Synopses & Reviews
The Cuban Revolution of 1959, spearheaded by the young Fidel Castro along with his companion in arms, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, is mythic in both its dream and reality. Fidel offers a uniquely readable and illustrated account of the struggle for Castro to define and defend his nation in the face of fear and opposition from the United States, Cuba’s neighbor a scant ninety miles away. In addition to discussing the Bay of Pigs and the Cold War, the author examines Cuban influence in Latin American insurgencies, the student protests of 1968 Europe, the African-American uprisings of the United States, the liberation of Vietnam, the decolonization of Africa, the end of Apartheid, and the rise of Cuban-ally Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela. Along with entertaining comics and photographs, this short read traces the ambitions of Castro as he aims to endow the face of socialism with creative, intelligent, and humanitarian features, and shows a man indistinguishable from his revolution and his country.
Nestor Kohan, born in Buenos Aires in 1967, is the author of a number of Spanish-language books on Marxism, Che Guevara, and social movements in Latin America.
Nahuel Scherma is an Argentinian filmmaker and documentarian. Fidel is his first book of illustrations.
Synopsis
An illustrated guide through Fidel Castro's Cuba and his revolutionary dream.
Synopsis
In the United States, ninety miles from Cuban shores, tempers flare on the subject of Fidel Castro: some say he is a liberator, some say a dictator. In Fidel, Nestor Kohan and Nahuel Scherma present one of the towering figures of the twentieth-century as he is seen by Latin Americans: as the leader who, for over fifty years, has stood up to the greatest military power in the world, and remained standing.
Here, in Kohan's incisive prose and Scherma's passionate illustrations, is the man who, inspired by decades of Latin American Marxist thinking, fought from the mountains of the Sierra Maestra to free his country—the man who walked the razor's edge between military threats by the United States and political coercion by the Soviet Union—the man who became a leader in the revolution against colonial governments from Angola to Vietnam to Latin America—the man who fought, above all, to transform the conscience of his people, spreading literacy, culture, and free medical care to everyone on the island. Here is Fidel—the man who became the symbol of the revolution in the New World.
About the Author
Néstor Kohan (Buenos Aires, 1967) is a prominent Argentine journalist, instructor and researcher at la Universidad de Buenos Aires, and coordinator of Cátedra del Che Guevara. Well-versed in Marxist practice and theory, Kohan is author of several books on Marxism, Che Guevara, and social movements in Latin America.