Cuba : A Journey

The author draws on his conversations with ordinary Cubans, students, intellectuals, and others to present a picture of a country burdened with human rights abuses, a suffocated civil society, and a bankrupt political system

In the summer of 1987, Argentine journalist and human rights activist Timerman ( Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number , LJ 5/15/81) made a four-week visit to Cuba. This brief but potent report of his travels provides a revealing look at the decline of Fidel Castro's "socialist experiment," although Timerman also notes that Castro's "megalomania . . . and a collective supporting hypocrisy . . . still defines society, the power structure, cultural life, work, family relations." Unlike most visiting journalists, Timerman did not meet with Castro. Instead, he spent his time with ordinary Cubans as well as writers (Miguel Barnet), journalists (Rolando Cartaya), and Elizardo Sanchez, a political activist and visionary. He also discusses Gabriel Garcia Marquez's influence on Castro, the enduring presence of Hemingway in Cuba, and the pervasiveness of prostitution and sexuality in Cuban life. While Timerman's moral outrage is tempered in this work, he nevertheless serves up an indictment of a political system that is comparable to his recent investigation of the right-wing dictatorship in Chile ( Chile: Death in the South, LJ 1/88). Highly recommended for international affairs collections.
- Thomas A. Karel, Franklin and Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, Pa.
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