The new book is an interview with Bolivian communist Rodolfo Saldaña, who joined with Ernesto Che Guevara--one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution--in the revolutionary front that Guevara commanded in Bolivia in 1966-67.

Fertile Ground, which came off the presses in New York just in time for the Havana book fair, was one of the titles that sparked the most interest among the thousands who visited Pathfinder's booth during the nine-day book festival. Many were drawn to the stand by a blow-up of the book's striking cover. The 96-page volume includes a foreword by Harry Villegas; an introduction by the book's editor, Mary-Alice Waters; a biography of Saldaña; a chronology; index; list of further readings; and 11 pages of photos.

Villegas, now a brigadier general in Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces who is also known by his nom de guerre, Pombo, was a member of the general staff of the guerrilla front led by Guevara in Bolivia. Its goal was to forge a revolutionary movement of workers, peasants, and youth to overthrow the U.S.-backed military dictatorship in that country and open the way to socialist revolution in South America.

Fifty people crowded into the "Fernando Ortiz" hall at the historic San Carlos de la Cabaña fortress, where the fair is being held, to attend the book launching. Waters, Juan Carretero, and Villegas were the featured speakers. Also present on the speakers platform were Gladys Brizuela, Saldaña's long-time companion; Eneida Markov, from the office of Interior Minister Abelardo Colomé Ibarra; and Andrés Pineda, of the Americas Department of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

The event was chaired by Iraida Aguirrechu of Editora Política, who edited the Spanish edition of the book brought out by the Havana-based publisher. Aguirrechu described how the interview with Saldaña came about in 1997, the 30th anniversary of Guevara's death. At that time, while living and working in Havana, Saldaña provided considerable help in the preparation of Pombo: A Man of Che's 'guerrilla', Villegas's firsthand account of the Bolivian campaign, which Pathfinder publishes in English and Editora Política in Spanish. In the course of this collaboration, Saldaña, who had previously given virtually no interviews, agreed to talk about these events with Pathfinder editors Michael Taber and Mary-Alice Waters.

In Fertile Ground, Saldaña, who as a youth joined the Communist Party of Bolivia in 1950, recounts how he worked in the Siglo XX tin mines in order to win miners and other workers to a revolutionary course. He describes the sharp class battles that unfolded in Bolivia in the 1950s and '60s, which, as he put it, created "fertile ground" for building a revolutionary movement in Bolivia and more broadly in South America.

In her talk (see page 8), Waters explained how Saldaña, in the pages of this book, gives the lie to the charge that Guevara's guerrilla was a political adventure alien to the class struggle unfolding in that country and region, and how developments in the Southern Cone of Latin America following Che's murder confirmed the correctness of his revolutionary initiative. Most importantly, Waters noted, Fertile Ground is not primarily about the past but about the present and future--the sharpening capitalist offensive in the world today and the growing opportunities to build a revolutionary movement.  
 
Guerrilla front in northern Argentina
Waters was followed by Juan Carretero, president of the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (OSPAAAL). Carretero was centrally involved in the Cuban leadership's collaboration with Guevara's guerrilla front in Bolivia and in Cuba's support to a number of other guerrilla initiatives. The meeting to launch Fertile Ground was, in fact, the first time Carretero was publicly identified as the Cuban revolutionary known by the nom de guerre Ariel.

Carretero spoke of Saldaña's involvement in supporting the growing revolutionary struggles throughout Latin America in the early 1960s, especially his participation in logistical preparations and support work for the 1963 Peruvian guerrilla movement and for the 1963-64 guerrilla front headed by Jorge Ricardo Masetti in northern Argentina, both of which were defeated.

"In both Argentina and Peru," he said, Saldaña "did not hesitate to put himself under orders of the very small group of Cuban compañeros who had gone to Bolivia in 1963 to organize and help prepare these insurrectionary movements."

The purpose of Masetti's guerrilla nucleus, Carretero noted, was to help pave the way "for the possibility of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara going to fight on his native Argentine soil, which had been his dream and historic commitment even before the beginning of the struggle in Cuba." He recalled that Fidel Castro had pledged to Guevara from the beginning that, after the victory of the Cuban revolution, Che would be free to join the struggle to free Argentina from imperialist domination and that the Cuban leadership would aid him as much as its means allowed.

Carretero pointed to the role of Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, today an army corps general and Cuba's interior minister, as head of "the small group of compañeros who were there" to collaborate with the guerrilla groups in Argentina and Peru.

In this work, the Cuban revolutionary noted, Rodolfo Saldaña "was one of those who stood out the most," always coming up with "creative ideas to help carry out underground activities, no matter how complex or difficult they might seem."

A few years later, he added, Saldaña helped "create the necessary conditions for the arrival of Che and his fellow combatants in La Paz, Bolivia," to launch the Bolivian campaign.

Saldaña "was more than a Bolivian revolutionary," Carretero concluded. "He was a revolutionary of Latin America and the world, because he understood that the only way to put an end to the evils afflicting our America is to fight imperialism, fighting it on all fronts and at all times."  
 
Faithful to his revolutionary convictions
Villegas described Saldaña as someone who "decided to subordinate his personal, individual interests, including his aspirations of becoming an engineer, to devoting himself to the life of a revolutionary, to political activity." From the time he was a young revolutionist, "he was in the front ranks of the struggle--on the barricades, in protest marches, marching alongside miners. He was a man who would not say 'Go!' but rather 'Let's go!'"

Villegas contrasted Saldaña's communist trajectory with the conduct of Mario Monje, who as general secretary of the Communist Party of Bolivia reneged on his initial commitment of support to the guerrilla front led by Guevara. In face of this treacherous course by the party's leadership, Saldaña, who joined ranks with Guevara, decided to leave the Communist Party. While not an easy decision for Saldaña after years of activity in the CP, he decided "he had to leave that party and maintain a consistently more honest, more revolutionary course to be faithful to principles," Villegas said.

Guevara assigned Saldaña "to head the organization of the urban apparatus" of the revolutionary front, Villegas explained. "For this, someone was needed who knew the people, who knew the workers, who had ties to them. And that man was Saldaña. So he was given this task." Saldaña carried out this assignment in exemplary fashion, Villegas said, despite his desire to join the guerrilla column.

Villegas pointed out that between 1969 and Saldaña's death last June, he lived and worked most of those years in Cuba. "He was a Cuban. He lived with us, shared our joys and sadness alike. He was outstanding in the daily work of our revolutionary people" such as regular defense activities. While hoping to return to his country some day, "he carried out his duty in this other trench, which is our country."

Villegas concluded, "We have in Saldaña a comrade, a revolutionary who fought to achieve, as Che said, the highest level attained by the human species, a communist."

When the meeting ended, many in the audience rushed over to the sales table to purchase copies of Fertile Ground, which was available in Cuban pesos. Twenty-seven copies were sold on the spot.
 
 
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