October 2025 marks a decade since Rebecca published To Defend the Revolution is to Defend Culture: The Cultural Policy of the Cuban Revolution. This book arose from her PhD and drew on five months spent undertaking research in the libraries and archives of Havana.
Not being able to speak Spanish and not knowing anyone in Cuba might have made the choice of this academic subject seem foolhardy. It was motivated by Rebecca’s abiding conviction that we have much to learn from other cultures. This proved to be the case when considering the individual and social value attributed to culture in the wake of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. This kind of thinking underpins the modern creative health movement.