Castro's Daughter : An Exile's Memoir of Cuba [Hardcover]

Dolores M. Koch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1998

"Mommy, mommy, call him. Tell him to come here right away. I have so many things to tell him!"

I had a ton of things to tell him. I wanted him to find a solution to all the shortages of: clothes; of meat, so it would again be distributed through the ration books.

I also wanted to ask him to give our Christmas back. And to come live with us. I wanted to let him know how much we really needed him...

Fidel didn't answer my letter. I kept writing him letters from a sweet and well-behaved child, a brave but sad girl. Letters resembling those of a secret, spurned lover...

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fernandez, who learned at age ten that Castro was her father, eventually renounced the regime and was forced to flee Cuba. Here's her story.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Fidels illegitimate offspring informs the waiting world that the Cuban dictator is not an especially cuddly fellow. Fernandez, now living in exile in Spain, recounts with a relentlessly thumb-in-mouth attitude her years of growing up in revolutionary Cuba. Her characters number not only Marxist heavies like Raul Castro and Che Guevara (who looked like a big frog, and who sired an illegitimate daughter of his own with a pair of prize-winning boobs), but also elves, gnomes, and sprites. In the hands of Gabriel Garca Mrquez, the bow to magical realism might have worked. But in this young womans coming-of-age tale, the approach proves irretrievably cloying. Fernandez dishes plenty of dirt about her famous father, who was in no hurry to acknowledge her publicly, but who made sure she was blessed with a steady supply of Barbie dolls, chauffeured cars, and well-situated beaux. Some of the dirt here: Castro was once married to the daughter of a high official in the Batista dictatorship, a union that allowed him to receive a lenient sentence after his guerrilla bands ill-fated assault on Santiago, in which many of his men died or suffered torture, while Fidel had not even a single scratch. A little more: His Highness liked to swimbut only after the beaches had been cleared of any other bathers. And then, gulps Fernandez, Castro didnt approve of her frequent and disastrous marriages and love interests. Another item: He dispatched tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers, including some of her boyfriends, to die pointlessly in Angola. To punish her distant father, preoccupied with the business of spreading revolution and staving off Yanqui imperialism, Fernandez became a fashion modeland famine-stricken Cubas only voluntary anorexic. Fidel must have been relieved when his daughter left town. Readers who brave her whines will feel that the book ends not a page too soon. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (October 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312193084
• ISBN-13: 978-0312193089
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars couldn't put it down!, March 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Castro's Daughter : An Exile's Memoir of Cuba (Hardcover)

I have lived in Miami 39 years. Every day I think of Cuba, talk about Cuba and hear the exile's radio. I thought I knew a lot about life in Cuba - the missery, the control - but never, imagined how horrible life could be for the cubans - Alina's description is a revelation. Life put her in a difficult - to say the least - position. I'm happy she was able to leave hell behind!

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars best look inside castro's cuba to date, January 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Castro's Daughter : An Exile's Memoir of Cuba (Hardcover)

alina fernandez must have nerves made of pig iron to have survived the life she did in cuba as a young girl. her book paints a picture of a world so alien and biased that i feel i have finally read what modern day cuba is all about.

26 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look for commies to discredit this book, May 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Castro's Daughter : An Exile's Memoir of Cuba (Hardcover)

This is a great book, written by Fidel Castro's own daughter. Would you question her authenticity? I think not. Knowing the extent that the Cuban government's propaganda campaign will go to in order to discredit her, would you think that another reader named Cube could be spouting out the same rhetoric?

Cube, you are a bigger clown than Castro. You regurgitate the same excuses used on the island. Everyone knows that the United States is only 35% of the world's economy and Cuba trades with the rest of the world - do the math yourself. Everyone knows that the reason Cubans are starving is because all funds are diverted to exporting communism: in Colombia (FARC), in Venezuela (Hugo Chavez), in Brazil (Lula) in Nicaragua (Sandinistas), in El Salvador (FMLN), in Africa, in Vietnam, in Grenada, and in the United States (wasn't Lee Harvey Oswald distributing Pro-Castro leaflets just before Kennedy was assassinated?). The planes shot down in 1996 were flying in international waters looking for Cubans, like yourself, who chose to leave the island on a raft rather than live under this regime. You yourself live in Brazil - did you leave for a better life, or are you working for the Cuban government like your father? The percentages you quote ("95% of the population was starving, living in the streets, illiterate, poorly educated, had no job opportunity, etc. the other 5% lived in mansions, ate the finest food, bathed everyday, slept on a matress, etc") closely resemble what is presently happening in Cuba. Under Batista, the 5% represented wealthy land owners; under Castro, that 5% represents government officials.

Universal health care in Cuba translates to a lack of medical supplies - try and find gauze for your wounds or stitches for your surgery. Education is simply indoctrination. There exists no access to outside news agencies (the only news in Cuba is the official government news agency). Try and find a book written by George Orwell (himself an admitted socialist) or better yet, find a book by Ayn Rand. What a wonderful education system that jails individuals for up to 30 years simply for possessing books like these. In Oliver Stone's movie, Castro proudly states that "in Cuba, even our prostitutes have College Degrees." Ever wonder why someone with a college degree would have to turn to prostitution?

The true prostitutes in Cuba are those who relinquish their souls to this hateful ideology called 'communism.' It has failed everywhere, and Alina Fernandez provides an incredible insight into the results of this antiquated political system. The book is titled, "Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba," not "An Exile's Memoir of a Poor Father."