These two volumes by Duarte Oropesa are the last published works of a trilogy encompassing all of Cuba’s history from the time it became an island (!) until the rebel army seized power in 1959. The author has already announced a fourth book covering the years 1959 to 1967.
The two pieces under review although falling under the rubric of historia comprometida written by a Cuban exile are entirely of a different nature and caliber from the work of other exiles. Mario Lazo, for example, a few years back wrote a defense of the neocolonial status Cuba had under American hegemony; Fulgencio Batista, on the other hand, produced self-congratulatory propaganda pieces; Manuel Urrutia attempted to describe events as he saw them in the 1950s but without really understanding them. All of those authors, in one manner or another, did not believe a radical revolution was necessary. Duarte Oropesa, in this respect, is an exception to the rule. The man has interesting credentials. After the 1933 revolution he joined Antonio Guiteras’ Joven Cuba, which proclaimed in its program the necessity of state socialism and attempted to gain power by means of political terrorism. It was in that milieu that many young urban Cubans became gatillos alegres. From Joven Cuba, Duarte moved on into World War II. He, like other revolutionists, joined the Allies to fight fascism and gain military experience—always useful in the island. By the mid 1940s, he had entered the auténtico movement and in 1948, following Eduardo Chibás, helped create the Partido Ortodoxo. His political experience led him to gunrunning between the United States and Cuba to strengthen the guerrilla movement in the 1950s. Duarte, in fact, was a founder of what later turned out to be the 26th of July Movement.
Because of such background this ambitious political narrative is interlaced with Duarte’s own biography. The work is unabashedly polemical, and at times fervently antiimperialist. Writing from the perspective of an ortodoxo the author is highly critical of all governments before 1959. In one respect Duarte follows the usual liberal stance: a revolution was necessary, but not the one that came about. Indeed, like many Cuban social democrats the work contends that Fidel Castro betrayed the program presented during the insurrection. It would be an error, however, to classify these two volumes as the average run-of-the-mill propaganda outburst. The student of Cuban history will find a wealth of information here; Duarte has attempted to narrate the political role of political parties, the labor movement, the military, and students during the republic. He has covered events at the national and provincial levels, gives numerous census figures for all available years, presents detailed accounts of coalitions, splits, cliques and purges, and even tells the reader what songs were listened to or what movies habaneros watched. For those who are attracted by the underside of history, Duarte offers us even the nicknames of several political actors. (There are numerous usages of slang throughout these pages but the uninitiated is given a glossary at the end.)
There are, of course, several problems with these volumes. First, they are not written by a detached social scientist. There is neither an attempt at objectivity or balance. Duarte has written a very long, and provocative, denuncia. Second, there are no footnotes, nor references to where the information was obtained, although those who have read the section “En Cuba” of Bohemia will immediately recognize that Duarte has relied very heavily on it. Third, there is no systematized and cohesive use of all the material presented. Duarte provides the reader with numerous frozen snapshots of history, but they lack internal dynamic or interrelatedness.
Duarte Oropesa believes that history is shaped by generations which he calls “minorías históricas.” This elitist-voluntarist approach is not at all original, but offers us a useful index of the mentality that many revolutionists had in the 1950s. Overall, this work is recommended for the specialist if read carefully. The work would be much more useful if it had an index.
