Insider: My Hidden Life as a Revolutionary in Cuba

by José Luis Llovio-Menéndez

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553051148
• ISBN13: 9780553051148
• Release Date: June 1988
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 466 Pages
• Weight: 1.92 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Ring of truth

I recently paid a brief (one week) visit to Havana for the first time.My first view of socialism was a grim one. Little old ladies lining up for one roll of bread with a ration book. The poor sections of Havana looked grim, everywhere like a fortress as people disappear behind their solares. And then the better off parts like the Hotel Nacional where tourists congregate. Back home, searching for literature on Cuba, I found this book, Insider. It rings of truth, of authenticity, and gives the reader a sharp sense of Cuba under Castro. Kafkaesque, reminding of Marques and Orwell, it shows what can happen to a people under the power of a man who knows how to subject his citizens to his will. The Committees for the defence of the revolution, the way in which everyone spies on everyone else, the destruction of the economy in the name of revolution - are all frightening views of what can happen under totalitarianism. Is this where George Bush is taking America with his call for citizens to spy on each other? is it that far fetched to see totalitarianism underneath the veneer of Capitalist democracy?Someone should investigate how much Santeria (the local religion espoused by Celia Sanchez, Fidel's late companion)influenced Castro! This book has helped me to understand some of the glimpses I had of Cuban society as I interacted with Cubans in Havana. Castro is revealed as never before.As a Caribbean person generally sympathetic to the plight of the Cuban people, I thank Menendez for giving me a more realistic picture of his homeland. I recommend this book highly. It should be in print again.Edith Grossman,translator of Marques and Mutis, has effected a professional and creative moving of this fascinating story into English. Muy Bien.

Insight into the Revolution

This book provides a first hand look into Cuban reality before and after Fidel came to power. Written from the prospective of someone who participated in the fight against Batista as a student, undertook self-exile and subsequently returned to Cuba to face situations he would have never imagined, the reader gets a glimpse into what life was really like in Cuba in the 1950's through the early 80's. The author provides details about the early years of Revolution, as well as information on his encounters with members of Castro's government. He provides reports of his personal conversations with Che Guevara, and reveals Che "the man" and not Che "the icon". The author's tracing of his path through different Cuban government entities during the 1970's and early 80's in order to survive and eventually get out of Cuba, shows his determination and ability to face the the problems, constant uncertainty and paranoia in Cuban society. Due to his student activist history and various government jobs, the author is in a position to furnish invaluable analysis into the persona of Fidel Castro and the Castro regime. This book provides a realistic window into the Revolution and to what the Castro regime has meant to Cuba.