Georgie Geyer, the author, had interviewed around 500 people in 28 countries from Cuba to India. Her interviewees include defectors from Cuba, Castro's lovers, members of his extended family, ex-spies from US and Soviet Union, guerrilla leaders, presidents, ministers, diplomats, historians and psychiatrists. She had interviewed Castro himself four times in the sixties. Based on these, the author published the book in 1990, when the cold war ended and the principal Cuban benefactor Soviet Union collapsed.
The book has lot of information, gossip and stories about Castro. There are different perspectives on Castro by his admirers, lovers, enemies and victims.
The author starts the story from Galicia in Spain, where Castro's father Angel Castro was born and brought up in the poor province but with a proud local spirit and tradition. She traces some characteristics of Fidel Castro from his Gallego origin and quotes a Galician author Alvaro Conqueiro, " The Gallego..lives from the land and the sea and continues being a dreamer, a lover of secrets, believing that not everything that is buried is dead"
The author starts the story from Galicia in Spain, where Castro's father Angel Castro was born and brought up in the poor province but with a proud local spirit and tradition. She traces some characteristics of Fidel Castro from his Gallego origin and quotes a Galician author Alvaro Conqueiro, " The Gallego..lives from the land and the sea and continues being a dreamer, a lover of secrets, believing that not everything that is buried is dead"
The author divides Fidel Castro’s rule into three phases: first, when Cubans called him as “Fidel” in adoration of the revolutionary; second, when the people respectfully referred to him as “Castro” distancing themselves cautiously from the powerful man; and third, when he was called as “El” (He) out of fear and frustration with the miserable conditions of life.
There has been an inconclusive debate as to when did Castro become a communist and if he was pushed into communism by the bullying US. The author says, “ The truth is that Fidel Castro never "became" a Communist as one becomes a Mason, a Catholic, an SS officer, a Hare Krishna, or a Zoroastrian. He did not adapt himself to an ideology; he found an ideology to adapt itself to him. His "Communism" was not — could not be — an act of faith, because his only faith lay in himself and his "noble" intentions”. I agree. He saw the rigidity of communists in Cuba as well as from Soviet Union and did not want to be stuck in that framework as yet another follower. Castro followed his own path which had drawn elements from Marx and Marti among others.
But what is clear is that Castro had a huge and unrelenting battle with the US which wanted to overthrow Castro’s government by hook or crook. The CIA made so many assassination attempts and took even the help of mafias. So he had no other choice but to seek protection and help from Soviet Union, the other super power. But Castro went beyond. He inspired, instigated and supported armed revolutions in Latin America and Africa and challenged the power of US. This was audacious and took an unusual courage. He paid a heavy price. The US inflicted even more pain for Cuba.
Castro's encounter with US starts when he spends his honeymoon in New York, paid for by his father- in- law. His second visit to US was to collect funds for his Sierra Maestra expedition from Mexico. He travelled from Florida to New York giving speeches to Cuban expatriates and collecting money from them, just as Jose Marti did. His third visit was a few months after the triumph of his revolution in 1959. He went to Washington DC at the invitation of the Association of Editors and spent 5 days meeting senators, journalists and administration officials including Vice President Nixon. From there, he went to Harvard and Princeton Universities where he received a hero's welcome. His next visit was to address the United Nations in New York, when he decided to stay in a small hotel in the poor black neighborhood of Harlem causing a sensation.
After these visits, Castro realized that US was going to be the greatest danger to him, as evidenced soon by the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Castro's encounter with US starts when he spends his honeymoon in New York, paid for by his father- in- law. His second visit to US was to collect funds for his Sierra Maestra expedition from Mexico. He travelled from Florida to New York giving speeches to Cuban expatriates and collecting money from them, just as Jose Marti did. His third visit was a few months after the triumph of his revolution in 1959. He went to Washington DC at the invitation of the Association of Editors and spent 5 days meeting senators, journalists and administration officials including Vice President Nixon. From there, he went to Harvard and Princeton Universities where he received a hero's welcome. His next visit was to address the United Nations in New York, when he decided to stay in a small hotel in the poor black neighborhood of Harlem causing a sensation.
After these visits, Castro realized that US was going to be the greatest danger to him, as evidenced soon by the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Castro was at times pragmatic and cynical. For example, he agreed to release the 1113 prisoners he had taken after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in exchange for fifty-three million dollars' worth of medicine and equipment, the equivalent of forty-eight thousand dollars a head.
While Castro is remembered and revered as a great revolutionary, he has left Cuba as a poor and miserable country. The country is waiting to join the rest of Latin America as a democracy and become a prosperous one as it was in the beginning of the twentieth century.
During his trial in 1953 after the Moncada barracks attack, the young 27-year old Castro declared prophetically, "History will absolve me". History might absolve him but not the writers who will continue to interpret, analyse, accuse and adulate Castro through hundreds of view points. This book is one more addition to the list of the 600 books already published on Fidel Castro.
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