Mea Cuba (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1999

During the course of an exile that began in 1965, Cabrera Infante has taken part in each and every one of the controversies that have arisen since Fidel Castro took hold of Cuba. Mea Cuba recounts an event that has often repeated itself during the twentieth century: the story of yet another dictatorship that silences, represses, lies and murders; and the story of all the talented individuals that have been condemned in a battle of propaganda alive to this day. Key figures in the Island’s tragedy and its literary world file through the pages of this book. Mea Cuba is the most important anthology on Cuban politics since José Martí’s.

Description in Spanish: Cabrera Infante no ha dejado de intervenir -a lo largo de un exilio que comenzó en 1965- en ninguna de las diversas polémicas suscitadas desde que Fidel se hizo con el poder en Cuba, de ahí que en este amplio escenario desfilen los principales personajes de la tragedia cubana y los de su vida literaria. Aquí están todos los escritores estigmatizados: desde Heberto Padilla, al difunto Reynaldo Arenas; aquí están también todos los que por diferentes razones y con distintas actitudes se quedaron en Cuba, desde José Lezama Lima hasta Alejo Carpentier. Y detrás de todos los actores, moviendo los hilos, el máximo titiritero, Fidel, definido como un Cristobal Colón a la inversa. Humor negro en muchos momentos que relata con detalle la historia que tantas veces se ha repetido a lo largo del siglo XX, la de una dictadura que amordaza, reprime, miente y mata y la de los talentos por ella condenados en una guerra de propaganda que todavía hoy no ha terminado. Es la compilación de escritos sobre la política cubana mas importante desde la que hiciera José Martí.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Guillermo Cabrera Infante (La Habana, Cuba, 1929) is one of the most important figures in contemporary literature. He has published many novels and has won the Premio Biblioteca Breve and the Premio Cervantes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Alfaguara (January 15, 1999)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 8420482714
• ISBN-13: 978-8420482712
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,026,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Castro no es Infante, May 4, 2001

By 

Willy Rocabado (Cochabamba, Bolivia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mea Cuba (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

El Autor de Tres Tristes Tigres nos ofrece una visión distinta del fenómeno Castro (un cubano que ama su patria y escribe contra su líder). Un libro que denuncia algunos de los atropellos que el "presidente" cubano perpetra contra los mismos cubanos. Una compilación de textos escritos a lo largo de los varios años que G.C.I. vive en su autoexilio, con la calidad y el humor al que nos tiene acostumbrados. La marca indeleble de Caín en el juego de palabras y en su estilo erudito, no se extrañan en Mea Cuba, una obra que expone los sentimientos más íntimos del autor frente a la Isla Caribeña que lo vió nacer. Aspectos de la Revolución (la mayúscula es de Guillermo)que se entrepapelaron en la historia, sus actores, el arte cubano y el pensamiento de Castro, vistos todos desde la ventana pineal de Cabrera Infante.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for Castro apologists, December 18, 2004

By 

F. Lennox Campello "f. lennox campello" (Potomac, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mea Cuba (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

This collection of essays and short pieces by Guillermo Cabrera Infante was not only educational to me (in the sense that it introduced me to many of Cuba's top writers, poets and artists), but also eye opening in the way in which it opened yet another mental file to store away the immense brutalities that Castro has caused upon all segments of the Cuban population.

It is sad to read about the suicides of many of Castro's most heroic Revolutionary supporters (such as Yeye Santamaria), as well as broken poets and writers.

Guillermo Cabrera Infante's books drives home, like a nail being pounded into a hand, the brutal and malignant nature of Fidel Castro, equally distributed among friends and foes alike. It is a must read for students of Cuban history from the viewpoint of an insider.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mea Cuba or the World's Guilt, November 23, 2001

By 

In love with books and languages (Miami, FL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mea Cuba (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

In this book Cabrera Infante takes us by the hand through the history of Cuba, past and present, in a masterful way. As a growing teenager in Cuba myself in the sixties, I can "see" again all that happened in the beautiful island-archipelago from a richer, most understandable perspective than when I was there and saw things take place, but did not fully understand them: The witchhunt against all intellectuals who dared "think" what was not sanctioned by the totalitarian state and its main disease: Castroenteritis ! The repression against "hippies", "Beatle Lovers", homosexuals, singers and anyone who could challenge the Caribbean Nazi-Stalinism. (It made me remember my "underground" listening to the Beatles!).
An excellent, deep analysis of causes and consequences, of life in internal and external exile and very sharp chronicles about the lives of poets, writers, politicians and "men with many exes decorations", i.e. exminister, exambassador, exrevolutionary, experson, etc. Incredibly good use of the Spanish language, worthy of the prize Cabrera Infante recently earned: The Cervantes Prize of the Spanish language! I highly recommend this book for lovers of true history and of the Spanish language!