"Economies of Desire" is about sex tourism in Cuba and the Dominican Republic.The first chapter is about the tourism industry, which is based on "all inclusive resorts" in which tourists pay in advance for airfare, hotels, meals, drinks, entertainment, etc. These resorts are foreign-owned and employ foreign managers. Locals are hired at low wages. Due to competition selling identical products (one Caribbean resort is identical to another) this is a low-margin industry. The resorts are walled off to prevent locals from entering and to prevent guests from leaving, except on "folkloric" tours run by the resorts. Until a few years ago it was illegal for Cubans to enter tourist hotels.The second chapter talks about Cuba's Special Period in the early 1990s, when the economy collapsed, famine was widespread, and the country had to change its economy from trading within the Soviet bloc to becoming part of the world economy.The third chapter contrasts a young Cuban waiter in a resort who earns more in a day in tips than doctors earn in a month; with his parents who are proud of the revolution and what it has given them, including a comfortable home and their daughter's medical school education. The author then talks about how the young man and other resort workers are trained and encouraged to smile, provide personal service, and form affective (emotional) relationships with guests. The author describes "eroticizing labor" as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Cuban workers have to put up with sexual advances, e.g., Italian men who arrive at the resort and "they want a hot Cuban woman right away." On the other hand, locals are able to earn extra income from sex, e.g., a Dominicana hotel worker who "had sex with anything that moved" for a few months to earn money to build a small house for her family, and when the house was finished she stopped having sex with tourists.The fourth chapter contrasts Catholicism, in which the mother goddess is a virgin, and women are either madonnas or whores; with the Afro-Cuban Yoruba religion in which the mother goddess protects desperate women and their children in more nuanced ways. For example, a starving young mother of a handicapped child went to the malecon (sea wall) in Havana to pray to the goddess, and an hour later met a married Italian tourist who visited her every day, bought her food and necessities, and then gave her $500. The author calls such women luchadoras (fighters) who use "tactical sex" for survival, to get a vacation, to get a long-term romantic relationship, and/or for emigration. This includes educated, professional women for whom there aren't jobs, who want to pursue careers in foreign countries. The luchadora is contrasted with the jinetera, or prostitute, who has sex with many men without emotional attachment.I know a Canadian man who, in his 40s, met a 16-year-old girl who'd gotten pregnant, was dumped by the baby's father, and had to drop out of school to care for her baby. He's visited her several times a year for 15 years and supported her. She's visited him in Canada but she doesn't want to leave her family, so they haven't married. There are Cuban women who want to leave Cuba, but there are others who want to be a "chica de Cuba" and once or twice a year get a vacation with a tourist, form a long-term relationship, and stay in Cuba caring for their families with economic assistance from the tourist. He wrote about his chica's feelings:"She loves her country Cuba and has no desire to leave except for a vacation. She has no one outside of Cuba except me as her family and all her relatives live there and she is happiest when she is with them and she visits her mom every other day. I know for some people it is difficult to comprehend but I have many friends in Cuba in the same situation that would like to visit another country for a holiday but remain and live in Cuba. As bad as things are in Cuba they have come to terms with it and learned to live with it and don't want to jump from the fire into a frying pan. She has friends that moved away and they say the streets are not paved with gold and money doesn't grow on trees and they work 60 hrs a week to live and eat with little money to send home. She is happy with her station in life."The fifth chapter notes that some Cuban and Dominican women prefer foreigners because local men beat their women and live off the women's earnings. This chapter also discusses police corruption, in which women who are with foreigners are arrested, raped by police, and forced to pay their earnings to the police as "fines" or bribes.The book doesn't discuss foreign women who romance and/or marry Cuban men. Judging from the stories on cubaamor.org there are just as many Canadian women going to Cuba for men as there are Canadian men going to Cuba for women.Cubans are wonderful, warm, romantic people. However, a relationship between a Cuban and a North American can be difficult due to each person not understanding the other's culture. This book enlightens a subject that isn't discussed anywhere else. It put my relationships with Cubans into perspective. Five years ago I went to Cuba thinking that prostitution is bad and marriage is good. Now, after a marriage and a divorce, I see that the "chica de Cuba" relationship is between prostitution and marriage, and perhaps combines the best of both relationships while avoiding the pitfalls of each.