Mea Cuba

by Cabrera Infante, Guillermo; Hall, Kenneth

• ISBN13: 9780374524463
• ISBN10: 0374524467
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-10-01
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux

Summary

Mea Cuba is the passionate but often hilarious political autobiography of one of the greatest Cuban writers of the century. Sharply opinionated and brutally honest, it explores the nature of the Cuban revolution and the lives of those it has involved or affected, from political leaders such as Fulgencio Batista, Che Guevara, and Fidel Castro to writers like Alejo Carpentier, Reinaldo Arenas, and Heberto Padilla. Mea Cuba overflows with Cabrera Infante's brilliant wit and ingenious wordplay. But it is also a deeply moving analysis of the tragedies - and political farces - of our time. Profound, incisive, enlightening, and entertaining, Mea Cuba is at once a revealing memoir and a fascinating exploration of life, politics, and literature in Cuba today.

Table of Contents

Notice
Genesis/Exodus	p. 1
Shipwreck with a Sunrise in the Background	p. 3
By the Way	p. 6
Answers and Questions	p. 11
Expulsion	p. 20
Polemic with a Dead Man	p. 21
Letter to Tomas Eloy Martinez of Primera Plana	p. 32
The Twisted Tongue of the Poet	p. 36
Throwing a Cable	p. 43
Letter to a Chain Gang	p. 46
The Turk's Head	p. 51
P.M. Means Post Mortem	p. 52
Bites from the Bearded Crocodile	p. 55
Lorca the Rainmaker Visits Havana	p. 87
Walker Evans: Eye Witness	p. 97
Havana Lost and Found	p. 100
The Martyrdom of Marti	p. 109
Who Killed Calvert Casey?	p. 114
Between History and Nothingness	p. 138
Asterism	p. 175
Lives of a Hero	p. 177
The Unknown Political Prisoner	p. 196
Prisoners of Devil's Island	p. 201
An Old Engraving	p. 209
Notable Men in Havana	p. 210
Portrait of the Artist as a Commissar	p. 216
Quiet Days in Cliche	p. 223
Guerrillas in Captivity Alas!	p. 228
J'Accuse at the Woodrow Wilson Center	p. 231
Cubans Ahoy!	p. 239
Cain's Cuba	p. 242
Hey Cuba, Hecuba?	p. 247
And of My Cuba, What?	p. 260
Has Socialism Died?	p. 269
What is History, pues?	p. 272
Portrait of an Ageing Tyro	p. 281
The Tyrant and the Poet	p. 291
Castro's Convertible	p. 309
Two Wrote Together	p. 331
Two Died Together	p. 361
Montenegro, Prisoner of Sex	p. 365
The Ninth Moon of Lino Novas	p. 371
A Poet of a Popular Parnassus	p. 376
Alejo Carpentier, a Shotgun Cuban	p. 383
Antonio Ortega Returns to Asturias - Dead	p. 400
Goodbye to the Friend with the Camera	p. 407
Reinaldo Arenas, or Destruction by Sex	p. 412
Capa Son of Caissa	p. 419
Actors and Sinners	p. 434
An Encounter with the Intelligence of Franco	p. 447
Spanish is Not a Dead Language	p. 451
Columbus Route One	p. 455
Scenes of a World without Columbus	p. 460
Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain	p. 466
Letter to Marta Pessarrodona	p. 472
To Be or Not to Be Brief	p. 473
A Vindication of Exile	p. 479
Hearing (Distant) Voices	p. 480
The Invisible Exile	p. 483
The Bird of Paradise Lost	p. 489
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.