Vida Clandestina

Vida Clandestina is the first U.S. publication of the dramatic memoir of an important Cuban revolutionary who led a dangerous double life from 1952 to1959. Educated at University of Miami, then a high-ranking manager and engineer for Shell Oil, Enrique Oltuski was also a leader in the urban guerilla 26th of July Movement in Havana and Santa Clara, risking his life to join forces with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, and working at the highest level of the Cuban government in the forty-three years since.

Auteur
Enrique Oltuski is the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Merchant Marine in Havana, Cuba.

Texte du rabat
Excitement, danger, and suspense shatter the bourgeois tranquility of the young Enrique Oltuski, a middle-class Cuban Jew and University of Miami educated engineer for the Shell Oil Company, when he joins Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to become a leader in the secret struggle and ultimate triumph of the Cuban Revolution. In this compelling personal memoir, Enrique Oltuski recounts the experiences of his revolutionary life: organizing the urban guerilla movement in Havana and Santa Clara, launching the official underground newspaper, raising money for arms and medical supplies, initiating urban military operations--including retaliative bombings of army headquarters and assassinations of notorious police terrorists--and working with Che Guevara in the battles against the heinous dictator Fulgencio Batista and his overwhelmingly superior armed forces.

Never before have we had such an opportunity to experience and understand the real story of this ragtag band of workers, farmers, and students who--with a lot of naive idealism, profound personal sacrifice, courage, intelligence, and exceptional good luck--were ultimately able to win the revolution and build a new Cuban society in the face of grave internal and external obstacles.

Vida Clandestina is above all, a very warm, often humorous personal story: of a brash and handsome young Jewish kid who falls in love and marries his Catholic high school sweetheart; reconciles his liberal democratic idealism with the hard-boiled brutality of violent revolution; loses many friends, while barely escaping with his life; enjoys the eventual triumph of the revolution; learns to run a major branch of the government about which he initially knew nothing; becomes a more experienced and sophisticated player in the world of international politics; and continues his dedication to the struggle for freedom and social justice in his beloved country to this day.

Offering a rare, behind-the-scenes portrait of the early days of the Cuban revolution, the book is filled with anecdotes about the legendary Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, who is still Oltuski's boss after forty-three years of active service. Vida Clandestina is one man's story that provides a very human background and perspective to today's headlines.

Résumé
Vida Clandestina is the first U.S. publication of the dramatic memoir of an important Cuban revolutionary who led a dangerous double life from 1952 to1959. Educated at University of Miami, then a high-ranking manager and engineer for Shell Oil, Enrique Oltuski was also a leader in the urban guerilla 26th of July Movement in Havana and Santa Clara, risking his life to join forces with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, and working at the highest level of the Cuban government in the forty-three years since.

Contenu

Foreword Eduardo Torres-Cuevas vii

Preface: Why I Wrote This Book xvii

A Brief History of Cuba xxiii

Map of Cuba xxxiii

Before the Plains and the Sierra

ONE Batista's Coup d'État 3

TWO First Revolutionary Impulses 15

THREE Student in the United States 25

FOUR Journey to Latin America 35

FIVE Attack on the Moncada Barracks 45

SIX Return to Cuba 55

SEVEN Revolutionary Quest 63

EIGHT Joining the 26th of July Movement 75

The Plains

NINE Conspiracy in Havana 89

TEN The Civil Resistance Movement 105

ELEVEN The Fight in Las Villas 121

TWELVE Strike of April 9 139

THIRTEEN The Sierra Assumes Command 155

Photographs 173

The Sierra

FOURTEEN Che in Las Villas 189

FIFTEEN The Sierra Maestra 205

After the Plains and the Sierra

SIXTEEN Batista Flees 229

SEVENTEEN Fidel Marches on Havana 239

EIGHTEEN Government Minister 253

NINETEEN The Revolution Takes Power 267

Epilogue 275

Glossary 290

About the Author 295

About the Translators 296

Index 297