Conjugating the Cuban Revolution: It Mattered, It Matters, It Will Matter

Author(s): Eric Selbin

Source: Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 36, No. 1, Cuba: Interpreting a Half Century of
Revolution and Resistance, Part 1 (Jan., 2009), pp. 21-29
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Conjugating

the Cuban Revolution

ItMattered, ItMatters, ItWill Matter

by

Eric Selbin

a
If 50 years on it is a challenge toget clear picture of theplace of theprocess known
as theCuban Revolution, no event in that timehas had more lasting impact on somany
people in somany places. The Cuban Revolution mattered,matters, and will continue to
matter. It enabled and enobledpeople around theworld to stand up and struggle or renew
as a powerful testament to both social
struggles already under way, it continues to stand
around
theworld, and itwill provide a
in
countries
commitment
justice work and
actors
not
to
in popular collective effortsas
to
and
do
what
do?for future
model?for
well as effortsto improvehealth care and education. The legacy of theCuban Revolution,
itspremise and itspromise, is deep and wide.
Keywords:

Cuba, Revolution, Social justice, Change, Popular

or poststruc
the title, this is not some sort of clever postmodern
Despite
on
be
either
would
the
Cuban
Revolution;
tural(ist) piece
beyond my ken. It
an
to
what
the
subtitle
the Cuban
address
effort
is, rather,
suggests: why
it
matters
it will
50 years ago, why
mattered
Revolution
today, and why
matter
future. The claims herein will break little new
for the foreseeable
too much
of why the Cuban Revolution
ground, but they merit rehearsal;
the vagaries of revolutionary
matters has been lost to the ravages of memory,
the reality of the actually existing revolutionary process, and
ideals meeting
relentless partisans on all sides. Fifty years on, it is a challenge to get any sort
of clear view of the revolutionary process that occurred and is still unfolding
to invoke an almost certainly apocryphal
in Cuba.
(if delightful)
Perhaps,
to tell what
the Cuban
story, after 50 years it is still simply (far) too early

and how and why itmatters.1

Revolution means
in so many
Yet no event of the past 50 years has affected so many people
so much time and continues to do so as the Cuban Revolution.
This
for
places
and
liber
is a big claim. What of the cold war? The anticolonial,
anti-imperial,
the Near and Middle
ation struggles in the Caribbean,
East, North and Sub
of 1968, Eastern
Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia? The student movement
Union? The
and
the
of
the
Soviet
dissolution
1989 "color revolutions,"
Europe's
core of
more recent
Trade Organization
upsurge? At the
Zapatista/anti-World
each of these, to varying degrees, is the process commonly construed as the
Eric

Selbin

University.

is Professor
His

work

Kathryn Hochstetler,
held at the University

and Chair

of Political

focuses
primarily
and the participants
of Texas

LATIN AMERICAN
PERSPECTIVES,
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X08328965
? 2009 Latin American Perspectives

February

Science

on matters

and University

He
revolutionary.
in the Cuban
in the Transition

21-22,

Scholar
thanks

at Southwestern
Helen

Revolution

Cordes,

Conference

2008.

Issue 164, Vol. 36 No.

1, January 2009 21-29

21

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22

LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Both its inspiration and the fear it and the attendant radical
are still, in
(in Uruguay,
processes
profound ways, being unpacked
and Europe), dealt with directly (in Nepal,
Southern Africa, North America,
and the Philippines),
and planned
for (and dreaded
Colombia,
India, Mexico,
in
is
many places?the
legacy
by) by many governments
powerful and perva
an
no
than
event frozen in time
is
In
this
rather
because
sive.
small part
simply
has proven to be exactly what
and place (and space), the Cuban Revolution
in the twenty-first
most of us who
revolutions
related
(and
processes)
study
a process of
a
is:
revolution
would
suggest
century
deep change that has pro
a
to emulate.
for
others
duced a compelling
story, powerful example
This is a big and broad premise, and space is limited. The more modest goal
in several senses?historically,
here is to situate the Cuban Revolution
politi
even
to argue that it is,
psychologically?and
cally, socially, culturally, perhaps
in some nonintuitive
and perhaps even surprising ways, as relevant today and
as
ithas ever been. In the interest of space, letme stipulate three
for tomorrow
to understand modern
matters up front: (1) It is not possible
Latin America
Cuban

Revolution.

it spawned

the implications and ramifications of

the Caribbean without
considering
to
effort
the Cuban Revolution.
(2) Any
explore and illuminate contemporary
cases of broadly
collective
behavior, however one may choose to label
popular
must
the
and place of the Cuban Revolution.
consider
role
them,
(3) No
fully
other country of this size and place and almost no other revolutionary process
in so many places
and experience has had such an impact on so many people
so
itmatters still, and itwill
for
long. In short, the Cuban Revolution mattered,

and

tomatter.
Two other matters merit mention here. There seems little question
that the
successes and failures of the Cuban Revolution?and
there are plenty of both?
are
of how one views Cuba and especially
the revolu
(hotly) contested. Much
it
that
defined
50
has
for
the
years depends on
past
essentially
tionary process
where one starts from and how one is situated. It can be as simple as where one
continue

than arriving from

looks very different arriving fromMiami
flies from;Havana
more about the interests,
it
and
But
is
reflects
far
also
complicated
Managua.
inclinations, and investments of the analyst. Suffice it to say that I am aware of
and themany possible
both the complexities of my position(s)
interpretations
of themyriad realities thatmake up the Cuban revolutionary experience.
and throughout time
And what of "revolution"?
People across the world
of revolution, (deeply) rooted in a story/ies
have their own understanding(s)
Few concepts are as
of revolution we tell ("we" here meant quite broadly).
across
in time and place and
cultures and share such great recogni
pervasive
tion as "revolution."
that people

about what

It is not simply that people know itwhen

they see it but
a
in
set
around
their
heads
coherent
of
carry
fairly
understandings
is not something people con
revolution is and is not. Revolution

sider lightly and inevitably with fear and trepidation; it is also associated
for
access
resources
to
to
for
with
and
food, land, peace, justice,
many
struggles
a home, health care, and education.
For
revolution
sug
many,
opportunity,
gests "better must come."2 It is among that category of terms that is instantly
a
inmost places most of the time as
formost people
recognizable
applying to
a
dramatic upheaval
their
group of united people
involving
overthrowing
government

and,

if successful, making

profound

and

significant

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changes

to

Selbin /CONJUGATING THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

23

reference points include the American

the
their society. Common
Revolution,
Revolution
twentieth
theMexican
first
French Revolution,
(the
great
century's
the Chinese
and the
the Russian
social upheaval),
Revolution,
Revolution,

Cuban

Revolution.

the long-dominant
theorists of revolution
"third-generation"
Academically,
a
to
"fourth" (Goldstone,
2001) may be giving way
(Skocpol, 1979; Goodwin,
and Selbin, n.d.). Guided
2001; Foran, 2005, Selbin, n.d.; and Foran, Goldstone,

to deepen
the human and cultural aspects of our think
by these, the need is
with
about
revolution,
(1978) focus on mobilization
recentering Tilly's
ing
as
has
described
their
and
what
(2003: 24)
Paige
"metaphysical
people
Thus, revolution is understood
(Selbin, 2007: 131) as the
assumptions."
conscious effortby a broad based, popularly mobilized

or

informal,

to

profoundly

transform

the

social,

political,

group of actors, formal

and

economic

institu

tionswhich dominate their lives; the goal is the fundamental transformation of

thematerial and ideological conditions of their everyday lives. This reflects a
process of origination and subsequent struggle, and an outcome, the effort at fun

damental

transformation.

are the cases we are most likely to deem "great" or "social" revolutions;
lesser instances are often labeled as other, related forms of collective action.
academic and the popular?there
is
In the context of both conceptions?the
a clear narrative of revolution for some 220 years now (but easily pushed back
farther [see Selbin, 2007; n.d.]). This social revolutionary
story of
considerably
as the
revolution (Selbin, 2007; n.d.) begins with the 1789 French Revolution
as
it
it
is
and
its
is
is
is
failure
lost
(brutal)
epic,
sweeping,
grand,
archetype?it
its way
radical elements. This saga wends
to the mists of time as its more

These

never
its
realized
1917, which
century to Russia
as
as
came
seen
to
visions
and
France
and
almost
be
best/better hopes
quickly
as the
the ignoble end [or even 1939],
(who,
failure/betrayal
by
grand/great
to claim Russia?). And afterWorld War II there were glimpses of what
wanted
across

the nineteenth

might be possible:
1954, Vietnam and
is Cuba,
leads?it
current and seems

1950-1954, Bolivia
in the 1950s.3 But none

1952-1954, British Guiana

of
these iswhere
the story
Algeria
that remains
and only Cuba,
still, that excites discussion,
to remain relevant.
destined
Guatemala

and
introduction of the modern
France's
concept of revolution
Despite
to
it
that
revolution
is
Cuba
the
modern
Russia's
brought
global
preeminence,
as never before that anyone
to
that suggested
willing
community, Cuba
the sacrifices, and take the risks could make rev
engage in the struggle, make
olution. Indeed, people do not fight, risk their lives and those of their families,
on the line
are about com
or put their
lightly; revolutions
hopes and dreams
a
a
In
itmay
and
vision
of
better
world.
this,while
mitment, passion, desire(s),
be ragged around the edges, it is Cuba that remains our reference point today
in its process and promise the guidepost
for tomorrow.
will
the
Revolution
matter? There is an array
Cuban
So why did, does, and
of answers to this, but what follows is guided by several factors thatmight be
as the sociohistorical
summarized
context, symbolic politics, and collective
and

we
memory/ies. With these inmind,
matter.
will
and
matters,
tered,

can see at least

broadly why Cuba

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mat

LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

24

WHY

ITMATTERED:

REVOLUTION

IN THE REAL WORLD

for
II, there was a moment when possibilities
or under that of
under the yoke of colonialism

In the aftermath ofWorld War

many

whether

subject people,
seemed boundless.

The world, after

Western
the
powers and the Soviet
by
democracy"
that
the
theworld
long-delayed promise
imagined
hand. Yet remarkably quickly itbecame clear that

all, had been "made safe for

Union, and peoples around
of self-determination was at
thiswas not to be. The Allies

imperialism,

or

destroyed nascent efforts in Italy and Greece, and the British

sought (with U.S. assistance and financing) to reestablish their
even as theUnited States set out to remind Latin America
colonial domination
in charge. The remarkable U.S. destruction
who was
and the Caribbean
of
in 1954, celebrated in verse4
nascent progressive
social democracy
Guatemala's
and essentially explained
away as the necessity to sometimes destroy democ
save
to
set
the tone for an end to the "Good Neighbor
Era" and
racy
democracy,
no
uncertain terms the United States' regional hegemony.
reasserted in
across
resistance
and revolution
There was
the
and, indeed, rebellion
undermined

and the French

and the Caribbean.

1952 revolution
Bolivia's
world, not least in Latin America
that radicalized many in
showed one way, but itwas the events in Guatemala
in the 1940s a ragtag army of leftists, populists, progres
the region. Already
had
and
radicals
formed the Caribbean
to over
dedicated
sives,
Legion,
and Caribbean
dictators and trained in part by the
throwing Central American
Air
Force
officer
Alberto
1986:
former loyalist Spanish
Bayo
(Hodges,
forces that sailed against
167-172). Bayo specifically trained the expeditionary
in 1948 and Trujillo in the Dominican
inNicaragua
in 1949
Somoza
Republic
(Ameringer, 1974). Subsequently
exiles, and his "star" pupil was
debacle.
from the Guatemalan

inMexico,
he
the Argentine

trained Fidel Castro's

Che

Guevara,

himself

Cuban

fresh

Iwill, with apologies, gloss over the key moment

for this entire enter
to
it
Suffice
the
defeat
of
the
Cuban
dictator
Juan Batista
say
triumph.
prise:
a
was
in
and
the region
well beyond
and welcomed
surprise
by people
rev
and
elsewhere.
The
the
of
the
region
victory
(wildly) popular
throughout
los barbudos, over the dictator and his allies caught the attention
olutionaries,
and the imagination of people around theworld. Some of these people found
their way to Cuba, and Bayo and Guevara
trained a new generation of revo
Here

lutionaries

from around

theworld.

Even more?far

more?were

heartened

in

their struggles already under way?in

Algeria, Vietnam, Colombia, Malaysia?
fired by the Cuban vision caught tinder and began to
and where
imaginations
burn. To borrow a phrase Castro used to describe another revolution inspired
in 1979), itwas "a big revolution in a small country"?a
(in Grenada
by Cuba
tomake
itself a major player inworld affairs in a
small country thatmanaged
and
then
now.5
way unprecedented
But what really mattered here was not the training or support; what mat
or not?told
the story?accurate
the example perceived,
around the
A small, committed set of revolutionaries who cared about and for the
on those
people and counted
people for nurture and support had vanquished
a
more
one of the world's
not only
two superpowers.
In so
powerful foe but
it had defied the odds, and, flush with victory, its first steps were
doing
tered was

world.

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Selbin /CONJUGATING THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

25

on health, education,
the lives of
food, and housing,
improving
won
made
the
had
Cubans
the right
As
Castro's
millions.6
clear,
early speeches
it.
the
real
and
to change theirworld; thatwould be
revolution,
they could make
a
was
rev
it
The revolution also mattered because
postcolonial /postimperial
as a dramatic social
olution in the South. With the arguable exception ofMexico
a coherent social revolution, revolutions were written for the
not
but
cataclysm
Cuba
introduced in a profound sense the idea
North, where change happened.
of a revolution authored in the South thatwas written not just for theNorth but
for the living. The (clarion) call was not to emulate the European
(or
experiences
even the Chinese) but to fight your own fight in your own way using the lessons
a
learned as they applied; Che's foco (however flawed in retrospect) became
already in the field adapted and adopted the strategies
byword. Revolutionaries
that seemed relevant while others were driven to reconsider how to proceed
focused

as they
sought
demanded

and when

and where

to emulate the Cubans.

an end to accommodationist
means
struggle by whatever

Revolution

The Cuban

ical efforts and

called

for armed

left and rad

It

necessary.

strug
perhaps unfortunately, romanticized?revolutionary
at a critical juncture.
of the dispossessed
theworld's movement
(1969: 123) suggested, Cuba was

popularized?and,
gle and energized

As Guevara
this

"bad

and

of national

example"

international

impudent people cries out for liberation, Cuba

that Cuba

is

in a word,

guilty,
the way

because

of

dignity.

defying danger, advancing

Cuba

The

has

Cuban

dignity.

. . . Each

time

that

an

is accused; and it is true in a sense

. . . the
the way
of
way
struggle
a
is
bad
bad,
very
example
example

shown

. . .
..

toward the future.

revo
"walked
the walk,"
than just an example, Cuba
sending not only
more
in
most
to
sub-Saharan
of
others,
Africa, but,
notably
lutionary guidance
lasting import, sending doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, and construction
are the face of the Cuban Revolution
to most of the
These people
workers.

More

world.

WHY

ITMATTERS: WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

as the modern
exem
itself with surprising quickness
established
Having
to
maintain
has
both
that
Revolution
the
Cuban
of
revolution,
managed
plar
as
even
and
of
revolution"
has
waxed
status
"the
iconic
(Colburn, 1994)
vogue
of itself as a society committed
waned
and to expand the popular perception
and basic needs to all its citizens and to
to providing health care, education,
seems an anachronism,
If in some ways
the revolution
others elsewhere.
framed as some sort of recalcitrant last gasp of the cold war in the grip of unre
or Stalinists
there were
(setting aside that when
pentant Marxist-Leninists
found themselves at times dis
those who laid claim to such terms the Cubans
as "banana
these outdated
missed
socialists"7),
concepts tell us little about

to make
itself relevant in the world. Cuba matters
has managed
reasons.
today for at least three
Cuba provides a living and still vibrant example of people who rose up in the
the revolutionary
face of oppression at a time of global hostility and demanded

how

Cuba

right to change

thematerial

and

ideological

conditions

of their everyday

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lives.

LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

26

task?which
would
may have failed to live up to this gargantuan
momentous
efforts?
with
of
other
such
in
the
protagonists
league
place them
the very real successes on the ground and the
should not deny or denigrate
extent towhich, as a result, they offer theworld an alternative model. As noted
lives.
above, Cuban professionals work around theworld to improve people's
It also stands as a powerful and salutary reminder that evil can be opposed
in the face of daunting odds. The story of the Cuban Revolution
and defeated
and defeating a bru
revolution challenging
is one of a broad-based,
popular
States and powerful
dictator backed by both the United
tal and unsavory
crime syndicates who treated the country as littlemore than a play
organized
hardly ended with themilitary victory of the revolu
ground. And opposition
tionaries. A significant part of the Cuban
revolutionary
legacy is the ability, in
as international
and
foes large and small as well
the face of implacable

That Cuba

to its interests, to survive and, albeit within (serious)

regional systems inimical
States for 50
Cuba's
constraints, prosper.
ability to stand up to the United
still.
years captures (and fires) imaginations
it offers a heuristic for change?one
that is as
Finally, Cuba matters because

around the
resisters, and revolutionaries
cautionary as it is salutary. Radicals,
in the saga of Cuba and plentiful advice;
find inspiration and guidance
world
as
others to avoid mistakes
he made
Castro has not been shy about warning
as suggesting
that they adopt policies that have been successful. Perhaps
revolution
the message
the Cuban
his clearest and most consistent message,
seem
not
to
in
is
that
if
the needs
would
all, ways
many,
ary process
embody,

well

of the people must be met, that dignity and respect matter, and that change is
on one's own terms. Even for those who
possible and, indeed, necessary, but
for today's world, the strategies, boldness, verve, and
find the tactics outdated
can and must
?lan resonate and seem to cry out for emulation?we
struggle to

make

a better world

WHY

today.

ITWILL MATTER: WHERE WE WANT TO GO

AND HOW WE MIGHT GET THERE

made
of the past are no predictor of the future?claims
are
so
1949 in China,
and
after 1789 in France, 1917 in Russia,
on?they
that provide us with the language and
the events and processes
nonetheless
and imagine them. Just as surely as France shaped
the concepts to understand
our understanding(s)
of Russia and Russia of China, so too has Cuba
shaped
If the revolutions

how we

and imagine the revolutions of the future?what

understand
they
look like, how they will play out, whether they will matter. Even as recent
or
and deepened
and moved
the model
beyond
struggles have broadened
schema offered by Cuba's
revolutionary process, the Cuban Revolution will

will

remain

important.
the modern
In part, this is because Cuba has become
story of revolution,
one inwhich the narrative is one of renewal, of redemption, of hope, of possi
once dreamed,
bility/ies. Even if (far) less has been realized than many people
a
a revolution and made
the case that Cubans made
it is nonetheless
making
to others. If it is easy to dismiss this as romanticizing
revolution seem possible
remain proud of what they
revolution, it ignores the extent towhich Cubans

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Seibin /CONJUGATING THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

27

are
did, who
going and the real proof of the self
they
they are, and where
"realer" by the
of peoples, a hoary concept but a real one made
determination
that
has
around
the
world.
Cuban
spread
revolutionary experience
that
It is, frankly, increasingly hard to imagine a scenario in today's world
to
Yet as people
continue
to seek ways
Revolution.
looks like the Cuban
us
is
to
that
will
who
world?and
their
among
suggest
prepared
they
change
will,
inevitably, turn to the tool kits they carry in their heads
not??they
(Swidler, 1986: 273), and there they will find Cuba: Cuba as a place where a
was able to draw
small band of brave revolutionaries
together the forces of
a terrible dictator and stand up to his allies; Cuba as a
to
down
society
bring
a better world
for themselves and their
sought to build
place where people
a
small country that set out tomake a large impact on the
children; Cuba as
social goals for its own population with others
world and share its ambitious
to the
elsewhere; Cuba as a society that had at least as its goal a commitment
worth

and dignity of human

beings.

DOES ANY OF ITMATTER? A CONCLUSION

OF SORTS

we be carrying
Fifty years on, should
astute admonition
that "the
of Marx's
the Cuban
like a nightmare on the brains of the
tradition of all dead generations weighs
At a time when some scholars of revolution are seeking to
living" (1978: 595)?
revolutionaries
and radicals
broaden notions of revolution and the world's
and resisters and activists of various stripes are all too happy to dispense with
is the Cuban Revolution
the dead weight and forge new visions and methods,
reasons
not
the
limned
above.
still relevant? Yes, and
only for
cer
in which we find ourselves
The world
is, in some sense, postmodern;
Should

any of this matter so much?

forward? What
Revolution

one in which notions of core and periphery, of great powers and

tainly it is
small, of the very nature of the roughly 500-year-old state system, are seen to be
thatmatter most, it is a rather amazing amal
in play But inmany of theways
and the postmodern
the
the
of
modern,
gam
jumbled together
premodern,
In this new world disorder, people will, as they
somewhat higgledy-piggledy.

to struggle to change thematerial and ide

that we
lives, almost certainly in ways
ological conditions of their everyday
is part of the reason.
have not yet seen or imagined. Possibilities abound; Cuba
in a new era, in part by ending, or at least
ushered
The Cuban Revolution

have

for thousands

of years, continue

an old one. If the French Revolution

signaled the demise
beginning the end of,
of feudalism and its attendant relations in the very belly of that era's beast, it
was the Cuban Revolution
that brought that battle to the very belly of the con
under the watchful
and the Caribbean
temporary beast, Latin America
as
came
it
to be mediated
If
States.
the United
France, particularly
introduces revolution to themodern
Russian revolutionary experience,
it is the Cuban

Revolution

eyes of
by the

world,
into the contemporary world.
as a child, it seemed a
Revolution

that brings revolution

I first learned about the Cuban

band of freedom fighters battles its
scenario: a small, dedicated
Hollywood
a
I cher
hills
out
the
from
way
repressive authoritarian dictatorship.
against
ished the notion that these successful guerrilla fighters had gone on to create
a bold new society unlike any the world had seen, one in which everything
When

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LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

28
was

revolutionary
possible. As I grew older, I lost my innocence about Cuba's
process but never my fascination with it. I have grave problems with the ease
and people's
needs determined
with which
civil liberties were discarded
by
At the same time, I have unabashed
admiration
for the
the government.
the old order was torn down and the new
audacity and creativity with which
built and rebuilt; as I write this, Ra?l Castro has initiated the latest adjust
in Cuba
and the
ments
in this ongoing process. The decisions
being made
not?are
and will be part
being watched
paths opened up and followed?or
and part of the discussion
of the legacy of the Cuban Revolution
among revo
and politi
and policy makers
academics,
lutionaries, counterrevolutionaries,
cians as we wend our way farther into this century. Itmatters.

NOTES
1.While

is maddeningly

noteworthy
China U.S.
the import
years, itwas
2. The

or "factual"

sort of "authoritative"

any

riposte
of State Henry
Secretary
and impact of the French
too soon

succinct

"Better Must

elusive,
Kissinger
Revolution

of 1789, Zhao

the
especially
in a 1971 visit to
Enlai

Zhao

about

that, after less than 200

responded

was

is the Jamaican
adopted
by Michael

His
singer Delroy Wilson's.
social
democratic
Manley's

anthemic
and

nature
the revolutionary
of Manley's
National
party. On
People's
to Guatemala
of applying
"revolution"
the appropriateness
remains
contested
scholars.
and Jamaica 1972-1980
1970-1973,
among
tionary
(2005:

and

to tell.

summation

Come"

source
for the exchange
the putative
story is that when
Prime Minister
asked Chinese

arguably

Jamaica,

169);

1971

single
revolu

see Foran

1944-1954,

Chile

inMexico
3. This is not to ignore the myriad
discernible
from 1910
(tantalizing)
possibilities
to 1920 and, perhaps,
again from 1934 to 1940.
an
in The
4. Mrs.
ambassador,
John E. Peurifoy, wife of the U.S.
apt bit of doggerel
published
in the "People"
section of Time Magazine,
State that was
Columbia
reprinted
July 26, 1954?just
verse can be found
one year to the
in Cuba. Mrs.
first failed uprising
day after Castro's
Peurifoy's
website:
in Andrew
National
(1996: 210) or on-line at Arlington
Cemetery's
http://www.arling
toncemetery.net/jepeurifoy.htm.
5. Castro's
inapt description

in Sunshine
(1988: 168).
the early successes
of the new
and there is some grudging
that those gains, particularly
government,
recognition
revolutionary
in areas such as health and education,
have been
largely maintained.
on their commitment
meant
to cast aspersions
7. A phrase
and drive.
presumably
of the most

6. Even many

in Grenada
of the process
observers
of Cuba

churlish

is cited

concede

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