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'Unvanquished - Cuba's
Resistance to Fidel Castro,' A Review
Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D.
Monday, June 28, 2004. NewsMax.com.
Enrique Encinosa's most awaited, comprehensive
history (in English) of the Cuban people's
struggle against the 45-year-old communist
dictatorship of Fidel Castro has finally
arrived. The book chronicles in riveting
detail, chapter after chapter, the heroism
displayed by the Cuban people in their fight
against repression and tyranny.
Encinosa uses the voice of the actual participants
(who he has carefully interviewed over the
years) to tell the story - and what an epic
(and brutal) story he has to tell to his
widening readership!
The book covers the triumph of the Revolution
in 1959; the subsequent disillusionment
of many revolutionary leaders as they realize
that Castro was building a communist police
state; the founding of the resistance movement
and the underground networks; the rounding
up of the opposition; the development of
the rebel insurgency in the Escambray mountains
and elsewhere, opposing communism and collectivism;
the betrayal at the Bay of Pigs; the courageous
struggle of the political prisoners (particularly
the plantados); the heating up of the Escambray
wars and Castro's massive retaliation in
the Luchas Contra Bandidos (the so-called
war against bandits); the Mariel Boatlift;
the Guantanamo refugee crisis; the Elian
Gonzalez tragedy; the development of the
civil resistance movement, including the
growing number of dissidents; the newly
formed independent journalists and the independent
librarians; the downing of the Brothers
to the Rescue humanitarian planes in February
1996 and the uncovering of the Red Wasp
espionage ring; the Varela Project; the
intensification of repression, culminating
with Castro¹s most recent crackdown
against the dissident movement; the incarceration
of 75 political opponents, journalists and
librarians (all sentenced to long prison
terms ranging from 20 to 26 years); and
the execution of three Afro-Cubans who attempted
to hijack a ferry to escape Castro¹s
workers paradise.
"Unvanquished" is a well-written
book that deserves to be turned into a historic
documentary, recounting the historic resistance
of the Cuban people against the long tyrannical
government of Fidel Castro; or perhaps a
cliffhanger, motion picture telling the
dramatic story of the Escambray campesino,
anti-communist insurgency of the 1960s,
noting the lives of such heroic figures
as Osvaldo Ramirez, Tomasito San Gil, Julio
Emilio Carretero, etc.
But don't hold your breath waiting for
Hollywood. It won't happen anytime soon,
and certainly not while the tyrant is still
alive. Besides, the truth is that Castro,
the Caribbean tyrant, is still worshipped
in many segments of the American intelligentsia,
particularly the Hollywood crowd, like Oliver
Stone and Steven Spielberg.
And don¹t hold your breath waiting
for Enrique Encinosa to be invited to go
on the lecture circuit to speak in the ivory
towers of American universities (like unrepentant
Cuban communist Comandante Victor Dreke)
on the topic of Cuban resistance to communist
tyranny. It won't happen. Fidel Castro will
not be embarrassed either in the last bastion
of Marxism in the United States - the American
universities.
Enrique Encinosa's "Unvanquished -
Cuba's Resistance to Fidel Castro"
is a must-read book that belongs in the
library of all freedom-loving citizens and
Americans who may want to know more about
Cuba, the beautiful island to the south
and the on-going, 45-year tragedy of the
Cuban people. The recent history of Cuba
and the socialist police state it became
has important lessons for America.
And, first and second generation Cuban
Americans, particularly, should make sure
their children and grandchildren get a copy
of this book and learn about Cuban history
and the land of their forefathers. How can
they understand the present and their parent's
generation if they do not know and understand
what the past has wrought?
Encinosa's magnum opus very aptly ends
with a quotation by one of the leaders of
the dissident movement, Vladimiro Roca (ironically
the son of Blas Roca, one of the founders
of Cuba's communist party): "The Cuban
situation is in its final stage. We are
at the end of the chess game and we don¹t
know which move will decide the change,
but I am sure that the end is very near."
Indeed, injustice never lasts forever.
Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. Author, Cuba
in Revolution Escape From a Lost Paradise
(2002; www.haciendapub.com) Editor emeritus,
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
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