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Fidel Castro: Biografía a dos voces (Spanish Edition)

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Fidel Castro, Biografía a dos voces (Biography in two voices) is one of the most extraordinary and longest books I have read in recent years. (It weighs in at 665 pages and is accompanied by a DVD containing selections from the interviews.) The author is a Spanish journalist named Ignacio Ramonet who is the director of the prestigious Parisian newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique. Through 100 hours of marathon conversations with the 80-year old president of Cuba, Ramonet masterfully sketches an impressive image of his subject. He portrays Fidel's profound sense of history, his love of science and medicine, and his international solidarity with oppressed groups.

In his extended chats with Ramonet, the khaki-clad Cuban commander talks of his childhood and university studies. He explains how his revolutionary ideas were forged and analyzes the struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He covers the Cuban missile crisis, the case of the corrupt commander Ochoa executed by the revolutionary authorities, the fall of the Soviet Union, Pope John Paul II, globalization, North Korea, Bolivian president Evo Morales, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and the war in Iraq. Among the most interesting segments are those in which he speaks of his extraordinary friendships with fellow revolutionaries Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Ramonet's book reads like a classic novel and will keep the reader enthralled to the end. It should be read by all Hispanics and translated into English so that the people of the U.S. may have a better understanding of how their government has dealt with Cuba and other Latin American countries.

Reviewed by: Dr. Félix Ojeda Reyes, Institute of Caribbean Studies, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, translated by Alicia Pousada

Spanish journalist, Ignacio Ramonet, director of Le Monde Diplomatique in Paris, spent many hours from January 2003 until December 2005 interviewing Cuba's Fidel Castro. The result is 569 pages of candid conversations between both men, from Castro's childhood, his formation, his revolutionary days, and his forty plus years at the helm of the Island nation.

Ramonet tries to follow a chronological pattern, but it is very difficult because Castro loves to talk and jumps from one theme to another as he remembers things.

Unfortunately Ramonet does not confront nor questions Castro's answers, so it is a very one way version of the world's longest dictator's view on things, without any attempt to check the facts.

Castro is quite verbose, so the read is somewhat boring and slow. However is does give a very interesting view of this charismatic world leader.

Great book, great insite in the mind of the last 'ultimate' leaders in this day and age. Nice touch by ading photos and as a special bonus the dvd. For any fan or interested in history.

The extensive and deep interview-conversation of Spanish-born, France-resident writer-journalist Ignacio Ramonet with Fidel Castro is surprising in that a leader so reluctant to grant interviews agreed to spend, as Ramonet says in his introduction, one hundred hours of mostly candid revelations about his life, including childhood, adolescence, student days, rebellious spirit, personal sense of justice, and his bravery not only in battle but also to face the immense power and extreme hostility of a United States scarcely 90 miles across the ocean.
Most autobiographies are self-serving, and although this "Biografia a dos voces," or in English My Life Fidel Castro, is not an autobiography in a strict sense, neither is a classical journalistic interview with challenges when necessary to clear up apparent contradictions or controversial statements or judgments.
The book reveals a deep devotion of Castro towards Che Guevara, great affection and admiration. His insights of how valuable Che was to the Revolution first as a doctor and then as a fighter and commander are of tremendous value to anybody interested in Cuba's tormented history.
I have with me the first edition in Spanish and the recent Andrew Hurley translation of the third edition.
There are substantial additions and changes to the first version, including in the latest edition an exchange of letters between Castro and Nikita Khrushchev during and after the Missile Crisis of October 1962.
In one of the letters, dated October 26, 1962, Fidel dangerously suggests that the Soviets should consider an atomic attack against the United States.
Castro shows in the book a deep knowledge on an array of subjets, including on political, military, economic and scientific matters.
He also shows his political prejudice when he asserts, without offering any proof, that the September 11, 2001, attacks against the Twin Towers were organised by the "same American institutions and services" who trained those who actually carried them out.
When Fidel says that no-one has suffered torture in Cuban jails since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 and that the Cuban Bay of Pigs prisoners in 1961 were treated according to strict Geneva Convention rules, and that the cause of his country's woes throughout is history since independence from Spain has been the "Empire" to the north makes one think whether he has more than a point.
He is also believable when he says his Revolution has done away with illiteracy, that medicine in Cuba has advanced to the extent that now Cuba exports doctors and, despite the criplling US siege, its economy remains solid - after surviving "the special period" following the Soviet Union collapse.
People like Fidel only come once in history, and perhaps History will indeed absolve him.
Hugo Uribe
Sydney, Australia

"Fidel Castro:Biografia a dos voces" es un excelente libro que merece traduccion en ingles para aclarar dudas y prejuicios del publico americano sobre este controversial lider. A pesar de su avanzada edad y estado de salud, Fidel Castro presenta muy claramente todo evento desde la Revolucion Cubana, su relacion con el Che Guevara, y el presente y futuro de su pais. La conversacion entre el autor y Castro es presentada de manera que uno se siente que esta en el mismo cuarto con ellos durante la entrevista. Un libro muy entretenido.

Let us hope that one day, even under the burning climate of the Bush regime, we will see "Fidel Castro: Biografia A Dos Voces," published in an English translation for those who do not speak Spanish. But for bilengual readers like myself, this is the best book available in a long time on the life and times of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Ignacio Ramonet has done an amazing service by documenting in great detail through many hours of interviews the life, ideas and dreams of one of the most controversial, influential world leaders of the past century and the early years of this one. This should be the definitive book for anyone wanting a detailed analysis of what exactly are the ideas behind Fidel Castro and the revolution he ignited a half century ago. This is also a valuable book because it is the only real book on Castro that goes into Cuba's influence on today's Latin America and leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. Castro recounts in stunning detail Cuba's role in helping bring Chavez back to power after an illegal, U.S.-backed coup sponsored by Venezuela's rich elites and radical right ousted Chavez for 48 hours. Castro recounts how Chavez's daughter called Havana to report that her father had not resigned as the coup plotters reported, but was overthrown and held prisoner. It was Cuba that relayed the information to major media outlets so the world could know of the crime that had occurred in Venezuela against her elected government. Ramonet takes us through Castro's childhood to his days as a passionate law student beginning to join the liberation movement to free Cuba from foreign domination of it's resources, market and culture. There are wonderful moments of memory dealing with the Revolution and Castro's friendship with icon Che Guevara. For those suckered by Fox News propaganda, Castro here reminds us that Cuba was the first nation to condemn the September 11 terrorist attacks, and eventhough Castro is opposed to the war in Iraq, he concedes that Saddam Hussein was a thug and much of his attitudes contributed to opening the door for Bush's imperialist war. The picture we get here is not of some vicious tyrant as the radical right likes to paint anyone with different views, instead we get the thoughts and ideas of a world leader who has changed much of Latin American history forever. There is little the current Bush regime will be able to do to curve the rise of socialism in the Americas, "Fidel Castro: Biografia A Dos Voces" is a perfect information tool to know how those roots were planted and what socialism really means. Castro's mastery of language is impressive and his careful, detailed analysis of world leaders, events and policies is impressive. His words are worth reading, especially in these times when blind imperial rage threatens to distabalize the Middle East if not the world. Here is one of the best books to come out of the Spanish market in a long time.

Exhaustive and perhaps exhausting interview of Fidel. Fascinating questions in relation to salient issues of human rights and wrongs in Cuba. A rather astonishing intellectual dexterity in response to salient political concerns.
A truly remarkable work that allows for discerning skills and capacities of a knowledgeable and persistent political figure.
The accompanying DVD and what it reveals about childhood of Fidel and contemporary Cuba...so intriguing!

Excellent. I read the Spanish version. Is a book that you have to keep for future references!!

Thank you very much Mr,Ignacio Ramonet i love it ....

I was 10 years old in 1956. In Florida, we watched the Cuban revolution unfold daily. I saw young Fidel on TV passionately shaking his fist against injustice, and I wanted so much to know what he was saying beneath the English voice-overs. I began studying Spanish immediately and eventually was taught by an exiled Cuban lawyer who told his students, "Translation is treason." In these 53 years since, I have become fluent, have listened to Fidel via short-wave radio through static interference, seen every documentary, read everything I can find on Cuban history and this latest of their revolutions, listened to the life story of every Cuban I have met. Now I finally hear Fidel himself speaking clearly. I don't need to agree with him on all points. I just want to hear what he has been saying all these decades, his thoughts and reasoning. This book tells me in Spanish that balances well between conversational and "escritura elegante." ¡Qué tesoro!