Fidel y la Religion. Conversaciones con Frei Betto

CASTRO, Fidel; Frei BETTO  

Fidel y la Religion. Conversaciones con Frei Betto 

Havana: Oficina de Publicaciones del Consejo de Estado, 1985

8vo., paperback; card wraps with a photograph of Castro to the upper cover; pp. [viii], 9-379, [v]; a good to very good copy, covers rubbed with colour lost in places and some scratch marks causing abrasion to the upper cover; spine a little rolled and beginning to come away at spine, with 4cm split to foot, but holding; some light spots and water marks to the outer edge of text block; first few pages slightly out of line with the rest of the text block; even toning throughout; previous owner’s inscription to the title page referring to the P.C.C. (Partido Comunista de Cuba/the Communist Party of Cuba); a scarce survival. 

Paperback edition of a fascinating discussion between the Cuban revolutionary and Dominican friar Frei Betto on issues of religion. This copy inscribed by Fidel Castro “A Asela de los Santos / por su formidable obra revolucionaria” and signed beneath. The text is provided in the original Spanish.

Asela de los Santos Tamayo was born in Santiago de Cuba and studied at the University of Oriente. It was while she was a student that she became politically active, and took a stance against the U.S. aligned Fulgencio Batista dictatorship. In 1953, following the attack on the Moncada Barracks, she joined the Cuban Revolutionary Army and four years later, alongside fellow revolutionaries Celia Sánchez and Vilma Espín, she transported fighters to join Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. After the victory of the Cuban Revolution, she became the Director of Education for the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, and in 1965 she helped to found the Communist Party of Cuba, serving for three terms between 1975 and 1991. She was also appointed by Fidel’s brother Raúl to serve as deputy minister (and later Minister) of Education, and during this time she played a key role in the literacy programme which aimed to improve Cuban teaching methods. In 1960 she was one of the founding members of the Federation of Cuban Women who, shortly before the Bay of Pigs invasion, helped to mobilise women against counter-revolution. After Fidel Castro’s death in 1960, Raúl Castro appointed her as the Honorary Chair for the Study of the Thought and Work of Fidel Castro, which aimed to promote the legacy of the former Cuban leader. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that the inscription should highlight her ‘formidable revolutionary work’. 

Frei Betto was born in 1944, and became a student activist at the age of just 13. In 1964, and as a journalism student, he was imprisoned under the military dictatorship, and the following year entered the Dominican Order. As a journalist, he participated in the resistance to the Brazilian military regime and was arrested again in 1969, this time serving four years in prison. During the 1980s, Betto visited Havana and frequently visited Castro, during which time they discussed a number of subjects, but predominantly Christianity, a subject which is said to have greatly improved relations between Castro's government and the Cuban Catholic Church. Castro was fervent in his criticism of education within religious schools, and the conversations frequently refer to his support of Liberation Theology, subjects which proved rather controversial at the time. Written at the height of Castro’s political strength, this book also sheds light on his Catholic upbringing, the assassination attempts on his life, and his views on fellow revolutionary Che Guevara. 

A fascinating association copy, demonstrating the relationship between Fidel Castro and one of the earliest supporters of the revolutionary movement.