I am thinking seriously of preparing a set of lectures entitled ‘Understanding the Cuban Revolution’ because I feel that my existing contacts with certain Cubans and the time I spent in that country from 1959 to 1968 allow me to offer useful insight into the mindset of the people who lived through the tumultuous events of that decade. My acquaintances are still in contact, one way or another, with this beautiful island whose population has been going through such a difficult time for so many years.
Some of my contacts were intimately connected with the revolutionary movement either as fighters or as members of the clandestine movement organized by the revolutionaries in their efforts to overthrow the dictator Batista.
Fidel Castro has now decided to publish a book about his revolution’s early days. Once it’s out I propose to devote a number of future blogs to my reaction to the book and my take on its content. I am especially interested in finding out about how Fidel will tackle the subject of his early associates’ desertion or disappearance or ‘treason’ or suicide or corruption.
HAVANA HARVEST, my latest novel, is an effort to shed light, in a highly fictionalized manner, on at least one such happenstance: the trial and execution of Brigadier General Arnaldo Ochoa.
