Against All Hope : A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag

against All Hope Is Armando Valladares' Account Of Over Twenty Years In Fidel Castro's Tropical Gulag. Arrested In 1960 For Being Philosophically And Religiously Opposed To Communism, Valladares Was Not Released Until 1982, By Which Time He Had Become One Of The World's Most Celebrated Prisoners Of Conscience. Interned All Those Years At The Infamous Isla De Pinos Prison (from Whose Windows He Watched The Failure Of The Bay Of Pigs Invasion), Valladares Suffered Endless Days Of Violence, Putrid Food And Squalid Living Conditions, While Listening To Castro's Firing Squads Eliminating Counter Revolutionaries In The Courtyard Below His Cell. Valladares Survived By Prayer And By Writing Poetry Whose Publication In Europe Brought His Case To The Attention Of International Figures Such As French President Francois Mitterand And To Human Rights Organizations Whose Constant Pressure On The Castro Regime Finally Led To His Release. internet Book Watch in 1960, Armando Valladares Was Arrested In Cuba For Being Opposed To Communism On Philosophical And Religious Grounds. He Was Kept In The Isla De Pinos Prison. His Imprisonment Was Hallmarked By Violence, Putrid Food, Squalid Living Conditions, And The Psychological Torture Of Listening To Castro's Firing Squads Eliminating Counter Revolutionaries In The Courtyard Below His Cell. Valladares Retained His Sanity By Prayer And The Writing Of Poetry. It Was The Publication Of His Poetry In Europe And America Which Brought His Condition To Such International Figures As French President Francois Mitterand And Numerous Human Rights Organizations. It Was The Constant Pressure Of Such Individuals And International Organizations Upon The Castro Regime That Finally Led To Valladares Release In 1982. Against All Hope Is A Testament Of The Endurance Of The Human Spirit In The Face Of Totalitarianism And Inhumanity. The 426 Pages Of Text Are Enhanced With Photographs. This New Encounter Books Edition Of A Classic Prison Narrative Had Been Out Of Print For Fifteen Years And Is A Welcome Addition To Political Science, Latin American, And Human Rights Studies, Prison Literature Reading Lists, And Autobiography Collections. Arrested in 1960 for being philosophically and religiously opposed to communism, Armando Valladares was interned at Cuba's infamous Isla de Pinos Prison (from whose barred windows he watched the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion). His life in Castro's gulag was a hell of violence and disease, putrid food and squalid living conditions, forced labor and solitary confinement, and hazardous escape attempts. Valladares survived by prayer and poetry. His writing, smuggled out to Europe and the U.S., made him one of the world's most celebrated prisoners of conscience. As a result of pressure from international human rights organizations, the Castro regime finally released him in 1982.When Against All Hope first appeared, it was immediately compared to Darkness at Noon and other classic prison narratives about the resilience of the human spirit in the face of totalitarianism. Now, with a new prologue by the author, which tells of his life since prison and brings the story of Cuban dissidence up to the case of Elian Gonzalez, this story of strength and survival is more relevant than ever. *CONTRA TODA ESPERANZA* relata las vivencias del autor desde la noche de su detención hasta su liberación, ventidós años más tarde. En este testimonio, rigurosamente histórico, se narran las condiciones infrahumanas en que se ha mantenido y mantiene a los presos políticos cubanos, así como la agonía de las víctimas, la violencia de un régimen carcelario que tiene como objetivo la destrucción espiritual y física del prisionero. Sin sentimentalismos, el autor va describiendo, año tras año, todo el mundo enajenante y kafkiano de un sistema que conserva todavía para muchos una imagen de humanismo. Este libro habla del sacrificio de anónimos defensores a ultranza de la libertad, la justicia y la disgnidad plena del hombre frente al totalitarismo castrista. Presents an account of the author's over twenty years in Fidel Castro's tropical gulag as a result of his philosophical and religious opposition to communism. This book gives a picture of the Cuba that he lived in and tells of how his deep Christian faith kept him from abandoning hope during the most evil treatment.