The book «Fidel», by Katiuska Blanco, was presented as the culmination of the 31st International Book Fair, held until Sunday in Santiago de Cuba.
In the Stained Glass Hall of the “Antonio Maceo” Revolution Square, in this city, Omar Valiño, director of the “Jose Marti” National Library of Cuba, said that the text closely captures events in the life and work of the Commander-in-Chief, from his childhood to his passing away.
The author’s strategy seems to be to make a biographical synthesis of the long and lush trajectory of the attacker to the Moncada garrison, through essential moments that illustrate the leader, the executive and the man, he said.
The title, published by Ediciones Alejandro, is of great importance because it shows part of Fidel’s itinerary in the epic of raising Cuba into a Revolution in all spheres of society, Valiño said. He said that reading the book is to accept and know all the dimensions of the promoter of the Cuban socialist process, but above all it contributes to think and analyze how he would act in different situations in the national and international spheres.
According to the author, the volume tries to group the reasons for his struggles and the evolution of his thought, which was in formation until the last moment of his physical existence. She also commented on Fidel’s love for Santiago de Cuba, and expressed the relevance of writing about him, with the aim of bringing him closer to the new generations from the printed text.
Fidel Castro Ruz promoted the development of education, health, sports and science in the Antillean nation, as well as the economic and social transformations that brought a better quality of life to the Cuban people.
Katiuska Blanco has a degree in Journalism and her published works include Después de lo increíble (After the Incredible) and Todo el tiempo de los cedros (All the Time of the Cedars).
There was an intimate exchange of loyalties and complicities between Fidel and Katiuska Blanco. No posturing. No simulations. There are no infidences -there could not be when it comes to a personal history that is that of a country and its people-.
All that and much more is this biography of Fidel Castro Ruz, written by Katiuska Blanco Castiñeira, journalist and researcher, who was a reporter years ago in the war in southern Angola, when her reports, interviews and chronicles were already overflowing with sensitivity and a simple encyclopedic touch.
The book about Fidel that was presented is the corollary of Fidel’s confidences to Katiuska, and of her exemplary reading of the history and circumstances surrounding the leader. From his birth and human, moral and political growth, until he became the great leader of the Cuban Revolution and one of the statesmen who most influenced the destinies of the world in the second half of the 20th century.
There have been other attempts at apocryphal biographies of Fidel Castro Ruz, commissioned and well-paid biographies, and a lot of press that defamed him in death as much as in life. There is a whole hate industry that receives millions of dollars every year to destroy the dead Fidel, because they could never succeed with the living one. It is all a waste of time, money and even talent, if any.
Messages from Fidel to Cuban journalists
Santiago is grateful to Katiuska, to Ediciones Alejandro of the Fidel Castro Ruz Center in Havana, to Aurelio Narvaja and Ediciones Colihue for this effort.
Fidel Castro’s Legendary Phrases
Fidel Castro, The Invincible
There were 638 attempts to assassinate him, without any modesty or decency, 102 of them were successfully exposed and confronted thanks to the professionalism, personal decision and courage of the men of the escort, as well as the system in charge of preserving him at all costs.
But really the greatest architect was always the heroic people, to whom he was always at their service. On the other hand it cannot be disregarded something of which little was spoken and less written, the high sense and intuition of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, about danger, as well as the self-responsibility to face it at all cost.
64 years ago there was a plot organized by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958) to assassinate him in his General Headquarters in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra.
The American Alan Robert Nye, captured on December 25, 1958 by rebel fighters, confessed his intentions and pointed out the instigators. The plan was to infiltrate the guerrillas under the cover of a sympathizer and experienced fighter and, once there, to ambush the leader.
He was carrying a Remington 30.06 caliber rifle with telescopic sight and a 38 revolver, with which he planned to commit the crime. During the first quarter of 1959, Nye was tried and punished by the Cuban courts.
Twenty two years have passed since the last detected attempt, the one that would turn into the greatest assassination ever planned, on November 16, 2000, during the 10th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, at the Auditorium of the University of Panama.
Cuban culture remembers close friendship bt. Fidel and Eusebio Leal
The Commander-in-Chief, who had recently arrived in Panama, denounced to the world that Franco Rodriguez Mena, who was staying in room 310 of the Coral Suites Hotel in Panama City, was none other than the Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who was planning to assassinate him during the event.
I have decided, with modest experiences treasured with great pride and without declassifying anything that does not belong to me, to partially unveil, how and why Fidel Castro remained alive and undefeated, despite being the Head of State persecuted with the most vicious and sickening rancor by the enemy in the history of mankind.
ON A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER
It was just another day of his intense struggle, in the house of Celia Sanchez Manduley -then his personal secretary- on 11th Street in Vedado, and his most direct escorts were routinely engaged in the usual and always hurried work of cleaning and greasing the sawed-off AK-47s.
Some of these had adapted PPSH magazines that allowed each one to be loaded with almost 100 rounds with the consequent greater firepower, even though they increased their weight considerably.
They took advantage of the uninterrupted meetings that passed from one to the other, despite the fact that in the residence of spacious corridors only the most intimate ones and with acute topics were summoned for dispatch.
Let’s go,» they suddenly only managed to hear, coming from the energetic, commanding and well-known voice, which almost never gave them advance plans of routes designated by himself, the one most responsible for his personal protection.
A total commotion that, although routine, never ceased to surprise, given the fact that everyone used to sleep or just fall asleep with their boots well shod, as he preached by personal example. The Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz always lived in campaign and with surprises, aware of the enemy that lurked and he faced it safely and even at ease…
