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January 2009 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. In his first work of literary non-fiction -- part memoir, part historical narrative -- José Manuel Prieto pens the history of a defiant, restless Cuba.
"There was a day, more than ten years ago, when I arrived in New York City [...]
The taxi driver was Indian or Pakistani. I spent a long minute arguing with him [...] trying at length to give him the address. Finally he turned his whole body towards me, sharply correcting my pronunciation. Looking me over, he determined there was no great malice in me, only a newcomer's ineptitude. "What country you come from?" he asked.
When I told him he exclaimed, "Cuba?" then "Fidel Castro!"
His declaration came in the most annoying way, snapping his fingers, smacking his lips with gusto, squaring his shoulders as he scrutinized me once more through the rear view mirror. His stance, his vehemence, was the sudden energy of someone talking about a much-admired local strongman. His English was no better than mine, but he wanted so badly to express what he felt. He struck the palm of his right hand loudly with his left fist: "He gave it to the Americans up the ass."
The infamy of the Cuban Revolution is carried around the world in two words, "Fidel Castro!" Yet Prieto is acutely aware that this name captures only a skeleton of his country's reality. A revolution, an undertaking of ideals mixed with violence, has no absolutes. It is not good, it is not bad, but it is both and somewhere in between. This mix of black and white into a muddy grey perpetuates Prieto's writing on every level. He sketches Castro with both admiration and distaste; he paints Cuba as strong and yet broken, the United States as the powerful father figure and the unwitting dupe. He tells of his love, his fear, his pain, and his pride. He puts the bones of the revolution back together, filling in the flesh, giving it life.
Previous publishers: Faber and Faber (England); Christian Bourgois (France);Suhrkamp (Germany) Verlag ; Ambos Anthos (Holland); Marco Tropea (Italy); Vremya (Russia); Anagrama (Spain)
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Germany : Suhrkamp Verlag
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