Cuban history – Un Cubano Libre

“Some 70 dead is the tragic toll”: the Moncada attack

Cover: two quote cards on light paper over a midnight blue background. The first, headed July 28, 1953, Diario de la Marina, front page, reads in Spanish: Unos 70 muertos es el trágico balance del golpe contra los cuarteles de Santiago y Bayamo, with the translation: Some 70 dead is the tragic toll of the blow against the Santiago and Bayamo barracks. The second, headed 1953, Fidel Castro, History Will Absolve Me, reads in Spanish the question of how the rebels could have eighty dead and five wounded if the army had nineteen dead and thirty wounded, with eighty dead and five wounded in red, and its translation. Top: Cuban History, season 2, episode 6. Bottom: The Moncada attack, 1953, and the Un Cubano Libre mark.

July 26, 1953, is the founding myth of the Cuban regime. With the papers of the time, the trial and the forensic records, what is left is something else: a fight that lasted minutes, a massacre of prisoners that Batista’s army tried to cover with lies, and a heroic story to which the winner kept adding dead men, torn-out eyes and commanders.

“Havana is living through a time of extraordinary prosperity”: Cuba before 1959

Cover: two quote cards on light paper over a midnight blue background, both from the same document. The first, headed 1957, Catholic University Association, survey of farm workers, reads in Spanish: La ciudad de La Habana está viviendo una época de extraordinaria prosperidad, with the translation below: Havana is living through a time of extraordinary prosperity. The second, headed The same sentence, reads: mientras que en el campo, y especialmente los trabajadores agrícolas están viviendo en condiciones de estancamiento, miseria y desesperación difíciles de creer, with the words miseria y desesperación in red, and the translation: while in the countryside, farm workers above all are living in conditions of stagnation, misery and despair that are hard to believe. Top: Cuban History, season 2, episode 5. Bottom: Cuba before 1959, and the Un Cubano Libre mark.

Both sides lie about Cuba before 1959. The regime paints a brothel with millions of illiterates; part of the exile, the richest country in Latin America. UN yearbooks, the World Bank and a 1957 Catholic survey say something else: an upper-middle-income country, stagnant since 1925, split between Havana and the countryside, and ruled by a dictatorship.

“I now understand the things of the Revolution”: Cuba’s 1961 literacy campaign

Cover: two quote cards on light paper over a midnight blue background. The first, headed 1961, Ministry of Education, teacher's manual Alfabeticemos, page 5, reads in Spanish: incorporar a casi la tercera parte de nuestra población a la comprensión del proceso revolucionario, with the English translation below: to bring almost a third of our population to an understanding of the revolutionary process. The second, headed June 18, 1961, letter from a new reader, read aloud by Fidel Castro, reads: Yo ya comprendo las cosas de la Revolución, with the word Revolución in red, and the translation: I now understand the things of the Revolution. Top: Cuban History, season 2, episode 4. Bottom: Cuba's literacy campaign, 1961, and the Un Cubano Libre mark.

In 1961 hundreds of thousands of Cubans learned to read and write. That is true and it comes first. Then come the sums: two percentages that do not measure the same thing, a manual with ten pages on teaching and fifty-four on politics, and a final exam that was a letter to Fidel Castro.

“That their father is a deserter or a traitor”: Huber Matos, Camilo and October 1959

Cover: two quote cards on light paper over a midnight blue background. The first, headed 1959, Huber Matos, letter to Fidel Castro, October 19, reads in Spanish: sin que mis hijos tengan que enterarse después, en la calle, que su padre es un desertor o un traidor, with the translation: without my children having to find out later, in the street, that their father is a deserter or a traitor. The second, headed 1959, Fidel Castro, Presidential Palace, October 26, reads in Spanish: que levanten la mano los que opinen que los traidores como Hubert Matos merecen la pena de fusilamiento, with the translation: raise your hands, those who believe that traitors like Hubert Matos deserve the death penalty. Below: Huber Matos and Camilo Cienfuegos, October 1959, and the Un Cubano Libre mark.

A commander resigns by letter and within a week he is a “traitor.” Another arrests him, defends him in private, by his account, and vanishes in a plane. October 1959, with the official transcripts, the declassified cables and this episode’s rule: keep what is documented apart from what is suspected.

“Here no one has even been called a bandit”: the Escambray

Cover: two quote cards on light paper over a midnight blue background. The first, headed 1959, Fidel Castro, Santiago de Cuba, January 1, reads in Spanish: Aquí ni siquiera se ha llamado bandido a nadie, with the translation: here no one has even been called a bandit. The second, headed 1963, Fidel Castro, speech of June 27, reads in Spanish: no quedará una sola banda, no quedará un solo bandido, with the word bandido in red, and the translation: not a single band will be left, not a single bandit will be left. Footer: The Escambray, 1959-1965.

On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro said that in Cuba “no one has even been called a bandit.” Four years later his army had “fight against bandits” battalions. What the Escambray war was, when the word arrived, what the CIA’s own papers say about the “mercenaries,” and what happened to the families.

“They weren’t punishment units”: the UMAP

Cover: two quote cards on light paper over a midnight blue background. The first, headed 1966, Fidel Castro, speech of March 13, reads in Spanish: unos tendrán que ir a la cárcel [...]; otros tendrán que ir a la UMAP, with the translation: some will have to go to prison [...]; others will have to go to the UMAP. The second, headed 2006, Fidel Castro, Cien horas con Fidel, reads in Spanish: no eran unidades de internamiento, ni eran unidades de castigo, with the word castigo in red, and the English edition's wording: they weren't internment camps, or punishment units. Footer: The UMAP camps, Camagüey, 1965-1968.

In 2006, Fidel Castro said the UMAP were not punishment units. In 1966 he had put them on the same list as prison. What the Military Units to Aid Production were, what those who were there tell, and how the regime keeps changing its story.

“Let the scum go”: the Peruvian Embassy and the Mariel boatlift

Cover: a quote card on light paper over a midnight blue background. Header: Granma editorial, Monday, April 7, 1980. Four gray lines in Spanish: ¡Que se vayan los vagos!, ¡Que se vayan los antisociales!, ¡Que se vayan los lumpens!, ¡Que se vayan los delincuentes! Below, larger: ¡Que se vaya la escoria!, with the word escoria in red. Under it, the translation: "Let the scum go!" The Communist Party newspaper, on those who wanted to leave. Footer: The Peruvian Embassy and the Mariel boatlift, 1980.

On April 7, 1980, the Communist Party newspaper demanded “let the scum go.” This episode is not about the Mariel numbers: it is about how the Cuban state turned neighbors into mobs, what word it gave them to do it, and why it did not end in 1980.

Thirteen names: the Canímar River massacre

Cover: a passenger list with ruled lines over a river at night, with palm trees and the moon. In the first column, the thirteen known names of those who died on the XX Aniversario, with their ages where known; the other lines are empty and fade toward the water. Top right: 13 out of 56 to 71.

On July 6, 1980 the Cuban state sank an excursion boat full of civilians on the Canímar River. Between 56 and 71 people are believed to have died. No figure is confirmed, and only thirteen names are known.

It is recorded: the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown

Extract from the radio transcript of the February 24, 1996 shootdown over a map of the Florida Straits, with the two shootdown positions marked and the line "It is a Cessna 337" highlighted

A Cuban pilot identified the plane by type and color before firing, and asked for authorization. He was given it twice, six minutes apart. What ICAO, the Security Council and a federal grand jury say, thirty years on.

The word “accident”: the sinking of the tugboat 13 de Marzo

The thirty-six names the case file identifies, with their ages, over the night sea. Highlighted, Helen Martínez Enríquez, six months old, the youngest victim.

“Cuban History” series · Season 1, episode 1 In the early hours of July 13, 1994, seventy-two people left the port of Havana on an old tugboat. Forty-one died that night. Ten were children. The Ministry of the Interior called it, in writing, “the accident that occurred as a result of the attempt to leave […]

Category: Cuban history