Monday, November 02, 2015

What is Margaret Randall reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Margaret Randall, author of Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression.

Her entry begins:
I read a lot of poetry and non-fiction, rarely novels or short stories. Recently I read God's Bankers by Gerald Posner, and then read it again, and then again. It's a big book filled with detail: tracing centuries of the Vatican's money trail leads all over the place. Pope Francis's attempts to reign in the Vatican Bank make this book particularly...[read on]
About Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary, from the publisher:
Taking part in the Cuban Revolution's first armed action in 1953, enduring the torture and killings of her brother and fiancé, assuming a leadership role in the underground movement, and smuggling weapons into Cuba, Haydée Santamaría was the only woman to participate in every phase of the Revolution. Virtually unknown outside of Cuba, Santamaría was a trusted member of Fidel Castro's inner circle and friend of Che Guevara. Following the Revolution's victory Santamaría founded and ran the cultural and arts institution Casa de las Americas, which attracted cutting-edge artists, exposed Cubans to some of the world's greatest creative minds, and protected queer, black, and feminist artists from state repression. Santamaría's suicide in 1980 caused confusion and discomfort throughout Cuba; despite her commitment to the Revolution, communist orthodoxy's disapproval of suicide prevented the Cuban leadership from mourning and celebrating her in the Plaza of the Revolution. In this impressionistic portrait of her friend Haydée Santamaría, Margaret Randall shows how one woman can help change the course of history.
Visit Margaret Randall's website.

My Book, The Movie: Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary.

Writers Read: Margaret Randall.

--Marshal Zeringue