Product Description
PRODUCT REVIEW
The best historical novel that I have read about contemporary Cuba.
Víctor Triay, author of Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506
The historical novel questions Castro’s official historiography on the Bay of Pigs
Juan Antonio Blanco, Historian and Political Analyst
The Flying Fish is the result of twenty-six years of collaboration between Professors Eduardo Zayas-Bazán and Robert J. Higgs when both were teaching at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.
This historical novel deals with the life of Luis Recio, a young idealist from the Cuban upper class who joins the fight against the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, enlists in Fidel Castro’s guerilla band in the Sierra Maestra, and with the triumph of the revolution becomes an assistant minister of justice in the new government.
Growing disenchanted with the revolution, Luis joins the underground and later participates in the fateful Bay of Pigs invasion. Through the eyes of the protagonist we witness the chain of events which brought communism to Cuba, sowed the seeds for the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and moved the super powers to the brink of nuclear disaster.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Eduardo Zayas-Bazan is a native of Camaguey, Cuba. He has an M.S. in Foreign Language Education from Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, KS, and a Doctor in Derecho degree from Universidad Nacional Jose Marti, Havana, Cuba. In April of 1961, Zayas-Bazan participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba as a frogman. He was wounded in his right knee, captured, and spent one year in prison before being ransomed with fifty-nine other wounded prisoners that needed urgent medical attention in the United States.
Zayas-Bazan is a Professor Emeritus in Foreign Languages from East Tennessee State University where he was chair of the Foreign Language Department from 1973 to 1993. Throughout his notable career he has been the recipient of ETSU's Distinguished Faculty Award; Sigma Delta Pi's Premio Martel and the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association's Jacqueline Elliot Award. Zayas-Bazan was the first Cuban-American elected president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and of the National Association of Cuban-American Educators.
He has also been President of the Municipality of Camaguey in Exile, editor of its periodical, El Camagueyano Libre, and vice president of Cuban Cultural Heritage. Professor Zayas-Bazan was associate editor of Hispania, the journal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. In addition to writing numerous articles in regional and national journals, he is the coauthor, co-editor and translator of seventeen books. Two of his textbooks, Arriba! and Conexiones, published by Prentice Hall, are being used at some 150 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. Professor Zayas-Bazan is retired and lives in Miami, Florida since May of 1999.
Dr. Robert J. (Jack) Higgs was born on a farm in Middle Tennessee. He attended Vanderbilt University before entering the United States Naval Academy where he graduated in 1955 with a B.S. degree. He entered the U.S. Air Force, specializing in photo-radar inter- pretation. In 1963, he resigned his captain’s commission to enter graduate school at the University of Tennessee where, in 1967, he received the Ph.D. in American literature.
After a year of teaching at Eastern Kentucky University, he came to East Tennessee State University where for twenty-seven years he taught courses in American, Southern, and Appalachian Literature, the Literature of Sports and Great Books. He has written, co-authored, or co-edited twelve books, including Laurel and Thorn: The Athlete in American Literature (UP Ken- tucky, 1981), which was reprinted in Japanese in 1995, and God in the Stadium: Sport and Religion in America (Kentucky, 1995) which was nominated for the Pulitzer prize.
The best historical novel that I have read about contemporary Cuba.
Víctor Triay, author of Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506
The historical novel questions Castro’s official historiography on the Bay of Pigs
Juan Antonio Blanco, Historian and Political Analyst
The Flying Fish is the result of twenty-six years of collaboration between Professors Eduardo Zayas-Bazán and Robert J. Higgs when both were teaching at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.
This historical novel deals with the life of Luis Recio, a young idealist from the Cuban upper class who joins the fight against the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, enlists in Fidel Castro’s guerilla band in the Sierra Maestra, and with the triumph of the revolution becomes an assistant minister of justice in the new government.
Growing disenchanted with the revolution, Luis joins the underground and later participates in the fateful Bay of Pigs invasion. Through the eyes of the protagonist we witness the chain of events which brought communism to Cuba, sowed the seeds for the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and moved the super powers to the brink of nuclear disaster.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Eduardo Zayas-Bazan is a native of Camaguey, Cuba. He has an M.S. in Foreign Language Education from Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, KS, and a Doctor in Derecho degree from Universidad Nacional Jose Marti, Havana, Cuba. In April of 1961, Zayas-Bazan participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba as a frogman. He was wounded in his right knee, captured, and spent one year in prison before being ransomed with fifty-nine other wounded prisoners that needed urgent medical attention in the United States.
Zayas-Bazan is a Professor Emeritus in Foreign Languages from East Tennessee State University where he was chair of the Foreign Language Department from 1973 to 1993. Throughout his notable career he has been the recipient of ETSU's Distinguished Faculty Award; Sigma Delta Pi's Premio Martel and the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association's Jacqueline Elliot Award. Zayas-Bazan was the first Cuban-American elected president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and of the National Association of Cuban-American Educators.
He has also been President of the Municipality of Camaguey in Exile, editor of its periodical, El Camagueyano Libre, and vice president of Cuban Cultural Heritage. Professor Zayas-Bazan was associate editor of Hispania, the journal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. In addition to writing numerous articles in regional and national journals, he is the coauthor, co-editor and translator of seventeen books. Two of his textbooks, Arriba! and Conexiones, published by Prentice Hall, are being used at some 150 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. Professor Zayas-Bazan is retired and lives in Miami, Florida since May of 1999.
Dr. Robert J. (Jack) Higgs was born on a farm in Middle Tennessee. He attended Vanderbilt University before entering the United States Naval Academy where he graduated in 1955 with a B.S. degree. He entered the U.S. Air Force, specializing in photo-radar inter- pretation. In 1963, he resigned his captain’s commission to enter graduate school at the University of Tennessee where, in 1967, he received the Ph.D. in American literature.
After a year of teaching at Eastern Kentucky University, he came to East Tennessee State University where for twenty-seven years he taught courses in American, Southern, and Appalachian Literature, the Literature of Sports and Great Books. He has written, co-authored, or co-edited twelve books, including Laurel and Thorn: The Athlete in American Literature (UP Ken- tucky, 1981), which was reprinted in Japanese in 1995, and God in the Stadium: Sport and Religion in America (Kentucky, 1995) which was nominated for the Pulitzer prize.
About the Author
About the Authors Dr. Eduardo Zayas-Bazan is a native of Camaguey, Cuba. He has an M.S. in Foreign Language Education from Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, KS, and a Doctor en Derecho degree from Universidad Nacional Jose Marti, Havana, Cuba. In April of 1961, Zayas-Bazan participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba as a frogman. He was wounded in his right knee, captured, and spent one year in prison before being ransomed with fifty-nine other wounded prisoners that needed urgent medical attention in the United States. Zayas-Bazan is a Professor Emeritus in Foreign Languages from East Tennessee State University where he was chair of the Foreign Language Department from 1973 to 1993. Throughout his notable career he has been the recipient of ETSU's Distinguished Faculty Award; Sigma Delta Pi's Premio Martel and the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association's Jacqueline Elliot Award. Zayas-Bazan was the first Cuban-American elected president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and of the National Association of Cuban-American Educators. He has also been President of the Municipality of Camaguey in Exile, editor of its periodical, El Camagueyano Libre, and vice president of Cuban Cultural Heritage. Professor Zayas-Bazan was associate editor of Hispania, the journal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. In addition to writing numerous articles in regional and national journals, he is the coauthor, co-editor and translator of seventeen books. Two of his textbooks, Arriba! and Conexiones, published by Prentice Hall, are being used at some 150 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. Professor Zayas-Bazan is retired and lives in Miami, Florida since May of 1999.

