THE REAL STORY
OF THE MONCADA ATTACK

Almost every single biographical account of Fidel Castro's life as a revolutionary leader -breaking away from the pack of pistolero thugs- begins with the story of his failed attacks of July 26, 1953, on the Cuban army garrisons at Moncada and Bayamo.

Publisher: University of South Carolina ISBN-13: 9781570036729 6 x 9 448 pages 35 illus. cloth Barnes & Noble Amazon Books a Million

Curiously, little research has been done on the event although it has been immortalized in numerous magazine articles, Cuban government publications or documentaries and honored with massive rallies and gaudy military parades. Legends have been told and retold of eyes gouged out by Batista's soldiers or of Rebels knifing hospital prisoners in their sickbeds.

Over a half century after the battles, a book has emerged that is the defining historical work of the beginning of the Cuban Revolution.

"The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution," by Dr. Antonio Rafael de la Cova -published by the University of South Carolina Press- is an extremely well researched work -that began in his undergraduate years- and extended for three decades, interviewing more than one hundred participants -including former rebels, journalists, military and government personnel, politicians and even funeral directors - as well as researching reams of news articles, political speeches and documents of the era.

Writing in a compact prose, De La Cova shatters all myths on both sides of the political spectrum, proving that there is a huge difference between political propaganda lore and historical reality.

The book explains how Castro recruited his men, looking to convince laborers and poorly educated workers to follow him, rather than challenge his authority. The 160 men recruited by Castro included only four university graduates and several with criminal records, including murder.

The author dwells deeply into the background and personalities of the attackers, including those who were politically active, those who were adventurous and looked for personal power and fame and those who had little political background or egos but were swept by the moment and Castro's epic rhetoric.

The planning of the attack and the weapons used showed an amazing level of improvised planning and extreme lack of knowledge of military operations, equipment or tactics. They moved in vehicles but few knew how to drive and they attacked two military garrisons poorly armed with only "forty 12- and 16-gauge shotguns, costing fifty-eight hundred pesos; thirty-five .22 caliber Mosberg and Remington rifles, bought for eight pesos each; sixty handguns of various models; twenty-four rifles of different caliber, including eight 1898 Krag-Jorgensen rifles, three 1892 .44 caliber Winchester sawed-off rifles, and a .30-caliber 1903 model Springfield rifle; a 30-caliber M1 Garand rifle with a folding metal stock; and a malfunctioning .45-caliber Browning submachine gun."

The battle is described vividly by the author, pieced together by slivers from dozens of interviews. De La Cova describes the events as they occurred, how some rebels shot each other in confusion, Castro's reactions as the situation unfolded and the aftermath of the battle, the hunting and tracking down of the fugitive attackers.

The slaying of sick soldiers by rebels is a myth debunked by the author but well explained how it came to be part of the Batista government propaganda mantra; another myth is debunked when De La Cova ascertains that although dozens of captured rebels were killed in cold blood, the garrison did not engage in mutilation or eye gouging, as the Castro propaganda machinery has constantly claimed.

The author even destroys the iconic legend of the "History Will Absolve Me" speech, pointing out the differences between what was really said at the trial and what the propaganda machinery published years later, clouding the historical event even more.

"The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution," by Dr. Antonio Rafael de la Cova is now and will be in the future, the definite work of reference of the bloody beginning of the Cuban Revolution.

It is recommended as must reading for anyone who attempts to understand the formative stage of the well publicized but seldom historically accurate Cuban Revolution.

* Enrique Encinosa, escritor e historiador cubano exiliado, es autor de seis libros, cuatro documentales y editor de Radio Mambi (WAQI, Miami, Florida, E.U.), es autor de seis libros y tres documentales.