I'm Cubano(I now live in Brazil) and visit my mother's house in Cuba each summer, and the Cubanos down there know the 80% of their society is damaged by US intervention in Cuba's internal and international affairs. My brother lives in Tampa Bay, Florida and when I'm down there all I hear from the Cubanos up there is how poor Cuba's economy is and how social life in Cuba is horrible and this and that. As a Cubano Im very proud of my country and its leaders(Cienfuegos, Guevara, Castro, Raul Castro, etc.). If everyone one is mad because Cuba is poor then go in front of the White House and protest to end the embargo(Helms-Burton Act), tell them to abolish the CDA(Cuban Democracy Act, instead of placing this one on the oppressive Batista dictatorship, they embraced his oppressive regime), and complain about the fact that when the UN wants to send an IDF(international development fund)the US decides to veto every single one the UN tries to send. The US knows that in this day in age they can't just send an army over to Cuba and throw out the current government(although JFK tried it with the Bay of the Pigs), so the US has basically declared a form of economic warfare on Cuba and their excuse is to change the form of government at Havana. Let's assume this is the reason why the US is placing all those acts on Cuba, but what right does the US government have to over throw another government? I remember, back in 96, when Castro shot down two planes, of Cuban exiles, flying over Cuba dropping leaflits calling people to start a revolution against the Castro regime. And the US government and exiles in Miami were outraged. Let me ask you something, how do you think the US government would react if two Libyian planes where flying over Washington, D.C. calling people to arms and to start a revolution agasint the US government, by garnishing them with flowers? Im sick of hearing Cubanos complain about Castro, hell if they dont want Castro let's bring back the corrupt dictatorship of Batista where a handful of people owned all the land and while 95% of the population was starving, living in the streets, illiterate, poorly educated, had no job opportunity, etc. the other 5% lived in mansions, ate the finest food, bathed everyday, slept on a matress, etc. The US says it "knows" the will of the Cuban people and has placed many acts to change the government, yet even though the US says it know the will of the Cuban people, it has placed misery and starvation in Cuba.

I'm very dissappionted in Castro's behavior in regards to his daughter, but I think Alina tries to politicize this book and criticize Castro as a leader rather than as a bad father. My father left my mom when I was 12 and just recently I found out that he's a doctor working in South Africa on behalf of Cuba's medical help towards that country, now am I going to say that he is a bad doctor, no I'm not, Im going to say he was a bad father. It really dissapionted me that Alina complains through out the whole book about Cuba's society. Unless your anti-socialist, anti-castro I don't recommend this book because instead of being a story about a daughter and her father it is basically a book that bashes Cuba left and right.

I found Alina's book somewhat hard to follow at times. However, I found Cuba somewhat hard to understand. Having traveled there, Castro certainly does not need a book by his daughter to discredit himself. The country is the pits. It speaks for itself. Castro is an unintelligent clown. The embargo is nothing but an excuse by Cubans to explain the starvation and oppression I saw in Bayamo and Santiago de Cuba. A complete police state. I have travelled other communist countries that we have not embargoed and found the same conditions. Wake up cubans, you have nothing to lose but the ties that bind you. The ties just happens to be a man named Fidel Castro and his henchmen.

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.