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To Have Been There Then Memoir of Childhood and Youth Cuba: 1969 - 1983

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To Have Been There Then Memoir of Childhood and Youth Cuba: 1969 - 1983 to have been there then Memoir of Childhood and Youth Cuba: 1969 - 1983 GREGORY RANDALL translation by margaret randall THBTT_galley1.indd 1 10/30/16 7:34 PM the operating system print//document TO HAVE BEEN THERE THEN Memoir of Childhood and Youth Cuba: 1969 - 1983 ISBN 978-1-946031-00-6 Library of Congress Control Number ######## copyright © 2016 by Gregory Randall with translation by Margaret Randall photographs courtesy of author and translator originally published in Spanish © 2010, Ediciones Trilce, Durazno 1888, 11200 Montevideo, Uruguay, [email protected]. ISBN 978-9974-32-533-3 is released under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non Commercial, No Derivatives) License: its reproduction is encouraged for those who otherwise could not afford its purchase in the case of academic, personal, and other creative usage from which no profit will accrue. Complete rules and restrictions are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ For additional questions regarding reproduction, quotation, or to request a pdf for review contact [email protected] Cover design, book design and layout by Lynne DeSilva-Johnson This text was set in Molot, Minion Pro, Franchise, and OCR-A Standard, printed and bound by Spencer Printing and Graphics in Honesdale, PA, in the USA, and distributed to the trade by Small Press Distribution / SPD. THE OPERATING SYSTEM//PRESS 141 Spencer Street #203 Brooklyn, NY 11205 www.theoperatingsystem.org THBTT_galley1.indd 2 10/30/16 7:34 PM to have been there then Memoir of Childhood and Youth Cuba: 1969 - 1983 THBTT_galley1.indd 3 10/30/16 7:34 PM THBTT_galley1.indd 4 10/30/16 7:34 PM “Gregory Randall grew up in revolutionary Cuba. He left in 1983, and later he and his wife Laura relocated to Uruguay and Gregory established himself within the academic world there. Revolutionary Cuba’s literacy campaign in 1960-61, which sent young people into the moun- tains during a period that included the Bay of Pigs invasion, is generally recognized. Cuba’s far flung medical assistance in situations like the recent Haitian earthquake is also well-known. This book explores the more comprehensive Cuban effort to create what the Zapatistas call un otro mundo, another world. I know of no other book that so richly provides an empathetic view of the twentieth-century socialist project from both within and without.” Staughton Lynd “To Have Been There Then is an extraordinary book. Gregory Randall recreates scenes from a revolutionary childhood and youth in Mexico and Cuba during the 1960s and 70s with bril- liant vividness that brings an adult’s wisdom to the child’s perspective. He evokes the spirit of revolutionary consciousness of the era, when Cuba’s radical experimentation and commitment to building a new world intersected with revolutionary dreams and movements throughout Latin America. Randall’s childhood was peopled with artists, intellectuals, and revolutionaries from throughout the continent who shared a deep belief in the possibility for radical social change. Cuba’s revolutionary history is told here with verve and drama, through personal detail of a child and young man coming of age in truly historic circumstances.” Aviva Chomsky, author of The Cuban Revolution, co-editor of The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics. “Here is the perfect book for this time of change in US-Cuban relations, and when a new gener- ation in the United States has embraced the idea and goals of socialism and human solidarity. Gregory Randall’s exquisite coming of age story, set in Cuba during the second decade of the Cuban Revolution, is unflinchingly truthful and compassionate.” Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, historian and author most recently of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States “Gregory Randall has done it: written a captivating, ethically humane, and inspirational mem- oir of growing up in revolutionary Cuba as a child of exiled political activists. He is able to tell forthright yet loving stories of his engaged life with multiple fathers, escaping the 1968 military crackdown in Mexico as a seven year-old in charge of his younger siblings, forging friendships in Cuban boarding schools, and living his adolescence as an intellectual and political coming- of-age banquet among artists and revolutionaries from across the continent. He sees dogma and cant yet remains deeply committed to the vision of a liberated space and new women and men. Read this powerful book and be stirred anew to live fully in harmony with your values.” Bernardine Dohrn THBTT_galley1.indd 5 10/30/16 7:34 PM THBTT_galley1.indd 6 10/30/16 7:34 PM This book is for the love of my life, Laura, a gift from my years in Cuba. For my mother, to whom I owe so much. For my children Lía Margarita, Martín and Daniel, and my grandson Guillermo who will shoulder their own time. THBTT_galley1.indd 7 10/30/16 7:34 PM THBTT_galley1.indd 8 10/30/16 7:34 PM Introduction Before We Begin Leaving MExico and Arriving in Cuba Boarding School El quinquenio gris Our Block The Lenin School Assemblies Travels and Parents Pedagogical Detachment The Latin Americans Vedado High School My Room The Brigade The CUJAE Power Plan ’78 Going Back in 2003 Glossary THBTT_galley1.indd 9 10/30/16 7:34 PM \\\ 10 THBTT_galley1.indd 10 10/30/16 7:34 PM Introduction Be there when it happens; write it down! Joel Oppenheimer I was lucky enough to live in Cuba from 1969 to 1983. I arrived at the age of eight and departed when I was twenty-three. I began fourth grade there and by the time I left had finished my undergraduate degree in engineering. In Cuba I witnessed and took part in one of the most interesting experiments of the twentieth century, perhaps in the entire history of humankind. It’s not often that a society actually tries to build a better world, truly pri- oritizing the interests of the majority. Even less often does such an experience last so many years. As time has passed I have learned how exceptional this process was. Cuba marked me profoundly. I am a proud son of the Cuban Revolution. I left the country in 1983. At the time I never thought I’d be away so long, but it wasn’t until 2003 that I was able to return. Between those two years the world had changed a great deal. The Socialist bloc became mired in a terminal crisis and disappeared as such. The Latin American dictatorships had given way to democratic administrations, but the revolution we’d dreamed hadn’t been possible. Globally an ideological crisis took hold of the left, and for many years our certainties were replaced by doubts, and then by a deep crisis of its own. During the 1960s and ‘70s it looked as if we would be able to build a more just and beautiful world. Currently many of us are overwhelmed by pessimism. Today individualism would seem to be the most powerful mover of people, and yesterday’s collective dreams seem impossible. In the years since I left Cuba, my compañera1 Laura and I built our nest with the materials that country had given us. We lived in France for eleven years; since 1994 we’ve been in Uruguay. Our youthful ideas kept pulsing in our veins and helped guide us through turbu- lent waters. In this nest our three children were born: Lía, Martín and Daniel. They arrived with tenderness and love, each with her or his unique curiosity and strong character. And they became the mirrors in which we are able to glimpse the rawest and most palpable fea- tures of our own past. They came into our lives with all those attributes with which children always captivate their parents. But one of the greatest gifts they have given me is the discov- ery that through them I can go on nurturing my own youthful dreams. In my adolescence collective work took precedence over the individual, even over the family. Now it seemed our children were our utopia. /// 11 1 Spanish word which at the time covered by this book was used for one’s life partner as well as for a political comrade THBTT_galley1.indd 11 10/30/16 7:34 PM In 1994 Laura, the children and I went to live in Uruguay. I began to teach at the University of the Republic. All these years, first in France and later in Uruguay, I have continued to speak publicly about my ideas. Over lunches, with colleagues or students I’ve often remi- nisced about the highlights of our life in Cuba. My opinions of the current international sit- uation continue to be marked by that experience. As time passed I could see how ordinary people were finding it more and more difficult to understand the reality I had experienced. Many believed life in Cuba to be a carbon copy of that in the Soviet Union. All sophistica- tion of analysis was lost and the implosion of Soviet socialism took with it any possibility of imagining an alternative to capitalism as we know it. As the years went by I realized that the histories I told were becoming legends. Today’s young people weren’t even born when I left Cuba. A few years ago I was walking one day on the beach at Santa Lucía del Este with my son Daniel. Our dog ran happily across the sand. We were having one of those important father/ son conversations, the kind that is a gift and remains engraved in memory. Daniel is a very sensitive person, someone who can’t bear injustice whether aimed at a person or a bird.
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