Vol. 78/No. 37      October 20, 2014

Below is a review by the Iran Book News Agency of Our History is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolution by Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui, Moisés Sío Wong, and Mary-Alice Waters. The book was published in Iran by Talaye Porsoo, which translated the Pathfinder Press book of the same title into Farsi from English. The semiofficial news agency published the review July 2 under the headline, “The Story of Three Young Cubans in ‘Our History is Still Being Written.’” Translation of the review is by the Militant.

Our History is Still Being Written is the title of the story of three Chinese-Cuban youth who participated in various revolutionary actions and in the process of these struggles, helped prepare the path toward socialist revolution in the Americas.

In this book we read the story of the three young Chinese-Cubans who joined the Cuban Revolution from three different social backgrounds. For 50 years after the triumph of the 1959 Cuban Revolution they have participated in revolutionary operations from Cuba to Angola in Africa and from Nicaragua to Venezuela. In this process all three became generals of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. In this book they discuss the historical immigration of Chinese to Cuba and the social and political forces that formed the Cuban nation.

According to the publisher: “Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui and Moisés Sío Wong, all served in international missions, including voluntary military missions in Angola from 1975 until 1988. In those 13 years, Cuba responded positively to Angola’s request for help. At that time Angola was just gaining its independence from Portugal. The goal of Cuban volunteers in Angola was to defeat the armed forces of the apartheid regime of South Africa. The apartheid regime, which had the support of imperialism, had attacked Angola to prevent it from gaining its independence. Finally in March 1988, in the famous battle of Cuito Cuanavale, the armed forces of South Africa suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Cuban and African forces.”

The book consists of three sections: “The Difference is a Socialist Revolution: Chinese in Cuba”; “Strengthening the Revolution”; and “The Special Period and Beyond.” In addition, the book has an appendix titled, “Cuito Cuanavale: A Victory for the Whole of Africa.”

In the introduction to the book, by Mary Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press and editor of the Marxist magazine New International, we read:

Our History Is Still Being Written adds one more chapter to the chronicle of the Cuban Revolution as told by those who were — and more than fifty years later remain — on the front lines of that epic battle.

Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui and Moisés Sío Wong, three young rebels of Chinese-Cuban ancestry, became combatants in the clandestine struggle and 1956-1958 revolutionary war that brought down the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and opened the door to the socialist revolution in the Americas. … Through their stories the economic, social, and political forces that gave birth to the Cuban nation and still shape our epoch unfold.

The introduction continues:

The lucrative trafficking in tens upon tens of thousands of Chinese peasants — their impressment, their death-ship transport to Cuba, their indentured labor on sugar plantations supplementing the dwindling supply of African slaves, and above all their resistance, struggles, and unblemished record of combat in Cuba’s 1868-98 independence wars against Spain — all that is sketched here in broad outlines. It is a story largely unknown outside Cuba.

Our History is Still Being Written, which was published concurrently in English and Spanish, was put together and written over a four-year period. This book is the result of several interviews, some collective and some individual, that took place in February of 2002 and 2004, and was completed in February and August of 2005.

An appendix to the book reprints a summary of a December 1988 speech by Fidel Castro, then president of Cuba, and speeches by Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro in Matanzas, Cuba, in July 1991. The importance of the Cuban-Angolan forces’ victory over the apartheid army of South Africa in March 1988 in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale has been explained here in quite an interesting way.

In the speech by Nelson Mandela in the appendix, we read:

The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom, and justice, unparalleled for its principled and selfless character. From its earliest days the Cuban Revolution has itself been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people.

We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious imperialist-orchestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gains made in the Cuban Revolution. … We admire the achievements of the Cuban Revolution in the sphere of social welfare.

This first edition of Our History is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolution by Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui and Moisés Sío Wong, was translated by Naser Yekta. It has 289 pages and was printed with a run of 1,000 copies. It is priced at 13,000 tomans [$4.30] and is published by Talaye Porsoo Publications  
 
 
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