Interesting recommendation. I grew up in South Florida (north Cuba to some of my friends) and have always been fascinated with the island.

Many of my school chums were first generation Cuban Americans but I regret that I never asked enough questions from their parents. I recognized, however, that most of the early refugees from the revolution (which happened just before I was born) were from the class of people that probably liked the dictatorship. They were the propertied, protected class and were quite successful in America. I am sure that they felt justified in their Castro hatred; they lost a lot when they left their island home. However, there were plenty of people who were harmed by Batista and his minions as well.

I plan to get the book as soon as it is available – Amazon tells me that I can preorder it now.

I spent some time in Cuba early last year and pretty much everything you’ve mentioned rings true. It’s an amazing country and the more time you spend there the more you realise everything you thought you knew about Cuba, and especially about Castro, is completely wrong.

It’s terribly hard to find a good authoritative reference for Castro, but this sounds like it could be a winner, and will hopefully show a few people that in this age of braindead, trigger-happy & morally bankrupt political leaders, Castro is more of a role model than an enemy.