Customer Reviews

Child of the Revolution: Growing up in Castro's Cuba

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Almost forty years ago my wife escaped from Cuba as a young child, with her parents and younger brother. Since then, she has often recounted the trauma of this escape, and the struggles her family faced in rebuilding their lives in Spain - and subsequently here in Australia.

As she read this book she was astonished at the uncanny similarity between the author's experiences and those of her own family. Luis's story rekindled many distant, yet defining, memories, sights, smells, and feelings. To learn that her own story has been 'shared' and now 'told' (almost exactly!) was both a surprise, and perhaps more importantly, a visible comfort.

There seems to be a growing amount of misinformation about the Cuban people today, but as someone who has heard this true story (for over twenty years now) I recommend this narrative as a clear and accurate part of the "true story" of Cuba. The horrors, fears and terrible emotional abuse revealed here may shock some readers, but they are NOT exaggerated. (My wife's father almost died in the Cuban labour camps after seeking permission to leave.) People who experience REAL trauma rarely embellish 'their story' - because sympathy without understanding does not bring true healing. (There's a big difference between emotion and community.) A glipse into the author's own sense of community is seen in moving dedication of the book - "to those who choose to live in exile."

Luis's style is warm and engaging; he has a sharp eye for those little details that "set the trees swaying" in a narrative. He is also a shrewd observer and recorder of human nature - with an almost 'Dickensian' ability to highlight those easily-overlooked character traits that define individuals. I remember my wife laughing as she read his vivid account of that delightfully Cuban "nothing is impossible" attitude. She read the passage, smiled with recognition, and said, "That's EXACTLY how they are."

Luis M. Garcia is a gifted Cuban-Australian (you read that correctly, Cuban-Australian not Cuban-American) author. In his book Child of the Revolution we see what it was like to grow up in the 60s in Cuba. Since it's told from the perspective of a young boy, the story is reminiscent of the excellent book "Waiting for Snow in Havana" by Carlos Eire. Where the books are different is that Eire saw the changes from pre-Revolutionary Cuba to Revolutionary Cuba and describes them in great detail. Garcia, on the other hand, was born in 1959, the same year Castro took power, and thus had no knowledge of that pre-Castro Cuba other than what his parents told him. In fact Garcia describes that period in his life as "a battle between Castro and my parents for the mind of an 11 year old." With this book and his blog Luis M. Garcia proves that Castro's critics aren't just in Miami. Cubans have been scattered around the globe thanks to Castro's brutal dictatorship.

Highly recommended.

Having been born in Cuba the same year as the author (1959) but leaving 6 years before he did, I got a glimpse into what might have been for me had we stayed a little longer while I was old enough to form ideas of what was happening in Cuba at that time. There are times I have felt cheated out of my Heritage because I came to the United States so young but after reading this book a small window was opened for me to look into the world my family was forced to leave behind. It also leaves me thankful that I am lucky enough to be here and grateful for the Cuba in me that will never be forgotten.

This book is by Cuban Australian author Luis Garcia, who tells us of his family and of his coming of age under the first few years of the Revolution in Banes, a small rural town in eastern Cuba. Although lacking a perspective of life before Castro coming to power in 1959, the author tells his story in a colorful and humorous way. His description of a communist's relative winning an apparently rigged beauty contest is hilarious. The fear of been set up for a black market buy of pork meat from a government soldier is evident. His narrative of his parents losing their mom and pop tailoring business in 1968 is painful. Life after that seems to get harder as his parents become government employees at the newly confiscated industries of Cuba, whether mom sorting coffee beans or dad at a factory. Garcia goes on to describe the last few months before leaving Cuba for Spain (later to Australia), when his dad was required to be an agricultural worker for plantation master Castro prior to exiting Cuba. I found the book easy to read, enjoyable, and descriptive of life by a typical family in Castro's Cuba.

This was a wonderful book to read as it so vividly described the feelings I too had as a child fleeing from Cuba.
My family were there as dad was working for Philips and after the company was nationalized we had to 'take' a 'pretend holiday' to Dutch Guiana in order to escape.
We too literally left with the clothes we were wearing!
It was great to read what actually happened in Cuba during and after the time we left, written from the perspective of a child.

This book reads like a friend sitting next to you, telling you his childhood experiences. Accurate information about families living in Cuba at the time. Ironic, heartwarming incidents and thoughts and worries that ran through this child's mind while the island of Cuba was controlled by Fidel Castro. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing how it was in Cuba. Unfortunately very little has changed since then...

I loved reading this book! It's well-written, engaging, and an easy read. The author wrote it from the point of view of a child, as the title suggests, but he is an excellent writer, so the finished product appeals to adults who are seeking a different perspective on life in Castro's Cuba. Having just toured in Cuba, I was especially interested in getting an inside viewpoint, and the author did not disappoint.