Fidel Castro is perhaps the most charismatic and controversial head
of state in modern times. A dictatorial pariah to some, he has
become a hero and inspiration for many of the world's poor,
defiantly charting an independent and revolutionary path for Cuba
over nearly half a century.
Numerous attempts have been made to get Castro to tell his own
story. But only now, in the twilight of his years, has he been
prepared to set out the details of his remarkable biography for the
world to read. This book is nothing less than his living testament.
As he told reporters, his desire to finish checking its text was
the one thing that kept him going through his recent illness. He
presented a copy of the book in its Spanish edition to his compadre
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
In these pages, Castro narrates a compelling chronicle that
spans the harshness of his elementary school teachers; the early
failures of the revolution; his intense comradeship with Che
Guevara and their astonishing, against-all-odds victory over the
dictator Batista; the Cuban perspective on the Bay of Pigs and the
ensuing missile crisis; the active role of Cuba in African
independence movements (especially its large military involvement
in fighting apartheid South Africa in Angola); his relations with
prominent public figures such as Boris Yeltsin, Pope John Paul II,
and Saddam Hussein; and his dealings with no less than ten
successive American presidents, from Eisenhower to George W.
Bush.
Castro talks proudly of increasing life expectancy in Cuba (now
longer than in the United States); of the half million students in
Cuban universities; and of the training of seventy thousand Cuban
doctors nearly half of whom work abroad, assisting the poor in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He is confronted with a number of
thorny issues, including democracy and human rights, discrimination
toward homosexuals, and the continuing presence of the death
penalty on Cuban statute books. Along the way he shares intimacies
about more personal matters: the benevolent strictness of his
father, his successful attempt to give up cigars, his love of
Ernest Hemingway's novels, and his calculation that by not shaving
he saves up to ten working days each year.
Drawing on more than one hundred hours of interviews with
Ignacio Ramonet, a knowledgeable and trusted interlocutor, this
spoken autobiography will stand as the definitive record of an
extraordinary life lived in turbulent times.
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