About the author

Carlos Alberto Montaner

Syndicated columnist and novelist Carlos Alberto Montaner is a frequent lecturer and part-time instructor at the University of Miami (FL), the University of Guatemala, and others. Born in Cuba, Montaner has lived in Madrid since 1970. Dozens of newspapers in the U.S., Spain and Latin American run his weekly column. He has published two books with Algora Publishing. His books in Spanish include Fidel Castro y la Revolución cubana, No Perdamos tambien el siglo XXI (Let’s Not Lose the 21st Century Too), the novels Perromundo and Trama, and, in collaboration with Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza and Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Manual del perfecto idiota latinoamericano and Fabricantes de miseria.

Journey to the Heart of Cuba

Life as Fidel Castro

Price range: $19.95 through $22.95

What will happen when Fidel Castro dies?US-Cuban relations are entering a new era, and everyone is jockeying for position; even the US elections take note. “Elian” was just one episode in the propaganda wars. How does Castro’s mind work?

Sound Bite

Montaner does far more than report on history; he aims to provide a total synthesis, recounting the events, finding the roots and the causes, describing the psychological traits of the protagonists and drawing a critical assessment. He also commemorates dozens of Cubans who stood for their convictions under onerous conditions.

About the Book

What will happen when Fidel Castro dies?US-Cuban relations are entering a new era, and everyone is jockeying for position; even the US elections take note. "Elian" was just one episode in the propaganda wars. How does Castro's mind work? How did he get into power, and how does he stay there? Who was the real Che Guevara? What was the Revolution really about? What went wrong ' and what went right? This book offers insights into all these questions, probing the heart of a passionate nation whose relations with the US are

Table content

I. Portrait of the Young Fidel Castro 3 Childhood of a Caudillo 7. Gangsters and Revolutionaries 13. II. Setting the Scene 23 Natives, Liberals and Annexationists 26. Liberals and Independentistas 30. The Rebellious Republic 36. The Batistianos, theAutenticos and the Ortodoxos 42. III. The Insurrection 49 The Attack on Montada 52. Guevara, Guatemala and the Rise of Radicalism 59. From Mexico to the Sierra Maestra 62. The Opposition Gets Tough 68. Batista and the Norteamericanos 73. IV. Here's. . . Communism! 81 A Shadow Government 84. Was He Pushed, or Did he Jump? 86. The Firing Squad 89. The Destruction of Civil Society 93. The Anti-Communist Insurrection 97. The Opposition and Washington 100. The Bay of Pigs 105. From the Missile Crisis to Kennedy's Death 112. V. The Ends, the Means and the Achievements 119 'Worms,' Homosexuals and the New Man 124. The Anatomy of Terror 129. Death to the Intelligentsia 136. Raft People and Prostitutes 142. The Conquest of the Third World 146. Castroand Gorbachev 159. The Narco Revolution 161. Post-Communism 169. Dissidents and Civil Society 176. The Pope's Visit 183. The Achievements of the Revolution 186.

About the Book

Few countries have had a more turbulent and emotionally charged relationship with the United States than Cuba, and this book by Carlos Alberto Montaner digs deep into why that is. Rather than simply recounting dates and events, Montaner goes after the big questions: How did Fidel Castro rise to power, and what psychological forces kept him there for so long? Who was Che Guevara beneath the myth? What did the Cuban Revolution actually promise its people, and where did it succeed or fail?

Written with the urgency of someone who understands Cuba from the inside, the book traces the roots of the US-Cuba conflict through decades of propaganda, political maneuvering, and ideological warfare. The Elian Gonzalez saga gets attention here not as a footnote but as a revealing window into how both governments exploit human stories for political ends. Montaner is interested in causes as much as consequences, exploring the cultural and historical forces that shaped a nation defined by passion, pride, and contradictions.

What sets this book apart is its scope. Montaner builds a full synthesis rather than a narrow political argument, examining the personalities of the revolution's key figures alongside the experiences of ordinary Cubans who held to their convictions under enormous pressure. For readers trying to understand the shifting landscape of US-Cuban relations, Cuba's future after Castro, or simply what the revolution meant to the people who lived through it, this is an essential and human account of one of the twentieth century's most contested stories.

Additional information

Weight N/A
Book Type Ebook, Soft cover
Pages

300

Release Year

LC Classification

F1788 .M66

Dewey code

972.9106'4'092

BISAC I

BIO000000

BISAC II

HIS000000

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