Confessions of a Secret Latina: How I Fell Out of Love with Castro & In Love with the Cuban People

by Barbara Joe

Overview

Whatever your ethnic background or personal opinion of Fidel Castro, you will find something new and revealing in this book. It offers a frank firsthand account of one woman�s journey, not only through Cuba, but through a life filled with unique challenges and tragedies. When Castro first rose to power, the author, like so many Americans, was entranced by the romantic vision of a scrubby revolutionary defeating the hated dictator Fulgencio Batista. But her years of direct experience with Cubans and within Cuba itself gradually eroded that vision. Then, unexpectedly, she found herself being attacked by a once close friend of Latino heritage, who not only vehemently disagreed with her negative evaluation of Castro�s reign, but harshly questioned her right as a non-Latina to even comment on it. He dubbed her �lazy� and a �nunny bunny,� a phony gringa do-gooder displaying lamentable �Republican-style self-exculpation,� summarily dismissing her decades of involvement in Cuban human rights as an Amnesty International volunteer. These very personal attacks triggered her own self-doubts, launching her onto a meticulous backward look over her entire life�s trajectory, especially her involvement with Latin America and Cuba. The result is Confessions of Secret Latina: How I Fell Out of Love with Castro & In Love with the Cuban People , a book going beyond the author�s previous award-winning memoir, Triumph & Hope: Golden Years with the Peace Corps in Honduras, bringing to light new details about a singular life that may surprise even those closest to her.
In Confessions, readers will meet real people, both dissidents and ordinary Cubans, as well as other Latin Americans encountered during the author�s 75 adventurous years. She was privileged to have had a front-row seat at pivotal events enabling her to meet important regional players, including while serving as an election observer in Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Fluent in Spanish, she not only visited Cuba multiple times, beginning in the Batista years, but she had a Cuban foster son, Alex, an unaccompanied minor arriving during the 1980 Mariel boatlift, who died of AIDS in 1995, just one year after the death of her beloved son Andrew. This book recounts her emergence from that dual tragedy to resume her human rights work in Cuba and elsewhere, then joining the Peace Corps in Honduras in 2000 at age 62. Now working as a Spanish hospital and school interpreter, she continues her volunteer role with Amnesty International, coordinating human rights actions in the Caribbean, including Cuba, and in this most recent book recounts her recent meetings with Cuban dissidents finally allowed by the regime to travel. Her life shows that even unsung individuals working quietly behind the scenes to carry out daily tasks can make a difference.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149731473
Publisher:	Barbara E. Joe
Publication date:	07/06/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	434
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Barbara E. Joe, MA, (last name thanks to a Korean father-in-law) is a Boston native and an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley. A mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, she works as a freelance writer, Spanish interpreter, and translator out of her century-old house on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. An Amnesty International volunteer since 1981, she was a founding member of local Group 211 and has served in various national leadership positions, including 14 years as volunteer Cuba and Dominican Republic country specialist and the last ten years as volunteer coordinator for the Caribbean. She is also a member of the National Peace Corps Association and a board member of several non-profit organizations working internationally. After the deaths of her older son and a Cuban foster son, she joined The Compassionate Friends, a bereaved parents� support group, and began leading a Spanish-language bereavement group. She belongs to a small, intentional Catholic community called Communitas. From 2000-20003, she served as a health volunteer with the Peace Corps in Honduras and wrote an award-winning memoir, Triumph & Hope: Golden Years with the Peace Corps in Honduras (Amazon.com, Kindle, & Nook). She has also written articles about Cuba, Haiti, Romania, Sudan, and other countries visited for humanitarian reasons. In April 2011, she was featured in Woman�s Day and in August 2011 and April 2013 appeared on Voice of America News in internationally distributed videos. Readers are invited to view her blog, , where she posts comments about Washington, D.C., Cuba, and her annual humanitarian visits to Honduras.

Editorial Reviews

Confessions of a Secret Latina recounts Barbara Joe�s decades of devotion to advancing human rights at the personal level and through her work as Amnesty International USA�s coordinator for Cuba. In this inspirational story, she shares insightful observations drawn from her direct engagement with opponents and defenders of the Cuban regime in the USA and on the island. Her book is a valuable contribution to the contentious history of Cuba and Amnesty International.

PhD, Dean of Libraries Emeritus, So. Dakota University, former Legislative Coordinator for Minnesota for Amnesty Intern - Steve Marquardt

This compelling autobiographical narrative brings into focus the reality of Cuba and the struggle of its people to survive in a world deprived of basic civil liberties, adequate food supplies, medical services, and education. The author�now in her mid-seventies-- has spent most of her adult life championing the cause of human rights around the world, but most especially in Latin America, particularly in Cuba, a culture with which she has come to identify herself in a meaningful way.

Ph.D. Professor of Architecture and Director Henry H. Wiss Center for Theory and History of Art and Architecture Virgini - Humberto Rodr�guez-Camilloni

Barbara Joe has written a deeply personal account of her life and times - a story that is intimate and tender in revealing the many characters she�s met and rich with analysis of the Cuban reality. This book moves beyond an ideological approach, depicting Cuba from firsthand knowledge and the often surprising accounts of the men and women of the street and the extraordinary people she encountered.

Amnesty International USA Andean Co-group Chair - Carlos Mar�n

Barbara Joe�s most recent work explores the plight of Cuban dissidents with dignity and grace, an excellent first-hand observation of the Castro regime�s descent into authoritarian repression and human rights abuses, written by a former sympathizer.

PhD, Associate Professor, Chair of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, author of Health, Politics, and Revolution in C - Katherine Hirschfeld

Driven by raw persistence and an altruistic inner light, Barbara Joe walks past ideological divides and geopolitical concerns to touch the lives of individuals struggling to live lives of dignity in modern-day Cuba. In Confessions of a Secret Latina, she shares that journey with us and, in so doing, increases our ability to empathize with their struggle and provides us much to reflect upon regarding our personal journeys.

ormer Director, Country and Thematic Specialist Amnesty International USA - James Graham