Author: Fidel Castro
Foreword/Introduction: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Publisher: LeftWord
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 146
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187496428
Description
In the twilight of his life, Fidel Castro, Leader of the Cuban Revolution and one of the most influential figures of our times, reflects on his childhood, youth and student activism. These autobiographical sketches give a glimpse of Fidel Castro, the boy and the young rebel.
He recollects his student days at the University of Havana, his early thoughts about armed struggle, his travels in Latin America as an international student organizer, his participation in a popular uprising in Colombia in 1948 and his experiences as a young lawyer and political activist.
REVIEWS
Fidel Castro is a man of austere ways and insatiable illusions, with an old-fashioned formal education, of cautious words and simple manners and incapable of conceiving and idea which is not out of the ordinary.
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This is the Fidel Castro I believe I know…A man of austere ways and insatiable illusions, with an old-fashioned formal education, of cautious words and simple manners and incapable of conceiving any idea which is not out of the ordinary. He has the nearly mystical conviction that the greatest achievement of the human being is the proper formation of conscience and that moral incentives, rather than material ones, are capable of changing the world and moving history forward. I believe he is one of the greatest idealists of our time and perhaps this may be his greatest virtue, although it has also been his greatest danger.
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Few contemporary figures have been so vilified as Fidel Castro. Both worship and vilification distort the true image. Fidel is one of the most extraordinary men of our times, but he is neither saint nor devil. Take him for what he is.
-Herbert Matthews author of Castro : A Political Biography
Contents
Fidel Castro Ruz
Preface
A Personal Portrait of Fidel
By Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Childhood and Youth
University Days
Colombia 1948: A Taste of Revolution
Preparing for Moncada
Epilogue