Haydée Santamaría - Cuban Revolutionary – She led by transgression

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By Margaret Randall

A review

Recently I finished reading Margaret Randall’s biography of the Cuban revolutionary, Haydée Santamaría. For many reasons this is a profoundly inspiring book. This book made me think of Nancy Stout’s biography of another Cuban revolutionary Celia Sanchez. However, Randall’s book is a different kind of biography.

Margaret Randall

First, I think it is useful to look at the life of the author Margaret Randall in order to gain a background to the book. Randall was born in the United States but spent 23 years outside of the country. She married and had four children while living in Mexico. Then, there was the repression in Mexico in 1968 that coincided with the Olympics held in Mexico during that year.

The government murdered hundreds of Mexicans who protested the use of badly needed funds for the Olympics. Many people in this country recall that time when Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists during the playing of the National Anthem at their awards ceremony.

Cuba agreed to give Randall asylum, but she needed to go to Czechoslovakia first. At this time Randall didn’t have a U.S. passport. In order to go to her ultimate destination she needed to travel in the back of a meat truck through the United States to Canada, then to Czechoslovakia, then to Cuba. She was ill when she arrived in Cuba and needed to have one of her kidneys removed.

Randall would spend about eleven years living in Cuba and worked with Haydée Santamaría during those years at the Casa de Las Americas. After her time in Cuba she went to Nicaragua and studied the revolution in that country. She has authored many books aside from this biography that include: Cuban Women Now, Sandino’s Daughters, and Eight Decades of Cuban Poetry.

Randall returned to the United States in 1984. Upon her return, the government ordered her deported under the McCarran Walter Act of 1952. The charges against Randall that supported her deportation include the idea that her opinions are: “against the good order and happiness of the United States.” And that, “her writings go beyond mere decent.” However, in a court decision Randall won the right to live in this country.

Haydée Santamaría

Haydée Santamaría, or Yeyé to those who were close to her, was born in the provincial town of Encrucijada, Las Villas, Cuba in 1922. She was one of five siblings and her father was a carpenter and manager of the La Constancia sugar mill. Her family was middle class—not wealthy, but she did not endure the grinding poverty of most workers.

She had a basic education in a one-room schoolhouse and never attended a university. Haydée and her younger brother Abel resented the profound disparity between the affluent owners of the sugar mill and the workers who struggled merely to survive. Abel first moved to Havana and then sent for Haydée.

Their apartment became a center for organizing the resistance to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Their leader was Fidel Castro and Abel was second in command. They planed a raid on the military garrison called Moncada in the city of Santiago.

That raid was defeated. Abel as well as Haydée’s fiancé were tortured to death. These deaths, as well as others, would affect her for the rest of her life.  Haydée, as well as Melba Hernández, served time in prison for their participation in the raid on Moncada. After their release they both worked to transcribe Fidel Castro’s speech at his trial that was titled, History Will Absolve Me. Haydée also worked to organize those who survived the raid on Moncada.

Haydée succeeded in avoiding capture in the city. She also travelled to the United States where she raised funds and negotiated for the purchase of arms from the Mafia. She said that she hated those negotiations and reported that most of the arms that had been purchased were never delivered. After the revolution, the new revolutionary government confiscated the lavish casinos that were owned by the Mafia. Much of the ammunition used in the revolution had been smuggled into Cuba and sewn into women’s dresses.

After the revolution Fidel Castro assigned Haydée Santamaría to head up the Casa de Las Americas. This was the cultural center where Cuba would attract artists from all over the world. Haydée had not attended a university and she had no formal training in the arts. Yet, for about 20 years she made Casa de Las Americas a center for some of the best artists in the world.

We might consider that before the Cuban Revolution there was the McCarthy era in the United States. Artists like Dalton Trumbo served time in prison for refusing to answer questions of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Then, Cuba had their revolution and suddenly there was a haven for artists who were critical of U.S. government policies in the world.

So, while the United States government was doing everything in it’s power to isolate and militarily defeat the Cuban revolution, Haydée Santamaría was attracting artists to Casa de Las Americas from all over the world. She took an interest in every artist and these artists testified to their appreciation of her efforts.

All of us have had experience with managers of capitalist corporations. Rarely do we see any concern for our interests. Their primary concern is the drive to maximize profits. Haydée Santamaría demonstrated how someone who had no formal college training can not only manage, but provide inspiring leadership to artists from around the world.

We might also think about the fact that in capitalist nations women have become government officials as well as corporate officers. However, these women need to be driven with the corporate drive to maximize profits. I believe that this is the root cause for why there is poverty in the world.

At the end of this book Margaret Randall included her wonderful biographical poem about Haydée’s life. In the following passage we see how Santamaría was completely different from women officials in the capitalist world. We also see what she viewed as important:

“You were a woman plain and simple,

slim-boned,

great-hearted,

who thought a bus ride should cost 5 cents,

public pay phones be free,

health, education, shelter, food,

culture and art:

all that we need free,

bountifully free!”

Santamaría’s internationalist thinking was in line with the thinking of Ernesto “Che” Guevara who left Cuba to join with revolutions erupting in the Congo and in Bolivia. Haydée worked at the Casa de Las Americas during the time of the war against Vietnam. Vietnamese women came to Cuba and refused to cut their hair until their country was liberated. There is a photograph in this book of Haydée Santamaría sitting with the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.

Margaret Randall was surprised when Haydée Santamaría asked her to judge a Cuban beauty pageant. However, as Randall was a guest of the Cuban government, she fulfilled this request. After judging that contest, she wrote an article critical of the idea of beauty contests for women. Randall asked Santamaría why she asked her to be a judge in the pageant. Haydée answered: “Because I knew that you would put an end to those awful contests.” Today, there are no more beauty pageants in Cuba.     

Haydée Santamaría ended her life in a suicide. She had experienced continual depression partly due to the murder of her brother and fiancé in the raid at Moncada. Added to this she also felt a deep loss with the deaths of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Celia Sanchez who died of cancer shortly before Haydée’s suicide. Even some of the best psychologists have questions relating to the issue of suicide. All I will say is that Haydée Santamaría needs to be judged by how she lived her life and not by how she ended it.

I will conclude this review with two stanzas from the biographical poem Margaret Randall wrote about the life of Haydée Santamaría:

“You offered Cuba’s impossible possibility

to those whose children were disappeared,

minds drugged by torture,

hands severed by loneliness

of daring to dream beyond the ugliest schemes.

“At the precise moment

we were in danger

of losing sight and hearing

to smug opportunism or insidious drones,

when reduced to rote applause

for those who would rob us of our memory,

condemn us to repeat lives

with neither past nor future,

you came along

and made us whole.”

Two Similar Films: The Verdict and Goliath

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Goliath

Amazon Video – 2016

Starring – Billy Bob Thornton as Billy McBride

The Verdict

Director – Sidney Lumet – 1982

Starring – Paul Newman as Frank Gavin

A review of two similar films

The other evening I concluded my viewing of the sixteen part film series Goliath, starring Billy Bob Thornton as Billy McBride. After seeing the end of this series, I realized that this film had almost exactly the same plot as the 1982 film The Verdict starring Paul Newman as Frank Gavin.

The film The Verdict is about a malpractice lawsuit against a doctor and a hospital. The film Goliath is about a lawsuit against a so-called “defense contractor.” Apart from this difference, the storyline of both films is in many ways similar. However, there is one significant difference that underscores how times have changed in the intervening years of these two films.

First, we need to look at the basic story and background of these two films. The book The Verdict, that the film is based on was written by Barry Reed. Read was a malpractice attorney who understood the seemingly insurmountable obstacles lawyers need to overcome in order for their clients to receive justifiable compensation.

We might think about the fact that today one of the leading causes of death in this country comes from medical malpractice. Most of these cases do not go to trial because lawyers know that the legal system, for the most part, favors doctors and their employers who are hospitals.

Understanding this reality Barry Reed wrote his novel about a lawyer, Frank Gavin, who once had a prominent practice, lost everything, became an alcoholic, and made a tenuous living as an ambulance chaser. 

Then, the grieving family of a victim of malpractice asks Gavin for his assistance. After reluctantly accepting the case, Gavin gradually sees that this is more than a case about money. This is a case about right and wrong, where there is an urgent need for a competent lawyer to fight for justice.

While advocating for this family, Gavin will confront a high priced law firm, as well as a judge who routinely rules in favor of corporations.

In the film series Goliath, we see Billy McBride, a lawyer who once had a prominent practice who lost everything and became an alcoholic. A twist to this plot is that McBride’s former wife and mother of his teenage daughter is a partner for the law firm he challenges in court.

In this film, McBride needs to convince the family of a deceased husband and father that they need to sue a defense contractor for his wrongful death. In this film, McBride also confronts a powerful law firm, as well as a judge who routinely makes rulings favoring the corporation.

The one big difference in these two films is in the composition of the cast. In the film The Verdict all the characters except one is a white man. In the film Goliath all of Billy McBride’s assistants are women. Three out of the four lawyers representing the defense contractor are women. The fourth lawyer is a Black man. The character who portrays the judge is a Black man.

So, we can see that in the intervening years between 1982 and 2016 Hollywood continues to see the story of lawyers challenging corporations as compelling. However, today the film industry feels the need to portray this kind of story using a cast that gives the story a different dynamic.

Erin Brockovich

In the year 2000 the film Erin Brockovich staring Julia Roberts was released. This was the true story of a mother who worked for a law firm and became obsessed with a class action lawsuit. In the course of this case, Brockovich proved that she was extremely competent in the work she did. Without her efforts, we might question if there ever would have been a positive outcome to this case.

Here we see a woman who was not a lawyer who proves herself to some of the most powerful lawyers associated with this case who are men. In the film Goliath women are prominent lawyers for a prestigious law firm.    

So, when we look at the timeline of these three films, we see how women as well as Black people are receiving more prominent roles in films. Some people might say that this comes from the fact that there was a Black President in the United States. There has also been an increase of women and Black people in prominent positions in the government as well as corporations.

While this may have been a factor, my opinion is that the changing roles of women and Black people come from the civil rights movement as well as the feminist movement. These movements challenged the stereotypes and discrimination that limited the opportunities of over half the population.

Clearly discrimination continues to be institutionalized in this country. Giving women and Black people more roles in films is only a tiny step is dealing with this problem.

However, while there are those who argue that the United States is becoming more racist, we might look at the two films The Verdict and Goliath and see how the moguls of the film industry need to have more diverse casts in order to sell compelling stories.

Individual versus collective action

Today, in the capitalist system in this country, working people are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Most of us work alienating jobs where we see seemingly endless challenges just so we might have the things we need, as well as some of the things we want.

Given that this is our environment, the film industry has profited handsomely by promoting films where heroic characters overcome seemingly impossible obstacles. We might think of the films The Verdict, and Goliath as two films that portray this idea.

However, the facts show that the law, for the most part, defends the drive for profits of corporations and rarely defends the rights of workers. Today the National Football League has clearly violated the players right to freedom of speech by making it a requirement to stand during the National Anthem. The President fully supports the NFL in this action.

The First Amendment to the Constitution defends the right of freedom of speech that would make the NFL’s action illegal. However, corporate lawyers work to interpret the law in a way that is the exact opposite of what the law states.

It has been the mass movements in the history of this country that have created real change. These movements would include: The American Revolution, the Civil War, the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the movement supporting women’s rights, and the movement against the war in Vietnam.

In the commercial film industry we rarely see a film that portrays working people who engage in a collective action to advance our interests. One such film was Norma Rae released in 1979 starring Sally Field in the title role. This is the true story of a union organizing drive in the textile industry. Another film is the 1987 film Matewan that portrays the true story of a coal miners strike. 

We might also consider that some of the most important leaders in this history of the world happen to be women as well as Black people. That list would include: Mother Jones, Ida Wells, the Cuban revolutionaries Celia Sanchez, and Haydee Santamaria, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela.

When we look at the lives of these leaders, we see that their primary qualification was a willingness to dedicate themselves to advancing the cause of working people. This dedication overcame the racist and sexist prejudices they confronted. Their examples demonstrate that we will have more leaders who will have the tenacity to overcome the tremendous problems we face today.