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

Rating:
Summary: First Hand
Review: Alina Fernandez has quite a story to tell. Not only does she provide an insider's view of life in the prison nation of Cuba, she offers a first hand account of growing up illegitimate with a biological father who had little time or interest in his inconvenient offspring.

The Cuban existence she portrays is bleak and empty. Under Castro's domination, a zeitgeist of amorality has entrapped Cuba and its innocent citizens in a web where dreams don't come true. Divorce and abortion are rampant and illicit sex begins at a very young age. Alina shows how Castro's officially imposed atheism enslaved the populace and stands as a constant de facto assault on the family structure. Parental rights are nonexistent, because children are only allowed to see their mothers and fathers once a month. To illustrate the country's miasma, she tells of having to wait five years to acquire a used toilet.

While she thoroughly documents Fidel's many faults from his murderous rampages to his unsatable sex drive, this autobiography never stoops to the level of a "Daddy Dearest" style hatchet job. Alina is equally up front about her own deficiencies that include a string of failed marriages-although that has tragically become the norm in much of Cuban society. The end shows her transformation with not only her escape to freedom but the conversion to Christianity of her teenage daughter. The original version ended with an open letter to the despot asking him to legalize Christmas again-a rare concession that has actually been granted.

While she is now a resident of Spain, Alina spent considerable time in the United States this year unsuccessfully fighting to have a common sense approach applied toward the case of poor Elian Gonzalez whose mother valiantly lost her life getting him to freedom only to have her sacrifice obliterated by the gestapo tactics of Bill Clinton and Janet Reno. This book provides an extensive look into life of entropy the lawless raid returned him to. If more Americans could comprehend Alina's story, Elian would not have been evicted and Clinton and Reno would be subjected to appropriate criminal penalties.

Rating:
Summary: What Really Goes On in Castro¿s World
Review: Alina Fernandez has quite a story to tell. Not only does she provide an insider's view of life in the prison nation of Cuba, she offers a first hand account of growing up illegitimate with a biological father who had little time or interest in his inconvenient offspring.

The Cuban existence she portrays is bleak and empty. Under Castro's domination, a zeitgeist of amorality has entrapped Cuba and its innocent citizens in a web where dreams don't come true. Divorce and abortion are rampant and illicit sex begins at a very young age. Alina shows how Castro's officially imposed atheism enslaved the populace and stands as a constant de facto assault on the family structure. Parental rights are nonexistent, because children are only allowed to see their mothers and fathers once a month. To illustrate the country's miasma, she tells of having to wait five years to acquire a used toilet.

While she thoroughly documents Fidel's many faults from his murderous rampages to his unsatable sex drive, this autobiography never stoops to the level of a "Daddy Dearest" style hatchet job. Alina is equally up front about her own deficiencies that include a string of failed marriages-although that has tragically become the norm in much of Cuban society. The end shows her transformation with not only her escape to freedom but the conversion to Christianity of her teenage daughter. The original version ended with an open letter to the despot asking him to legalize Christmas again-a rare concession that has actually been granted.

While she is now a resident of Spain, Alina spent considerable time in the United States this year unsuccessfully fighting to have a common sense approach applied toward the case of poor Elian Gonzalez whose mother valiantly lost her life getting him to freedom only to have her sacrifice obliterated by the gestapo tactics of Bill Clinton and Janet Reno. This book provides an extensive look into life of entropy the lawless raid returned him to. If more Americans could comprehend Alina's story, Elian would not have been evicted and Clinton and Reno would be subjected to appropriate criminal penalties.

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: Look for commies to discredit this book
Review: Cube--I think what you mean is this book bashes Castro's Cuba left--not left and right.

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: 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: Extremely interesting book
Review: This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know the reality about life in Castro's Cuba.