medicine, and disease in Cuba, and views race as a factor in both infant mortality and tuberculosis from the early-to-mid twentieth century. Additional essays discuss culture through poetry, higher education reform, the narratives of Lordes Casal, and filmmaker Jesus Diaz as an 'unintentional deviationist.' History is discussed vis-a-vis the radio politics of young Eddy Chibas, the slave abolitionist rhetoric of the Countess of Merlin, and the creole appropriation of Afro-Cuban dance and music to create sabor during the late nineteenth century.