The Uncompromising Revolution, a film by Saul Landau (available from IPS, 1601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009), 1988, 78 min., $300 (VHS cassette purchase), $900 (16mm purchase), $150 (16mm rental). Landau’s portrait is a conversation with Fidel Castro that ranges over as many kilometers as it does subjects, peppered with the comments of Cubans on the street and in their homes, and with clips from his 1968 movie “Fi- del.” The counterpoint between the Fidel Castro of 1968 and the lucid yet aging statesman of today far outshad- ows anything else the film tries to por- tray, and makes it well worth watching. Roots of Revolution: Radical Thought in Cuba by Sheldon B. Liss, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1987, 269 pp., $21.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper). Few countries have a tradition of radical thought as rich as Cuba’s. Radi- cal nationalism, in particular, has been the guiding light of Cuban politics for over a century. This accessible book provides us with a synthesis of the thought of all of Cuba’s major pensa- dores, and as such offers important insight into the philosophy of this Hemisphere’s only socialist regime. Cuba: The Shaping of Revolutionary Consciousness by Tzvi Medin, Lynne Reinner Publishers, 1990, 191 pp., $30.00 (cloth). A critical analysis of the techniques used by Cuba’s leaders to develop a common revolutionary ethos among the population. Medin examines the con- tents of the revolutionary message, the channels used to convey it-including popular music, poetry, fiction and film -and the efforts to meld socialist ide- ology with Cuban nationalism. The Cuban Economy: Measurement and Analysis of Socialist Perform- ance by Andrew Zimbalist and Claes Brundenius, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1989, 220 pp., $38 (cloth). COMING UP NEXT: Cuba and the United States Most writing on Cuba’s economy is based on political prejudice and faulty CIA-supplied data. Even if this were not the case, Zimbalist and Brundenius’ evaluation would be ground-breaking. They have done the painstaking home- work and the original analytical think- ing of which so few seem capable. Though hard-going at times for the non- specialist, it is nonetheless a top-notch book. Case 1/1989: End of the Cuban Con- nection, Editorial Jos6 Marti (available from Fred Hoffman, P.O. Box 26642, Los Angeles, CA 90026), 1989, 440 pp., $9.95 (cloth). The trial of 13 high government officials for drug trafficking last year, and the subsequent execution of four of them, provoked intense speculation among Cuba-watchers and a scandal of major proportions on the island. Here is the government’s version of the events, culled from extensive trial transcripts, newspaper coverage and court evidence. On the Move: A History of the His- panic Church in the United States by Mois6s Sandoval, Orbis Books, 1990, 152 pp., $8.95 (paper). Traditional Church history has been written from the perspective of those who wield power. This book is Church history from below. It looks at the struggles Hispanics have waged to overcome discrimination and margi- nalization within the Catholic Church, and implicitly admonishes the hierar- chy to sit up and take notice: By the end of the century, Hispanics will consti- tute the majority of U.S. Catholics. The author also examines Hispanic Ameri- can Protestantism. The Stroessner Era: Authoritarian Rule in Paraguay by Carlos Miranda, Westview Press, 1990, 177 pp., $33.50 (cloth). The scarcity of works on contempo- rary Paraguayan politics is, as the au- thor notes, “sad, almost shocking.” This books contains few surprises: Stroessner is depicted as the quintes- sential caudillo with an acute knowl- edge of and ability to manipulate the peculiarities of Paraguayan politics, long seeped in authoritarian tradition. A final chapter provides some clues as to how the army, business associations, labor unions, and the Catholic Church could contribute to political change. Transformation and Struggle: Cuba Faces the 1990s ed. by Sandor Halebsky and John M. Kirk, Praeger, 1990, 285 pp., $45 (cloth), $17.95 (paper). A timely collection of articles by well-known Cuba scholars which fol- lows upon the editors’ 1984 volume, Cuba: Twenty-Five Years of Revolu- tion. Like its predecessor, this book gives a positive account of the revolu- tion, while it examines with depth and breadth the dilemmas and flawed strate- gies of Cuban socialism. Women and Social Change in Latin America by Elizabeth Jelin (ed.), Zed Books, 1990, 226 pp., $49.95 (cloth), $15 (paper). A compilation of research by Latin American feminist scholars. Case stud- ies from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bo- livia and Brazil range from mothers’ groups to women unionists. Plenty of concrete data enlivens what would otherwise be an unmanageably broad subject area. Of particular interest is a chapter by the Andean Oral History Workshop on the patterns of resistance in Aymara and Quechua indigenous communities. Corrections Ratil Leis’ article on Panama, “The Other Side of Midnight” (Vol. XXIII, No. 6), erroneously affirms that the Stealth bomber (B-2, ATB) was used in the U.S. invasion. The plane used was the Stealth fighter-bomber (F-1 17A), a smaller plane which utilizes the same “stealth” technology. Due to an editing error, Jenny Pearce’s article “The People’s War,” in the same issue, gives the impression that the Uni6n Patri6tica (UP) was founded at the exclusive initiative of the FARC guerrillas. The UP was in fact set up by the FARC’s allies, the Communist Party, although the FARC wielded significant and perhaps pre- ponderant influence. The complexity of the allies’ relationship was lost. In Trish O’Kane’s article “The New Old Order” (Vol. XXLV, No.1), Al- fredo C6sar is identified as the secre- tary of Nicaragua’s National Assem- bly. He was a candidate for that post.
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