Customer Reviews

Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is great for getting a bird's eye of the Cuban Revolution from an individual perspective. Guevara is meticulous in his notation of events and people. This is not the book to read if you are looking for a general study of the Revolution. Guevara does speak of Castro and Cienfuegos among others but this is Guevara's story. What most impressed me was his honesty about his men, his mistakes, and the conditions under which the Revolution occured. The bugs, the heat, the lack of food, the support from the residents of the Sierra Maestro are so well described that you truly get a sense of what the experience must have been like. Don't pass this book up.

This first hand account of the Cuban Revolution through the eyes of Che give the reader the feeling and emotion that Che felt as he wrote these words. We can see and feel the emotion from his words and can see how complex he was. At times he was cruel and hard driving, at others, compassionate and unsure. Good reading for anyone interested in Che

`Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War' is Che Guevara's diary of the Cuban revolution and rather than being a straight narrative, from A-Z, of the war, it is more a collection of episodes that include various battles and other aspects of war logistics. It is written with his unique short, descriptive sentences and you are quickly drawn in to the accounts on offer. The first half is the text from the original book and the second half includes various other articles and accounts he wrote afterwards that flesh out the details. The various battles are exciting to read about and his revolutionary zeal and drive show through on every page. This book also has numerous black and white photos in a middle photo plate section, as well as a comprehensive glossary that list the various combatants and key players on both sides. If you are interested in the Cuban Revolution, or Che, then this is required reading. It shows a side of the war from one man who was intimately involved and it is well written and engaging to boot. Well worth a read.

Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

This book was a little bit if a mystery to me when i ordered it as i was tring to find a book written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara and previosly ordered "guerrilla warfare" and was most disappointed. However, upon purchasing and reading this book I relized i found what i was looking for a book with a "storyline" and a little insight into Che's mind. Knowing little about the Cuban Revolution i put a lot of faith in the author who is obviosly biased, however, i found the book very interesting as it is not necessarily a day by day of the cuban revolution, but a selection of events and the thoughts of a soldier, who became on of the most well known names in Latin American history. I would suggest this book to anyone that is interested in Che or the cuban revolution. It is well written and easy to read, with the exception of some of the names of his fellow soldiers. When I am finished with my current books i will be sure to order the Reminiscence of the Bolivian War also by Che.

I was compelled to read this book (and also Che's Bolivian Diary) after seeing the Soderbergh/Del Toro movie recently. I've read some recent reviews saying this book was boring but I don't agree, mainly because I've become so interested in Latin American history. I found it to be an intriguing account of Che's collaboration with Castro in Cuba.

This collection of memories conveys the excitement, zeal, possibilities, problems and limitations of Guevara's "guerilla warfare" strategy as it was practiced in the Sierra Maestra. At times, one can almost hear Guevara wheezing as he traverses the rugged terrain. It is, in general, light on ideological substance and heavy on battlefield drama. A classic nonetheless...

Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War is Ernesto Che Guevara's combat diary. He recorded the day ins & day out's of life in la sierra maestra. Che Guevara writes about the war that could never had been won if it hadn't of been for the dedication & sacrifices made by the people in la sierra maestra.

Che goes through memories of the Revolutionary War in Cuba. His writing style is engaging and interesting.

Guevara, Ernesto, 1998 edition Reminiscences of the Cuban revolutionary war. Monthly Review Press, New York ISBN-10 085345227X ISBN-13 978-0853452270

One of the areas in which Guevara operated included family land. The trouble with this book is that it all based upon the diaries of Guevara, is that these reflect not the truth but the opinion of the author. For instance, when Guevara describes Rene Cuervo, if one takes the author's word for it, was a horrible person and a bad rebel. Now Rene Cuervo was a friend of mine and when I joined the Castro rebels sometime after he was executed I asked about him. To my surprise, El Mejicano Francisco Rodriguez Tamayo, anwered in a tone that brooked no question: "no hablas de eso" (do not talk about that).

In the years that have passed since then I began to look into the matter further. My conclusions after much investigation can be summarized in excerpts from my book in progress "Love and War in Cuba" as:


"In 1957, when I was still in school in Havana, my friend René Cuervo, it appears certain despite official Cuban government erasures of history, was in battle at Ubero (El Uvero) action fighting in the then Captain Juan Almeida's unit. However, after that Castro victory, he was assigned to guard the wounded. Unfortunately for Rene, because Almeida was wounded, he was under then Lieutenant Ernesto "Che" Guevara's orders. They rode a Babun truck laboring up very steep and rough unpaved roads part way up from sea level to the heights of Peladero at about 3,000 feet. At El Peladero the truck leaves and he is left with the walking wounded, and two carried on stretchers are taken higher up. A first hand witness states three of the wounded were carried on stretchers (actually hammocks strung on thick poles); even without relief stretcher bearers this effort would require six strong men as stretcher bearers. This last citation mentions five stretcher bearers, but obviously unless one end of one stretcher was somehow floating in air, there had to be at least six bearers. Even so the mountains are so steep on the southern side of the range the effort must have been exhausting. René Cuervo must have been exhausted, and one can be sure that the Che, who would use his asthma as an excuse for not doing anything he did not want to do, was only not helping but also threatening dire consequences if they did not move fast enough to please him. "

Reading about Guevara, and remember the word of mouth of other rebels about him "el se le aranca a cualquiera" he would kill anybody ... I describe Guevara's character as:

"After the action at Uvero, although Guevara was happy, Castro was not; too many, six, rebels were killed, plus those nine wounded rebels (not 8 in this source, why the two sources Barquin and Quirk do not agree is not understood) adds up to almost 12% in only twenty minutes. Guevara, as was his custom holds command not by charisma or leadership but by threatening his men with death penalty. Most who were familiar with the Argentine, give descriptions of his behaviors as a combination of Captain Bligh of mutiny on the British sailing vessel HMS Bounty, and the Queen of Hearts the Lewis Carroll character in: "Alice Through the Looking Glass" the one that kept screaming "off with their heads. " In addition to his readiness to execute his own people, that foreigner from Argentina commonly ordered the slaughter and eating of horses and mules. Manuel Fajardo Sotomayor -who should not to be confused with Dr. Manuel Fajardo--was one of Crescencio Perez's men at Ubero, who is said by Guevara to have once worked in a slaughter house and supplied the rebels with cattle, was a rarity among the Cuban country people in that he not only would he readily eat horse meat he was willing to butcher these animals. Guevara viewed eating horse meat as some measure of loyalty to him; taking notes of those who refused to eat it, a list that may well at some time or other have included René Cuervo. Guevara was also renowned for his lack of personal hygiene, all this breaking mores sacred to most Cubans since Taino times. "

Not only that but Guevara would extort money from the locals such as one of my grandaunts:

"Guevara soon afterwards, plans further murders of his own men, and sets up a formal disciplinary group, and in passing hits up one my relatives for $1,200(one third of the value of her coffee crop). Guevara demands a fee from her to collect her own coffee crop, and as his custom Guevara adds insult to injury by branding this "Sra. de Ramirez" as a collaborator of Batista, a charge that could have, but did not, result in her execution. "

Thus to honestly evaluate this book one has to take into account the flaws in Guevara's character and understand what he writes is commonly selfserving.

I question the validity of reviewer's remarks such as: "a great written record," "compelling," "enlightening," and "instructive." Give me a break!

Like most Cuban teenagers, I applauded and supported the revolution during its early stages. Fifty years later I'm ashamed of my stupidity and naivety.

To set the record straight; Guevara was a cold-blooded murderer who executed everyone who disagreed with his revolutionary ideals--furthermore, he did it shamelessly and without trial.

After the triumph of the revolution, Guevara's erratic behavior, mistyfing personna, and complicated phsyche, became a political liability and a personal threat to Fidel Castro who surreptitiously gave Che the notorious ultimatum: Bolivia or else.

Eventually, and after a protracted hunt, Guevara was betrayed by his own people and captured by the Bolivian military.
"Please I beg you to spare my life. I'm worth more alive than dead," Che's final words to the commander who executed him on the spot.

And here's the final count: From the twelve "revolutionaries" that survived Batista's persecution by hiding in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains, Fidel and his brother are the only ones left. Guevara was shipped to Bolivia, Camilo Cienfuegos mysteriously died in a plane accident, and Huber Matos was incarcerated for treason. To make a long, painful story short, Fidel,(according to Forbes magazine) with a billion dollars in foreign investments, is one of the world's wealthiest heads of state second to Queen Elizabeth.

Socialist revolution? You've got to be kidding! These facts are the only ones that are instructive, compelling, and enlightening. The rest is rubbish.

Andrew J. Rodriguez
Award-winning author: "Adios, Havana," a Memoir