Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba

Rating:
Summary: best look inside castro's cuba to date
Review: alina fernandez must have nerves made of pig iron to have survived the life she did in cuba as a young girl. her book paints a picture of a world so alien and biased that i feel i have finally read what modern day cuba is all about.

Rating:
Summary: Vanity and Poor Writing Detract from the Intrigue
Review: In this review, I will refrain from disgustingly regurgitating my experiences with and opinions of Cuba, Castro, and politics in general, and will provide a simple synopsis of the book. If you decide to purchase it, it will certainly evoke your own opinion of the aforementioned.

Alina Fernandez is a very poor writer who presumably has received enough fame to allow her book to be published by her nearly undeniable personal connection to Castro, the longest-reigning leader in modern Latin America. She spends the vast majority of the book explicating on her own personal battle with a variety of psychoses and mental illnesses.

The book's content is redeemed primarily by its usefulness in exposing the little talked about lifestyles of post-Revolutionary Cuba's "Rich and Famous." Fernandez sees herself as a debutante unfortunately stuck in the eternal ghetto of Havana and has little sympathy for her less fortunate countrymen. She spends pages disdaining poor country girls who come to Havana to study and reside in expropriated mansions in her neighborhood. She ridicules how, not knowing how to use a washing machine or a toilet, these "bumpkins" throw them out windows to decay on the front lawns of her once-stylish neighborhood.

This book is thoroughly wrought with poor writing and certain vanity, but its veritable glimpse into the disturbing life of Castro's daughter is admittedly appealing.

Rating:
Summary: Look for commies to discredit this book
Review: This is a great book, written by Fidel Castro's own daughter. Would you question her authenticity? I think not. Knowing the extent that the Cuban government's propaganda campaign will go to in order to discredit her, would you think that another reader named Cube could be spouting out the same rhetoric?

Cube, you are a bigger clown than Castro. You regurgitate the same excuses used on the island. Everyone knows that the United States is only 35% of the world's economy and Cuba trades with the rest of the world - do the math yourself. Everyone knows that the reason Cubans are starving is because all funds are diverted to exporting communism: in Colombia (FARC), in Venezuela (Hugo Chavez), in Brazil (Lula) in Nicaragua (Sandinistas), in El Salvador (FMLN), in Africa, in Vietnam, in Grenada, and in the United States (wasn't Lee Harvey Oswald distributing Pro-Castro leaflets just before Kennedy was assassinated?). The planes shot down in 1996 were flying in international waters looking for Cubans, like yourself, who chose to leave the island on a raft rather than live under this regime. You yourself live in Brazil - did you leave for a better life, or are you working for the Cuban government like your father? The percentages you quote ("95% of the population was starving, living in the streets, illiterate, poorly educated, had no job opportunity, etc. the other 5% lived in mansions, ate the finest food, bathed everyday, slept on a matress, etc") closely resemble what is presently happening in Cuba. Under Batista, the 5% represented wealthy land owners; under Castro, that 5% represents government officials.

Universal health care in Cuba translates to a lack of medical supplies - try and find gauze for your wounds or stitches for your surgery. Education is simply indoctrination. There exists no access to outside news agencies (the only news in Cuba is the official government news agency). Try and find a book written by George Orwell (himself an admitted socialist) or better yet, find a book by Ayn Rand. What a wonderful education system that jails individuals for up to 30 years simply for possessing books like these. In Oliver Stone's movie, Castro proudly states that "in Cuba, even our prostitutes have College Degrees." Ever wonder why someone with a college degree would have to turn to prostitution?

The true prostitutes in Cuba are those who relinquish their souls to this hateful ideology called 'communism.' It has failed everywhere, and Alina Fernandez provides an incredible insight into the results of this antiquated political system. The book is titled, "Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba," not "An Exile's Memoir of a Poor Father."