A Cubaholic’s delight

By Weekly Archive On Nov 18, 2009

BOOK REVIEW
Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana, and Washington

By Ann Louise Bardach
Scribner 2009
328 pages

From the title of this book, one would conclude that Fidel is already dead. But, in fact, despite resigning from all his offices, Fidel is still very much alive, even politically.

Why the title? Timing may not be everything but it counts. One gets the feeling that this book was timed for release upon Castro’s death but Fidel outlasted the patience of the writer and/or the publisher. The author herself has explained that she began writing when Fidel’s death seemed like a matter of weeks, not years.

But, once again, Fidel has belied predictions of his demise. So what began as an extended obituary became a three pronged narrative: Fidel’s brush with death and his “protracted finale;” his longtime enemies and their campaign to overthrow him; and the near seamless transition of power from Fidel to Raul Castro.

On Fidel’s illness, the author’s account rings true. Fidel suffered from an attack of diverticulitis requiring surgery. In his particular case, the standard treatment would involve two surgeries, the first one to remove the affected portion of the intestine and reconnect it using an external colostomy bag and a second one to remove the bag and reconnect the intestine. But Fidel insisted on a riskier procedure, a single operation and no colostomy bag. It didn’t work, and Fidel hovered between life and death. Many thought his death was imminent; others thought he was already dead. But he had more surgery, rallied and survived, albeit in a permanently weakened condition and a colostomy bag.

The irony is that had Fidel not been such a stubborn micromanager, even about his own medical treatment, he may have avoided the near-death experience and perhaps fully recovered to once again take over the reigns of power. Bardach speculates that Castro balked at the colostomy bag out of “pride, machismo, or hubris — or some combination of the three.”

This is a reporter’s book (not an analyst’s); Bardach has an amazing number of sources (mostly anonymous) on both sides of the Straits of Florida. The book is full of anecdotes that make for fascinating reading. Bardach has tremendous capacity to dig into personal lives, starting with those of Fidel and Raul. Like her earlier book, Cuba Confidential, this one is full of delicious chismes (gossip).

Full disclosure: I have been one of her sources, and the book contains a passage (240-241) about what happened to the North-South Center and to me personally.

Here is the text:

“But politicians in South Florida often operate from a different rule book, one closer to the standards and political ethics of Latin America. A prime example was the fate of the North-South Center. The public policy institute, led by Ambler H. Moss Jr., focused on Latin American and Caribbean affairs and was considered a jewel in the crown of the University of Miami. While the university has a long history of politicized academia — beginning with its hosting of the CIA’s anti-Castro’s station JM/Wave, the North-South Center was a small mecca for a politically diverse group of freethinkers.

“The center included several professors who concluded in published papers that the U.S. embargo of Cuba was shortsighted and ineffective. One of its faculty members was Max Castro, who also wrote spirited columns in the Miami Herald in which he lampooned U.S.-Cuba policy. This did not sit well with the Díaz-Balarts, who in 20-03 whirled into action. According to several UM faculty, the brothers saw no reason why federal funds should assist a center that was at odds with its policy goals on Cuba. Despite support for the center from Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat, the brothers decided simply to defund it. Asked why they would seek to dismantle an esteemed educational facility, Representative Mario Diaz-Balart was quoted as saying: ‘Three reasons: Max Castro. Max Castro. Max Castro.’

“The vendetta did not end there. The dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, along with the faculty selection committee, then recommended to another post in Latin American studies. Mysteriously, that teaching post was eliminated. Not long after the Miami Herald terminated Castro’s column. Further testament to the clout of the Diaz-Balart brothers was the naming of the building housing the law school at the University of Florida in honor of their father and grandfather Rafael Diaz-Balart, both ministers in the Batista government.”

If we can take that passage as a sample, one can say that Bardach gets the gist of the story dead on but not all of the details. For instance, it is not the law school building at the University of Florida that was named for Rafael Diaz-Balart but rather the new law school building at Florida International University. My Herald column was discontinued before the Latin American studies job went away at the last minute. And so on. It is perhaps inevitable that in a book so crammed with information, a number of minor errors creep in.

But Bardach has talked with nearly all the players, and provides many shrewd observations. Somehow, she has been able to pick up an amazing number of secrets and gossip about the Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits. A major part of the book is dedicated to following the checkered career of the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and his ilk, including Orlando Bosch. These sections are important in understanding the events of a certain historical moment and the mentalities of a certain generation. But today there is a new generation of young reactionaries who are already having more influence on U.S.-Cuba policy than the dinosaurs. The machinations of a Mario Rubio or a David Rivera are more significant than the outrages and nostalgia of the old warriors.

Bardach ably describes some of the contradictions and absurdities that afflict Cuba and the exile. She doesn’t have a theory or thesis about the Cuban revolution but does share a great number of insights. And, in the end, she is an optimist: “An array of factors augur well for some dramatic shifts,” she writes. She puts great stock in the economic factor as the force that will ultimately lead to a change in policy. I am skeptical about economic considerations as decisive: Cuba is a tiny speck in the global economy. And, up to now, political considerations have trumped economic ones on both sides.

I can honestly say that Without Fidel is indispensable and enjoyable reading, including (or especially) for Cubaphiles as Bardach calls us (or Cubaholics as I do.) This Cubaholic consumed it in less than 24 hours.