Movie. The production company, they budgeted at 15 million which was a lot of money for an independent film for they could not come up with the money. So that rights to the story it reverted back to me. I actually threw it in a drawer for two or three years and then i took it out, dusted it off and rode as a book. See what is it historical fiction . Guest yes thats exactly what it is historical fiction. Everything and that book actually happened. It didnt necessarily have a jew the family i wrote about because what i did was you know how the godfathers different mafia stories, the mafia family put in to families to tell one story of the godfather. I basically use the same format. The cuban revolution, told through a family. Its a fiction book i wrote it as a novel because i wanted to make it more interesting and i also didnt want to make it just about my family. I wanted to incorporate to all the different people. And also when you write it as a novel its more interesting and you get more people to be interested in the story if you write it as a novel something everybody can relate to because everyone has a family rather than write as a textbook. Host tell us about the family. Guest their typical middleclass families in cuba in the 50s who hasnt members of the family who are pro castro. Everybody at the beginning was pro castro, cubans were tired of having this Banana Republic mentality and image. We wanted to get rid of the dictator so a lot of people were with fidel castro in the beginning. Some people were with castro somewhere fighting with him in the mountains. Some of them were fighting in the underground, innercity. And thats how i started this story. The story starts at the beginning when he lands in the orientated province in 1956 and he takes it all the way to right before the bay of pigs. The reason why i did that was because after the bay of pigs, that was a complete total fiasco, he fell and complete and total control and thats when he told the whole world ive always been a marxist, leninist, communist. Which was news to us especially people in my family who talked with him because he never told that to anybody. Host was he occur . Guest yes he was. He was a classic 1950 latin america dictator. He was classic, robbing from the country, robbing from the people, even though he was a horrible dictator and even though he was robbing from the country, the standard of living was pretty, pretty hyper if you look at 1958 statistics of the united nations, cuba was number one, two, and three in all categories of all of latin america. And in the caribbean. He was a horrible thing, but sometimes you wish for things and it turns out to be worse. See what was fidel castro promising democracy . Guest yes he was. As a matter fact or New York Times journalist went to the mountains to interview him, he said on camera, that he was not a communist, that he was for democracy, for instituting the constitution and checked constitution of 1940 and open elections. Everything you told people was a lie. Part one of my book tells how he got into power and part two tells how he started issues behind the scenes to turn cuba into a communist country. Host one of the things that comes into play in revolution is the 1940 cuban constitution, what wasnt it . Guest what was and it was one of the most progressive constitutions around. It actually was based on the american constitution, free speech, freedom for all, free market. You know, habeas corpus, all the things today we enjoy doing there were the 1940 constitution. Thats what we were hoping when we are fighting thats what fidel castro would turn cuban into. Guest did the cuban revolution split families . Guest yes, terribly so. Host tell us about your own. Guest it did not happen in my family. What i did was a very good friend of my fathers son turned in his parents into the state because as counterrevolutionaries. I took that idea that i put it into the family because i wanted to bring the conflict right in to family. You have protagonists and antagonists. It was better to have the antagonist in the family and to have the antagonist outside of the family. Because that created more interest, made it more interesting. Host when did you come over to the states . Guest i came in 1961 on the peter pan flights. Out of your familiar with those. Those were when fidel castro, there is a rumor that the age of ten all children were going to be taken from their parents and turned into cuban run schools, government run schools. And basically indoctrinated. Theyll be taken from their parents. If you lived in this providence you would go to school this province so they were what they were doing is theyre trying to basically take kids away from their parents to brainwash them. Cuban parents went nuts. I remember my parents talking about barricading themselves and fighting, and all of that. The Catholic Church came up with this idea of bringing kids by themselves in the peter pan flights without their parents until the parents could come to the united states. I came on one of those flights. I was very fortunate that my answer by fluke came in three weeks before me and i went to live with her. Otherwise i would have gone to one of those orphanage run met catholic. That was here in florida thats where a lot of the kids were sent to. I got very fortunate. Host said they were still transportation between the u. S. And q but that time . Guest yes there was there was transportation back then. See what what kind of work to japans dick . Guest my father had his own business he was import export custom broker. He also taught import export law at the university. Host how old were you and you came over . Would you remember about political discussions at home during this time. Guest a lot, my family was involved against fidel and i heard a lot of stuff going on. We had guns hidden in my house for short period of time. I lived right next door to the secretary of labor. I even put in the book i used to play with his son. We used to hide behind the guards employ cowboys and indians and stuff like that. It was very much in my life. See what in the book you have dialogue between family members kind of stating their positions as well. Guest writes, exactly. A lot of that was going on at the time. Being that i was a kid i was not participating in all of them, but i heard there were a lot of discussions. There were people that were with fidel and others who didnt want to get involved in any way, shape, or form. I did not have any of those members in my family the, none. Host when did your parents, or did they ever leave cuba. Guest yes they did i became very fortunate they came six months later. My College Roommate who is also a peter pan flight kid, his parents didnt come until three years after he lived in an orphanage and then you sent to virginia to live with foster parents for three years. I was a very lucky person. Host at what point we are parents disillusioned by fidel castro . Guest my father was messed up pretty quickly because one of the first things that castor did was to control the import and export of things to control the ports. My father was a customs of broker. To my father lost his business like the next day practically. And then later on, he was still teaching import and export law. Since we stopped being a free market society, or were being in the process of being a non freemarket society he lost his job at the university also. One of your jobs is a standup comedian on cruise ships have even back . Guest know i have not and i told the country not to send me there. In cuba they know everything prayed they know who my uncle is. My uncle was killed in a firing squad. I had another uncle that was sentenced to 30 years of hard labor. They know who i am. After i wrote that book with the subtitle about how the castros allied, cheated, and murdered their way into power, i dont think im welcoming cuba. But they dont send me there anymore by the way. Guest the president stopped it when they found out the cuban government was supporting keeping him in power. As punishment for doing that they took some of the benefits of people going to cuba. Host has is nearly 60 years of sanctions worked in your view . Guest no. See what we allow free trade with cuba . Guest that is a 64000dollar question. Definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result. The embargo. [inaudible] the fear people against castros any type of financial benefit to that government goes to the government and not to the people. In the industry that makes money including tourism is run by the military. All those hotels where american tourists, those hotels are run by the military. Any profit that the cuban government takes, goes to the government and not to the people. So its one of those questions, what do you do . You open to give more money into the government to continue to subjugate their people . Do you continue the embargo that doesnt work . It is a very tough situation and there is no real clear answer for. Host heres the cover of the book, its called revolution, have a castro slide, cheated, and murdered their way into power written by al romero, thank you for your time on book tv. Cmac cspan has run the clock coverage of the cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates from governors, and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. In the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand, any time, at cspan. Org coronavirus. Television is change since cspan began but we continue to provide unfiltered view of government. Already the shreve bright primary coverage, the president ial impeachment process another federal response to the coronavirus pretty much all of cspan Public Affair programming on television, online, or listen on her free radio app. The part of the National Conversation through cspans daily washington journal program. Or through our social media. Cspan, created by private industry, americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. You are washing a special edition of book tv, airing a noun during the week will members of congress are in their districts due to the pandemic. Tonight we look at foreign affairs. First ambassador william vanden hill talks about his life and career this book hope and history. And then the dragons and the snakes by David Kilcullen looks at how Hostile Forces have adapted to the way u. S. Fights wars. And later author of the power and influence of the european union. Enjoy book tv now and over the weekend on cspan2