Book review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.13.1.0150
• Pages: 150-152
• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Renzo Llorente

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 13.1 Summer 2021

BOOK REVIEWS

Salim Lamrani, Cuba ¡Palabra a la defensa! (Hondarribia: Editorial Hiru,

2016) 238 pp. ISBN: 9788496584617

Reviewed by Renzo Llorente

Renzo Llorente teaches philosophy at Saint Louis University-Madrid. He is the

author of The Political Theory of Che Guevara (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

If there is one quality that defines coverage of Cuba in the “mainstream”

media, it is surely tendentiousness: news items almost invariably focus on social

problems in Cuba or ineffective policies of the Cuban government, while down-

playing or ignoring the formidable challenges which the country faces and the

ongoing successes of the Cuban Revolution. This tendentiousness also explains

the phenomenon described by Salim Lamrani in his Introduction to Cuba

¡Palabra a la defensa!: despite obviously being a victim besieged by the United

States, Cuba routinely finds itself in the dock. Moreover, unlike other defend-

ants, Cuba is practically never granted the opportunity to respond to accusations

and state its side of the story (pp. 15–16).

A collection of ten interviews, Cuba ¡Palabra a la defensa! aims to help rem-

edy the one-sided coverage of Cuba by allowing ten eminent figures, seven of

whom are Cubans, to respond to the criticisms and accusations regularly levelled

at Cuba. Lamrani, who has already authored and edited several fine books on

Cuba, is a skilful interviewer, as he showed in his widely discussed 2010 inter-

view with Yoani Sánchez, which dealt a devastating blow to the dissident Cuban

blogger’s credibility and moral authority. Although Lamrani plainly shares

many of the opinions and perspectives of his ten interviewees, his questioning is

no less probing and direct than in his interview with Sánchez.

The first three interviews are with Mariela Castro, Ricardo Alarcón and Max

Lesnik; these are both the longest and most substantial chapters in the book. The

conversation with Castro, Director of the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual

(CENESEX) and daughter of Raúl Castro, offers a frank discussion of homo-

phobia and sexual diversity in Cuba. Castro rightly insists on the importance of

contextualising the homophobia that existed in Cuba after the triumph of the

Revolution – the whole world was homophobic at the time of the Revolution,

and the World Health Organisation continued to regard homosexuality as a

mental illness until 1990 (pp. 24–5) – but also acknowledges and condemns the