By Ron Jacobs
Fidel Castro is one of the great men of the past fifty years. Even his bitterest enemies acknowledge this by their continuing attempts to destroy the man and the revolution he is identified with. In 2003, journalist Ignacio Ramirez, editor of Le monde diplomatique, began a series of lengthy conversations with Fidel that were recently published in English. This collection of interviews taking place over two years, titled Fidel Castro: My Life, is a history and autobiography of a man who is not only a revolutionary, but the leader of a country that has maintained its national integrity and independence in the face of one of history’s longest economic blockades and has stared down the biggest empire in the history of humankind while doing so.
My Life is not necessarily a balanced account of Fidel or the Cuban revolution, but then again it is an autobiography. That means the subject is telling his version of events. At the same time it is not an egocentric adventure in braggadocio. The picture that comes across in these (almost) 700 pages of interviews is of a man who strives to maintain his humility, refuses to take credit for events and programs that he rightly credits to the Cuban people and their government, and still retains a sense of humor about his history and his legacy. This isn’t to say there are not flashes of arrogance or elements of egoism, yet the picture that emerges is of a man quite aware of the potential for someone of his stature to allow human frailties such as these to overcome his better self. Indeed, the struggle against those frailties appears on these pages, too.
Despite the neverending attempts by the Cubans that left Cuba after the victory of the Revolution in 1959 and their co-conspirators in the US government to destroy both Fidel and the government he is identified with, Fidel exudes optimism. His answers to Ramirez’s questions refer constantly to the power of the Cuban people, their general belief in the principles of the revolution, their educational system, their culture and their fortitude in what they call the Battle of Ideas. Where many northern progressives see nothing but despair and hopelessness, Fidel sees cause for hope in the struggle against capitalist globalization. His intimate involvement in the Cuban struggle for independence and socialism since the early 1950s has provided him with a comprehension of history that very few other humans have—especially those still involved in the struggle for social and economic justice. This understanding and experience alone makes the lessons and thoughts in this book worthwhile………… Read the rest of this entry »
