This was getting better and better the more I read on. I loved the different writing styles in the different chapters and the short story collection-esque combination of stories, slowly unravelling and giving more depth to each individual chapter. The parallels between post-Contact earth and real life Cuba are thinly veiled, but that takes nothing away from the stories, even made them more intense and slightly uncomfortable. You can still read it as simple SF, which makes it all the more fascinating.