Cuba: The Forgotten Revolution

I caught the last part of this documentary on one of the Bay Area PBS stations--KCSM--and couldn't believe my eyes. Unlike nearly everything one sees about Cuba, this film opens the door to a clear view of something that has been, for the most part, distorted and simplistically portrayed. The depiction we have of the revolution comes mainly from the winners--the Castro party--and also from people who identify as the losers--who cannot get out from under that feeling. By contrast, this wonderful narrative wipes the slate clean. Along the way, and just in passing, it nicely rebuts the perspectives of the Obama administration, which has crawled snugly into bed with the Castro version of things. But that's politics, and the important interest here is history. The Dutch philosopher Huizinga said that nothing can substitute for the pure taste of history. This film takes us back to the source and delivers the pure taste. It's sincere, it's stylish, it's unfettered, and it's true.

While Fidel Castro was hardly a saint, and he distorted the values of a socialist revolution during his reign of terror in Cuba, the intent of this film is to vilify the young revolutionary. Castro was heroic in his leadership that led to the overthrow of the violent dictatorship of Batista. That he turned his conquest into his own personal autocracy, cannot be denied. However, portraying the young Fidel as a selfish, narcissistic, egomaniac, only interested in furthering his own personal agenda, is a distortion of history. I wonder whose money paid for this documentary, and how much of this money came from the Miami Cuban population angry over the lifting of the embargo.