Margot Pepper

Margot Pepper is the Mexican-born author of Through the Wall: A Year in Havana, a memoir about working in Cuba during the “Special Period.” Her work has appeared in the Utne Reader and Monthly Review

2 articles

View of Havana’s Hotel Nacional de Cuba in the first Special Period, 1993. Credit: Margot Pepper.

July/August 2026

The Costs of the U.S. Blockade of Cuba

Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” ushers in a “New Special Period.”

Margot Pepper Jul 31, 2026

Issue 281

The Costs of the Blockade—for the Blocker

The 47-year-old blockade now costs the United States far more than it costs Cuba.

Margot Pepper Mar 1, 2009

When All Else Is Out of Bounds, Zap Labor

Interview: The Plutonomy and the Coming Crisis

Minor Improvements and Much Confusion

The Costs of the U.S. Blockade of Cuba

The Costs of the Blockade—for the Blocker