the history to me it will absolve

fidel castro

as any occassional student of latin american history, politics, philosophy, culture, etc or, of course, any resident of latin america could tell you, the influence of the cuban revolution and of the ideology castro espouses on the continent has been great.

how an ideology inspires a person and how that person acts either truly in accord with the ideas or hypocritically (which may not be apparent to them) has always interested me. to better understand the results of castro's thinking in broad terms and on the level of the individual, i decided to read this book as well as listen to what others had to say.

recently i traveled to latin america and found myself the sole representative of the "imperio" in a talk given by the publishers of some books dealing with castro and the che.

the manner in which the talks were given and the substance of them were telling. fifty years later and out of context, that is, outside of the cuban situaion, what stays with people seems to be the confidence with which castro gave the trial defense which is recorded in this book as well as his belief that his group would come to power (as they did). these talks were given reverently and with machismo. this is to say it seemed that the speakers were awed by the fact that someone had an ideology and acted on it.

but what of the substance? the speakers did not get into details. in the book itself (or in the defense, better stated), castro enumerates 5 laws that will be enacted when his group inevitably takes power. reinstitution of the constitution, expropriation of foreign-owned lands, part ownership of the utilities by the workers, better payment for work in the sugar production, and confiscation of the lands of cohorts of the then government. only three pages contain the details out of the 150 page transcript.

much of the transcript is a rehash of the military events which occurred when castro's band of 150 or so ( i cannot remember the number) men attempted to wrest control of several towns from the cuban army of the dictator batista. denunciations of the treatment of castro's men when captured (most of the prisoners were tortured and killed) also makes up much of the transcript. this being the defense at his trial, this makes sense. if you want to know what castro's plans at that pre-revolutionary time for transforming cuban society were, you have to look elsewhere.