The Americano: Fighting with Castro for Cuba's Freedom

by Aran Shetterly and E.J. Koh

Book Overview

"Why do I fight here in this land so foreign to my own? Why did I come here far from my home and family? Is it because I seek adventure? No I am here because I believe that the most important thing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565124588
• ISBN13: 9781565124585
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

what a great book!

I loved this book. It was easy to read, fast paced, packed with action. It was like an action movie, except true. But even more than the story of William Morgan, the book will give you some insight into other personalities in the revolution and in Cuban society. It's worth owning the book for the photos of the personalities involved. I would like to thank Aran Shetterly for taking the time to research and write this book. I think it is a valuable addition to ones Cuba/Castro/Revolution bookshelf.

Interesting, informative, and entertaining!

This book tells a facinating story that isn't available elsewhere. Who knew there was a gringo Comandante in the original Revolutionary government? Funny, I have seen the photo on the cover a thousand times, but it has always been a cropped version that omits Cmdte. Morgan. This should be made into a movie! The writing is so good, I feel as though I actually watched a movie instead of read a book! HIGHLY recommended to anyone interested in Cuba or tales of adventurous souls. Oh, and I detected no political agenda in this book. Just the straight scoop.

A stunning story like something out of a novel

William Morgan, the man who never fit in, joined the Cuban revolution for reasons which are murky at best. A year later he finds himself a military commander, part of the rebel clique led by Castro which managed to get rid of the Batista dictatorship. His story is as compelling as it is amazing. Unfortunately, Morgan believed the rhetoric and in democracy and that no doubt was his undoing.

Great story, well told

Morgan's story is almost too amazing to believe. A hapless soul with nothing to lose -- kicked out of schools and dishonorably discharged from the army -- washes up in Cuba and within months becomes a Cuban national hero?! This gringo didn't even speak Spanish and now (thanks to this book) has a legitimate claim to being properly recognized as one of the genuine heroes of the Cuban revolution. Just look at the cover with this dropout from Ohio walking arm-in-arm with Che and Castro. This is a wonderful story of charisma, good timing, and derring-do -- and how someone really can have a second act in life. And what a second act: a drifter morphing into a central player on the international stage. The book offers a lot of color on the "peripheral characters" in Morgan's story, like Castro (a closet Communist at the time), the NY Times mischief-maker Herbert Matthews, and the ruthless Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The book shares Morgan's charisma and good timing. It's fun, runs fast, and is full of endearing details to make you fall in love with the guy. Timingwise, it's perfect. The old timers who know what really happened were muzzled by Castro for the last fifty years. They're (mostly) not dead yet, but old enough to spill their guts without fear of retribution. Shetterly does a nice job of getting them to talk, which makes all the difference in this charming story of a forgotten/censored corner of US and Cuban history.

A brilliant biography that reads like a thriller

There is no shortage of biographies on historical figures. Year after year, we're inundated with new editions on Kennedy and King, Lincoln and Leonardo da Vinci, each purporting to shine a new light on the great individual and their role in history. However, it's often the stories of people who have been lost to history that truly bring the particulars of a certain era into sharp focus. Such is the case with Aran Shetterly's The Americano, the story of William Morgan, a man from Toledo who fought alongside the rebels in the Cuban revolution. A misfit whose taste for adventure was way bigger than the middle American sensibilities of his native Toledo, William Morgan, after years of mixing it up with small time hoodlums and a troublesome stint in the US Army, finds his way to Cuba, where he enlists with the rebel group the Second National Front of the Escambray. Within months, The Americano, as he is affectionately christened by his new comrades, is one of the unit's leaders, and on his way to becoming one of the central figures in the revolution and a Cuban celebrity. Morgan rubs shoulders with all of the well-known usual suspects: the Cuban dictator Batista and the Dominican dictator Trujillo, the Argentine rebel commander Che Guevara, Ernest Hemingway, J. Edgar Hoover and the "jefe" himself, Fidel Castro. Shetterly delivers all of the requisite historical detail--names and roles of characters from important to incidental, all the relevant dates and locations, geopolitical backstory--but locates it all within a narrative that is as compelling and cinematic as any story I've read recently, fiction or non-fiction. By the time your come to the breathtaking ending--which somehow still feels like a surprise, even though it's previewed from the beginning--you're well-versed in the nuances of the Cuban story, *and* you've had one rollercoaster of a read. Cubaphiles regardless of their persuasion will have a field day with this book, as it's exhaustively researched and offers the kind of detail that is usually found in more academic (read: boring) treatments of important moments in history. However, The Americano is so accessible and engaging that those of us with just a cursory knowledge of the history will turn the last page completely satisfied. Highly recommended!