Cuba—a land of cigars, hot nights, sultry music and romantic revolutionary heroes. But what was it really like to live in this tropical paradise under Fidel Castro? With an evocative, wide-eyed innocence, Luis M. Garcia takes us back to his Cuban childhood and his parents' dreams of escape.
Listen Now - 08012009 | Download Audio - 08012009
It gradually becomes clear to young Luis that life in Cuba was quite different before he was born. Whilst he's happy to become a good little communist his father and mother confuse him with stories about the overthrown Batista that don't in any way equate with the stories his school teachers tell. It's all very confusing for a small boy.
Listen Now - 07012009 | Download Audio - 07012009
Despite the rationing which Fidel Castro has blamed on the Americans, Luis' mother and aunts have found a bounty of food for the Garcia family's Christmas Eve celebrations. As the months pass however, Luis becomes aware of a new tension within the family and their monthly slide evenings become full of secretive adult conversation.
Listen Now - 06012009 | Download Audio - 06012009
Luis begins school with some trepidation but quickly discovers the joys of learning to recite the alphabet when it includes F for Fidel, R for rifle and Y for Yankees. But his parents aren't so pleased with his desire to become a Communist Pioneer or 'pionero' and Luis is forced to rethink his family's place in the new Cuba.
Listen Now - 05012009 | Download Audio - 05012009
Child of the Revolution is set in a world of uncertainty and revolutionary upheaval, where a 10-year-old has to swear allegiance to Lenin, Marx and the mythical Che Guevara, with no idea what it means. It's also a world his parents see rapidly disintegrating under El Maximo Lider and they dream of escape.
Geraldine meets her earliest pen-pal, who lived not across the world but across the harbour on the other side of Sydney, but who helped open Geraldine's eyes to life's possibilities.
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Hindsight
New perspectives on well-known aspects of our past, and documenting stories long-ignored
