This is a book about the family of Fidel Castro’s illegitimate daughter. It was interesting because I didn’t know much about Cuba or how Fidel Castro came into power. I like to learn about history through the stories of people’s lives. Cuba has a sad story. And the United States has taken part in that sad story more than I knew.
“A graffiti artist crossed out the “o” from a poster and replaced it with “es”. The sign that in Spanish had read “socialism or death” now read “socialism is death. But there is no deliverance.”
This book definitely helped cement my belief about socialism not being the answer. I know Communism was also involved in the struggles of Cuba in the 1900s and maybe even still. But I know I do not believe that to be the answer for anyone either.
On this revolution, I have “met” the Castro family in Cuba and they have been very kind to me. I know some of the Castro family here in the United States and they have partaken in hunting and gang stalking me my whole life not just on this revolution. They live in West Florida and Fontana, California. Luckily, the Castro family in Cuba was able to help me. Did you all know that the section of Springfield by Mill Street in Springfield, south of Centennial is the where the Castro people live? They are East of the Centennial hill and west of Mill street.
Do you all know there are areas of town for every group almost? My cousin Jessica does not know much about the grid system of the world. So I am wondering how much you know. Because you know she is fancy and lives her life by this game. Yet, she is not very informed. How many of you all think you are fancy, but don’t really know much about the game you live your life by? I bet more than I want to know.
“But memories aren’t organized; they lack sequence. They can’t fulfill Naty’s desire to give a permanent reality to her romance with Fidel. Writing down her story, giving it a coherence in time, has to be ther answer. Possibly she’s chosen me to write it because she believes I’ll accept her version of what happened. After all, I wasn’t there, never met the cast of characters. It is a time of expectations–for both of us.”
Can you imagine having an affair with a dictator, having his child, and then finding someone to write a book about your story? That seems a bit weird to me. What about you all? I get there is not much money is Cuba, but I don’t think this family did it for the money. I think they did it for fame. And to be known. I could be wrong. But they do seem like a very narcissistic family of women. There are no living men in their family.
“In words of Castro’s biographer Tad Szulc: “A corporal shouted to Sarria, “Lieutenant, we’ kill them!’ Sarria, a tall, black, fifty-three-year-old professional officer, raised his arm. “No,” he roared, “don’t kill them! I order you not to kill them! I am in command here….You can’t kill ideas….””
Fidel Castro ending up in jail was not the worst that could happen to him. Sarria even took him to the prison where he knew the military would not torture and kill him. But the revolution that Castro build was already in motion.
You can’t kill ideas. This is why my family has wanted me to stay quiet my whole life and never wanted anyone to really hear what I had to say. I have ideas of freedom. But I am not sure anyone else has really had the ideas I have. Because everyone seems to start out with ideas and ideals of freedom. But in the end they always seem to end up conquering people.
I have no desire to conquer. Granted, I do wish and strive for justice. But I want to retain my desire for freedom. Freedom to me is not bossing the whole world around. That is just another prison. I have been a prisoner of war my whole life. I would like to be free. I am not sure what we all need to do in order to be free. But I would love the time and freedom to figure it out.
When you get weirded out that I am not like other people with fancy birthrights like mine, just remember I am walking a tight rope and I don’t want to end up like the other people in my family. And I do not want to end up like other people who let power go to their heads. I want freedom. Being a dictator is just another prison. Maybe others do not see that, or understand it. But I have been a prisoner of war for longer than Nelson Mandela. I just want freedom.
“Fidel Castro knew how to make love to a woman without ever touching her. Naty Revuelta was a beauty, but Fidel didn’t have to tell her so; that was for the men who flirted with her at the Vedado Tennis Club. Instead, he courted her with his intelligence–and his convictions. Fidel made her feel that he relished her lively mind, doted on her intuitive sensibilities. He never mentioned her fabulous green eyes.”
I wish my Dad would have sent a man like this after me. I would have melted like chocolate in his hands. We all know how to get what we want. Lying is easy. Flattery is easy. Tell people what they want to hear. The key is you have to know what people want to hear. And you know what that takes? It takes emotional intelligence.
You know what is harder than telling people what they want to hear? Telling the truth. People rarely ever want to know the truth, let alone talk about it.
“Probably, Fidel found it uncomfortable to confront Alina’s mother, whom he no longer loved, each time he came to see his daughter. “It is a dreadful misfortune not to be loved when we are in love,” the French novelist Benjamin Constant once said, “but it is even more dreadful to be loved passionately when we have ceased to love.””
Alina is Fidel’s daughter. Love is a funny thing. It is a social construct. And we love people from our egos. Love is a role. It is a pattern of actions. The roles we play and fulfill are what shape our ego. It would hurt the ego to have loved a man before he became a dictator, when he was leading a revolution. But then once he came into power he no longer had a use for you. We only really love people who are of use to us. What we deem useful changes throughout our lives. Thus, the people we love changes throughout our lives. Love is transactional. We love people because we want something in return. We do not play roles without a payoff from them.
“She reminded me of a little bird I once saw in a market in New Delhi. When a miniature gate opened, it flew out of its bamboo cage–but then right back in. I guess for some people, it isn’t bearable to live with complete freedom.”
Freedom is not free and freedom scares a lot of people. There are so many options in life. It is hard to know which ones to pick when someone isn’t telling you who you should be and what you should become.
“The myth of exile runs something like this. When someone goes to live in a foreign country, he can’t take enough of the past with him to matter. In his own land, when someone sees him, even for a few minutes, he is more understood than he is in exile after twenty years. And so the exile begins to imagine the homeland as paradise and to inhabit it in his dreams.”
In ancient Athens they used to banish people. Ostraka was a yearly vote that allowed the city members to banish the most annoying person from the city. Someone they wanted gone. This works because of heard mentality. People do not want to leave the heard. This is why you all commit crimes against humanity everyday without thinking about it. Because you are being ruled by heard mentality.
This also means you are being ruled by extrinsic motivation, rather than intrinsic motivation. When you allow yourself to be motivated by the external world, you are extremely easy to control and brainwash. When you are motivated by the internal you have more control over yourself.
Extrinsic motivation means you are stuck in your ego. Which means you are stuck in survival mode. When you are stuck in your ego, you are extremely easy to control because you are in a reactive state. You are not using your critical logical brain and problem solving. You are reacting to the environment. And often reacting emotionally.
It is hard to move somewhere new, where no one knows you. I have done it a few times in my life. I love it. When no one knows you, it frees you from the expectations and roles forced onto you by society and the people around you. It allows you to be more of the person you were born to be. But a lot of people have a really hard time with it. Because they are living out of their ego.
I like this book. It was a good crash course into the history of Cuba. When you raise a woman or person to be fancy and the economy goes to shit and they are no longer fancy with riches and countless options. They seem to get a chip on their shoulders. I would assume this has happened to some of you all as well.
“The courts of kings and those of Communist leaders thrive on hierarchies, and position determines privilege. Herein is the decline, the rot, of revolution: a dream of social justice fades, replaced not be idealism but with favoritism. The chosen circle the leader like ravenous vultures.”
I do have favorites. I have probably favored the farmers too much. But I do believe in rewarding people who do the work. The people around my family are clueless and they think they are fancy. But privilege is the prison my family keeps people in. Granted, I was not as privileged as the people they keep weak with rewards. And I think this was the only reason I was able to create this revolution. Because the people with privilege from my family will do anything to keep that privilege. Even turn the world into a subhuman slave race on a gene and cellular level. They will even poison themselves and turn themselves into a subhuman slave race on a gene a cellular level, giving their children gene mutations they will never recover from. Pretty sad, huh? Yet, it is the reality we live in. I hope it changes soon.