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Illustrated catalog with historical texts and pictures. ... Read more

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A chapter in the chronicle of the Cuban Revolution, as told by those on the front lines of that ongoing epic.

Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui, and Moisés Sío Wong—three young rebels of Chinese-Cuban ancestry—threw themselves into the great proletarian battle that defined their generation. They became combatants in the clandestine struggle and 1956–58 revolutionary war that brought down a U.S.-backed dictatorship and opened the door to the socialist revolution in the Americas. Each became a general in Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Here they talk about the historic place of Chinese immigration to Cuba, as well as more than five decades of revolutionary action and internationalism, from Cuba to Angola, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Through their stories the social and political forces that gave birth to the Cuban nation and still shape our epoch unfold. We see how millions of ordinary men and women like them changed the course of history, becoming different human beings in the process.

Also available in: Spanish ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

an important book
This is a great book for university students in the field of history or Latin American politics. Usually we are accustomed to reading only the interviews of Dr. Fidel Castro but rarely do we get a glimpse of others who did battle as well during the Cuban Revolution--1956-58--and these are the three Cuban-Chinese generals. This is a great oral history book on Cuban history as well as Cuban-Chinese relations. It is fascinating to read what these--highly intelligent--generals have to say about their Cuban Government and its role on international relations. A must have for any University student studying Latin American history and/or politics.

A highly personalized yet nonetheless valuable look at the evolution of modern Cuban history and politics
The collaborative work of Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui and Moises Sio Wong, Our History Is Still Being Written: The Story Of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals In The Cuban Revolution is the personal testimony of three individuals of Chinese-Cuban ancestry who became involved in the 1956-58 revolutionary war that ended the America-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, with lasting repercussions for socialist revolution in Latin America. Their stories cover not only the excitement of fifty years ago, but also the years since up to the modern day from problems with food shortages to postmodern wars of ideas. An appendix includes two essays by Fidel Castro and one by Nelson Mandela. Most Of Our History Is Still Being Written is told in interview/narrative format, directly from the mouths of the authors; black-and-white photographs offer glimpses of key turning points in Cuban history. A highly personalized yet nonetheless valuable look at the evolution of modern Cuban history and politics.

If you are at all curious about Cuba, START WITH THIS BOOK
If you are at all serious about fundamental social change in this century, READ THIS BOOK:

Although this book takes the form of interviews with three Cuban generals of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Chinese origins-- yes there are Chinese in Cuba, propotionately the immigration there was many times greater than to the U.S.; three are yes, generals in the armed forces and leaders of the revolution;no, not everyone of Chinese origins fled the Revolution-- the best part is that you get a wide ranging, broad-scope picture of the Cuban Revolution from the war against the Batista dictatorship through the "Bay of Pigs"/Playa Giron imperial invasion ( attempted, anyway) ; theOctober 1962 "missile" crisis; Cuba's role in defending Angola fron then-racist-apartheid South Africa, speeding the democratic revolution throughout southern Africa; the economic crisis of the early to mid 1990s; all the way to Cuba's solidarity aid to Venezuela in the teeth of the Empire's threats to both countries, and the current revolution-within-the-revolution known in Cuba as the Battle of Ideas. All this recounted by fighters who PARTICIPATED in these events ! The Cuban Revolution is not "holding out" or merely "surviving"; it is marching fowardeven if the future is one of struggle amid difficulties...the Cuban people, governemt and Revolution are WINNING. They are beating The Empire everyday. Find out why-- read this book !

Inside view of Cuba's mission in the world
The three Cuban generals interviewed for this book are all of Chinese descent and shed interesting light on the Chinese-Cuban community (proportionately the largest in the Americas). But the heart of this book is the tremendous opportunity the Cuban Revolution has given these men to advance the cause of human solidarity. They have a down-to-earth approach and their reflections include striking examples as well as razor-sharp observations. Although all three are past retirement age, they all play leading roles in the revolution today, which they discuss in these interviews. This is ongoing history, which they are still living. In this book you get an inside look at the tremendous role Cuba played in Angola as well as a picture of the type of critical humanitarian solidarity Cuba is able to extend to Venezuela today. They show why a society based on international solidarity can successfully challenge the fangs-bared, dog-eat-dog example of the U.S.These interviews cover a variety of topics, such as racism, underdevelopment, the environment, agriculture, military strategy, and the role of youth. The photographs in this beautiful book are an education in themselves. While amazon may list this book as not available from time to time, it is always available from the Pathfinder z store listed under "new and used" at the top of this page.

A smorgasbord of insights on Cuba today
Full of unexpected and detailed stories about Cuba in the world today...Yugoslavia could have withstood NATO bombings in the 1990s if army officers had used underground tunnels and the system of reserves put in place during World War II to allow the population to sustain itself, one of the Chinese-Cuban generals interviewed in this book says. He explains that Cuba's defense relies on such a system of reserves (not only food but also pencils and paper to keep schools open!): to give the rest of the world time to come to Cuba's aid and organize solidarity in the event of a military attack. So he spearheaded a wildly successful program in Cuba to develop urban agriculture and increase domestic food production. A part of this effort: convincing Cubans to eat veggies...the generals went to Angola to help fight the South African invasion in the 80s, one lost a leg there; one went to Venezuela on the recommendation of the UN to help them develop a food production program like the Cubans'...they all talk about what it was like growing up Chinese under the Batista dictatorship...Who would have guessed that the number of Chinese who moved to Cuba in the mid1800s was roughly the same as the number who moved to the US? An easy read, and you just never know what the next chapter will talk about.
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Finding Mañana is a vibrant, moving memoir of one family's life in Cuba and their wrenching departure. Mirta Ojito was born in Havana and raised there until the unprecedented events of the Mariel boatlift brought her to Miami, one teenager among more than a hundred thousand fellow refugees. Now a reporter for The New York Times, Ojito goes back to reckon with her past and to find the people who set this exodus in motion and brought her to her new home. She tells their stories and hers in superb and poignant detail-chronicling both individual lives and a major historical event.

Growing up, Ojito was eager to excel and fit in, but her parents'-and eventually her own-incomplete devotion to the revolution held her back. As a schoolgirl, she yearned to join Castro's Young Pioneers, but as a teenager in the 1970s, when she understood the darker side of the Cuban revolution and learned more about life in el norte from relatives living abroad, she began to wonder if she and her parents would be safer and happier elsewhere. By the time Castro announced that he was opening Cuba's borders for those who wanted to leave, she was ready to go; her parents were more than ready: They had been waiting for this opportunity since they married, twenty years before.

Finding Mañana gives us Ojito's own story, with all of the determination and intelligence-and the will to confront darkness-that carried her through the boatlift and made her a prizewinning journalist. Putting her reporting skills to work on the events closest to her heart, she finds the boatlift's key players twenty-five years later, from the exiles who negotiated with Castro to the Vietnam vet on whose boat, Mañana, she finally crossed the treacherous Florida Strait. Finding Mañana is the engrossing and enduring story of a family caught in the midst of the tumultuous politics of the twentieth century.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Mariel boatlift, a Pulitzer Prize winner's extraordinary memoir of her childhood in Cuba and her historic journey to America ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Ojito: Finding Manana
Mirta Ojito takes her own story and mixes it in with others, such as Hector Sanyustiz, the man that crashed a bus thru the Peruvian embassy in 1980 under fire by Cuban guards. During one of his tantrums when Peru refused to turn over the escaped exiles, Castro removed his Cuban guards and within a day over 10,000 folks poured into the embassy. Castro eventually allowed the port of Mariel to be opened up to anybody who wanted to pick up their loved ones (plus a few criminals and mental cases that he threw in), at the end over 125,000 Cubans leaving before he decided to shut down Mariel. Mirta Ojito provides insight into what life was like growing up in a family indifferent to Castro in 1970s Cuba. The book is full of accounts of the oppression, sometimes subtle, of those that do not support Castro's dictatorial regime. Mirta narrates in detail her use as an agricultural child laborer while in her early teens. Evidence of the political apartheid system in Cuba comes to Mirta as a child when she accidentally gets hold of a copy of her school record; where several of her teachers hold against her going to church, her parents' irreverence to support Castro's political activities, and their regular communication with kin in the U.S. The surveillance by the neighborhood Committees for the Defense of the Revolution is evident when her father gets stopped with a bag of potatoes illegally obtained in the black market. Ojito eventually gets to the part when they receive the paperwork to leave Cuba and are processed thru chaotic conditions in Mariel. I found the book easy to read, enjoyable, and descriptive of life by a typical family in Castro's Cuba. As a matter of fact, this book by Ojito is recommended in my own book about Memories from the Land of the Intolerant Tyrant (available from Blue Note Books) as one of the best describing life in Cuba.

The Truth is in the Details
I totally disagree with critics who complain about the excessive and irrelevant amount of detail in "Finding Manana."
English language readers are used to pragmatism in writing. People of Spanish ancestry who appreciate the richness of their language enjoy to immerse themselves in the particulars (Balzac style) however irrelevant or disconnected they might appear to be from the main plot.Both approaches to literature are in my opinion acceptable, but as a former Cuban refugee who reads and writes in two different languages I can perceive Ojito's "Cubanismo" behind her English writing style. I met the author by reading between the lines and found every single sentence and paragraph relevant and meaningful to the subject matter.

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

A well written book unlike other Cuban exile books
This book does a great job of weaving the story of Mirta Ojito and her family with events in Cuba as they unfolded in the years before after the 1979-80 Mariel boat lift. Mirta Ojito is a gifted writer. She manages to find humor in the many absurdities of what still constitutes life in communist Cuba.

Manana: Found
In "Finding Manana," author Mirta Ojito is literally looking for "Manana," a boat that brought her and her family to Key West during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. But she's also looking for answers that will help her come to terms with yesterday and the political catalysts that led to one of the biggest mass migrations in US and Cuban histories.
What began as a memoir, telling those experiences from the power of memory from her childhood in Cuba, unraveled into a larger story of how Mariel played out and its effect today on Cubans like her in Miami.
The book seesaws between the personal story and the political and historic one.
Ojito's personal stories of growing up in Cuba and the profiles of other Cubans looking to leave their country "shaped like an alligator at rest" (p. 196) engage the reader the best.But the authoritative tone she alternates into for the layered factual and historic details tend to slow "Manana" down to a few knots.
For five months in 1980, Fidel Castrol unleashed 125,000 refugees from the port of Mariel to South Florida. It's these same people President Jimmy Carter took in like orphans looking to be adopted.
At 16, Ojito was a Marielita, a term that today still conjures up images of Cuban's most dangerous and mentally ill criminals, people "with glazed eyes, shaved heads and what appeared to be prison garb,''(p. 211) seen as they came upon Florida's shores.
Through her narratives, Ojito shows there were more to Marielitos than the image of them projected in the media or in the movie "Scarface." They were hard-working families looking to escape Fidel Castro's regime for a better future in the US.
"To me, it was a badge of honor,'' she writes (p. 266). "a recognition that I belonged to a group of people who had once left their country as ballast and had managed to stay afloat, and even attain a measure of success.''
Ojito, for one, mastered English once in South Florida, became a reporter with The Miami Herald and later, The New York Times where she shared the 2000 Pulitzer prize for national reporting.
Using her lens as a journalist as well as the power of her memories of Cuba as her guide, she traces the boatlift to the men who orchestrated it and how their sometimes overlapping roles ushered this moment in both countries' histories.
Ojito also chronicles in detail their backstories, which humanizes them. Ojito sketches people like Hector Sanyustiz, the Cuban bus driver who barreled through the gates of the Peruvian embassy, which opened the floodgates for 10,000 Cubans seeking political asylum on its property.
She chronicles the clandestine dialogue with Bernando Benes, the Miami banker with ties to President Carter and who (meaning Benes) later held secret meetings with Castro to bring 3,000 political prisoners to the US.
And then there's captain Mike Howell, the Vietnam veteran who lost his arm in the war and began chartering his boat from New Orleans. The book picks up steam here as Ojito builds up to the actual boatlift.
Howell was moved by the story of passionate Cubans looking to pick up their relatives in Mariel that he agreed to bring them to Key West with help from his boat, the "Manana," which translates as "Tomorrow" in English. Ojito paints him as her personal hero.
"The man and the women in front of him seemed determined to go,'' Ojito writes of the group of Cubans who asked Howell's help in New Orleans. "Saving people was part of the Manana's mission, and Mike relished the idea of playing savior."
Yet for all the build-up to the actual journey from Mariel to Key West, there are only a handful of pages of the trip itself.
In "Finding Manana," Ojito doesn't just find the ship that bears its name. She also finds the real story of Mariel for herself and other fellow Marielitos.

Johnny Diaz, author of Boston Boys Club

from cuba to another place
The author details her life and the lives of others who have left Cuba and what they gained and lost in the transition. A well written book, even paced with good photographs. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 330 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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Explores how Cuban Americans negotiate bicultural identities through cultural production. ... Read more