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Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag

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Against All Hope is Armando Valladares' account of over twenty years in Fidel Castro's tropical gulag. Arrested in 1960 for being philosophically and religiously opposed to communism, Valladares was not released until 1982, by which time he had become one of the world's most celebrated "prisoners of conscience." Interned all those years at the infamous Isla de Pinos prison (from whose windows he watched the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion), Valladares suffered endless days of violence, putrid food and squalid living conditions, while listening to Castro's firing squads eliminating "counter revolutionaries" in the courtyard below his cell. Valladares survived by prayer and by writing poetry whose publication in Europe brought his case to the attention of international figures such as French President Francois Mitterand and to human rights organizations whose constant pressure on the Castro regime finally led to his release.

ISBN-13: 9781893554191

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Encounter Books

Publication Date: 04-01-2001

Pages: 423

Product Dimensions: 6.40(w) x 8.96(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Prologue xi
1 Detention 1
2 La Cabaña 10
3 Life and the Terrors of Death at La Cabaña 15
4 The Trial 22
5 The Year of the Firing Squad 30
6 Isla de Pinos 35
7 A Model Prison 44
8 Animal Protein 54
9 Searches and Mass Relocations 66
10 On Top of a Powder Keg 71
11 Operation Reprisal 82
12 Preparations for an Escape 89
13 The Visit, Its Aftermath, and Continuing Plans 96
14 "Squares": The Political Rehabilitation Program 101
15 Martha in the Rain 107
16 A Harrowing Obstacle Course 114
17 The Escape: Destroying a Myth 121
18 The Pursuit 130
19 PunishmentPavilion 141
20 The Ho Chi Minh Pole 149
21 Diehards 157
22 A Brief Respite, and Then aReturn 160
23 Our First Victory 165
24 General Strike 168
25 La Pacifica: Our First Great Setback 175
26 A Debate: The Importance of Living, the Crisis of
Giving In 181
27 The Dark Waning of the Year 185
28 Some Men Freed, and Some Who Were Tried and Sentenced 192
29 Forced Labor 201
30 The Quarry 210
31 The Brother of the Faith 219
32 Sewage 228
33 A Different Kind of Commissioner 235
34 Concentration Camps and Murders 245
35 "Dirty Tricks" on Both Sides 253
36 Back to La Cabaña: The Same Old Routine 260
37 The Struggle Against the Blue Uniform 271
38 Naked 285
39 At Last, Some (Apparent) Progress 294
40 Martha Arrested: Our Wedding 305
41 An Envoy from the Vatican 312
42 A Nazi Prison in the Caribbean 318
43 Biological Experiments and Their First Victims 327
44 Boitel's Death and Black September 339
45 An Imposed Strike 346
46 In a Wheelchair 356
47 "They Know What They're Doing, All Right" 362
48 Combinado del Este 369
49 Transfer to Orthopedics 379
50 Hospital Inhumanity 394
51 Robertico 399
52 Ultimate Isolation 403
53 Freedom 416
Epilogue 424
Acknowledgements 425