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Pichon: Race and Revolution in Castro's Cuba: A Memoir
Revolutionary black nationalist Carlos Moore breaks three decades of silence to challenge Castro’s legacy in this controversial, behind-the-scenes memoir that explores the Revolution from a perspective of a pichón , the racist Cuban term for a black of Haitian or West Indian descent. After more than thirty years in exile, continually under the threat of retribution from the Cuban regime, Moore steps forward to reveal the Fidel’s Revolution was a success for white Marxists. But for Cuban blacks, the Revolution was basically business as usual, a cover-up of their ongoing struggle for racial, political, and social enfranchisement. Fidel Castro and his men rose from the ranks of the patriarchal, white Spanish-Cuban elite, and the Revolution did not weaken those ties.
395 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Carlos Moore
11 books31 followers1942-1958
Carlos Moore was born Charles George Moore Wedderburn in Cuba in 1942 to Rebecca Winifred Wedderburn and Victor Moore. The fourth of five children, Moore was raised by working class parents who struggled to support him and their other children. During his childhood Moore experienced economic and social hardship which accompanied his parents’ inability to secure regular employment in a racist society. In 1958 when Moore was sixteen years old, his father and step mother sent for him and his siblings to come to New York in order to take advantage of the opportunities for a better life which would be available there.
1958-1974
While Moore was in New York, Castro and his army claimed victory over Bautista which brought renewed hope to poor Cubans everywhere. After living in New York for several years and completing High School, Moore returned to Cuba to work for the Cuban government as a translator for the ministries of Communications and External Affairs. He quickly became disaffected with the Castro regime due to its curtailment of basic rights for all Cubans and racism towards Black Cubans and entered into self imposed exile.
In order to escape Cuba, Moore traveled to Egypt on a cargo ship, where he remained for a year before fleeing the repressive regime there. Moore then traveled to Europe and was denied exile in Italy and Switzerland before being allowed to stay in France on the condition that he arranged repatriation to Cuba. When he refused to return to Cuba, due to fears of imprisonment and/or death the Cuban embassy stripped Moore of his passport. For the next twelve years Moore lived in a state of political limbo as he petitioned for asylum in France. During this time Moore struggled to support himself and his family. He also became involved with the “Afro American Committee in Paris” an organization which organized a rally in support of the revolution in the (former) Belgian Congo where Malcolm X was to be the keynote speaker. When the time for the rally came, Malcolm was denied entry into the country, but Moore was able to conduct a taped interview with Malcolm over the telephone and publish the interview in several magazines. Several weeks later, Malcolm X was assassinated. After years of struggle and harassment by the French secret police Moore is granted asylum and began working as a free lance journalist for Agence France Presse. Shortly thereafter he enrolled in University of Paris-7 to study for his
PhD.
In 1973 Moore was offered and accepted the post of secretariat of FESTAC (Second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture) in Lagos, Nigeria which was emerging from a civil war. During his time in Nigeria Moore met Fela Kuti and formed a relationship with the famed musician which led to the publication of Kuti’s biography Fela, Fela:This Bitch of a life. Due to his association with Kuti and his activities against the dictatorial regime in Nigeria Moore is dismissed from his position as Secretariat and imprisoned.
1975-1991
In 1975 Moore fled Nigeria and settled in Senegal until 1980. While in Senegal Moore conducted research for his Doctoral thesis which he completed in 1979, however past persecution had taken a toll on his health. In 1980 Moore left Senegal for Paris where he was advised to undergo treatment for a nervous breakdown. Despite his ill health, Moore embarked on a second PhD and began working for Jeune Afrique. In 1987 Moore was instrumental in organizing the “Negritude Afro cultures and Ethnicity in the Americas” conference at Florida International University which featured notable persons such as Maya Angelou, Alex Haley, Aime Cesaire, and Leopold Senghor.
The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 left Cuba in a precarious position, and Moore wrote a formal letter to Fidel Castro warning him that unless he seriously sought to rectify race relations in Cuba, he could face a revolution that would allow U.S. capitalist interests to impose their imperialistic will upon the
Carlos Moore was born Charles George Moore Wedderburn in Cuba in 1942 to Rebecca Winifred Wedderburn and Victor Moore. The fourth of five children, Moore was raised by working class parents who struggled to support him and their other children. During his childhood Moore experienced economic and social hardship which accompanied his parents’ inability to secure regular employment in a racist society. In 1958 when Moore was sixteen years old, his father and step mother sent for him and his siblings to come to New York in order to take advantage of the opportunities for a better life which would be available there.
1958-1974
While Moore was in New York, Castro and his army claimed victory over Bautista which brought renewed hope to poor Cubans everywhere. After living in New York for several years and completing High School, Moore returned to Cuba to work for the Cuban government as a translator for the ministries of Communications and External Affairs. He quickly became disaffected with the Castro regime due to its curtailment of basic rights for all Cubans and racism towards Black Cubans and entered into self imposed exile.
In order to escape Cuba, Moore traveled to Egypt on a cargo ship, where he remained for a year before fleeing the repressive regime there. Moore then traveled to Europe and was denied exile in Italy and Switzerland before being allowed to stay in France on the condition that he arranged repatriation to Cuba. When he refused to return to Cuba, due to fears of imprisonment and/or death the Cuban embassy stripped Moore of his passport. For the next twelve years Moore lived in a state of political limbo as he petitioned for asylum in France. During this time Moore struggled to support himself and his family. He also became involved with the “Afro American Committee in Paris” an organization which organized a rally in support of the revolution in the (former) Belgian Congo where Malcolm X was to be the keynote speaker. When the time for the rally came, Malcolm was denied entry into the country, but Moore was able to conduct a taped interview with Malcolm over the telephone and publish the interview in several magazines. Several weeks later, Malcolm X was assassinated. After years of struggle and harassment by the French secret police Moore is granted asylum and began working as a free lance journalist for Agence France Presse. Shortly thereafter he enrolled in University of Paris-7 to study for his
PhD.
In 1973 Moore was offered and accepted the post of secretariat of FESTAC (Second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture) in Lagos, Nigeria which was emerging from a civil war. During his time in Nigeria Moore met Fela Kuti and formed a relationship with the famed musician which led to the publication of Kuti’s biography Fela, Fela:This Bitch of a life. Due to his association with Kuti and his activities against the dictatorial regime in Nigeria Moore is dismissed from his position as Secretariat and imprisoned.
1975-1991
In 1975 Moore fled Nigeria and settled in Senegal until 1980. While in Senegal Moore conducted research for his Doctoral thesis which he completed in 1979, however past persecution had taken a toll on his health. In 1980 Moore left Senegal for Paris where he was advised to undergo treatment for a nervous breakdown. Despite his ill health, Moore embarked on a second PhD and began working for Jeune Afrique. In 1987 Moore was instrumental in organizing the “Negritude Afro cultures and Ethnicity in the Americas” conference at Florida International University which featured notable persons such as Maya Angelou, Alex Haley, Aime Cesaire, and Leopold Senghor.
The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 left Cuba in a precarious position, and Moore wrote a formal letter to Fidel Castro warning him that unless he seriously sought to rectify race relations in Cuba, he could face a revolution that would allow U.S. capitalist interests to impose their imperialistic will upon the
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 3, 2020
In some ways I think the subtitle of this book is unfortunate. While the narrative centers on Cuba and the fate of the revolution, it is actually a wider story of race and revolution in the postwar period. Moore's life connects all sorts of threads of Black power and Liberation movements in this period: from the Black nationalists and Marxists of Harlem, to Revolutionary Cuba and Liberation struggles in Africa, to Paris and the Franco-African Diaspora writers, and beyond. Moore's is a story of a life lived through the broader currents of a Black left internationalism that is all too easy to erase today.
March 28, 2019
This book was given to me as a birthday gift in 2009 by a then friend signed by Carlos Moore. I have moved homes and countries and for a while misplaced it. I’m extremely glad that I finally got around to reading it. It’s funny too that the gift bearer and I have since parted ways due to a lack of integrity and respect on his part. Carlos was asked in his young life if he knew what a man was, I’m sure he knows now as I too know .
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January 18, 2021Definitely want to use excerpts for future classes
December 5, 2009
Carlos Moore spoke on FIU's campus but unfortunately I could not attend because of class but, from the account I got from a friend, he really pissed some people off and had his lecture cut short. He gave a lecture on the prominence of racism in Cuba and Miami and the misconceptions Cuban American leaders try to portray about their homeland and the revolution. The book goes into detail about these accusations and he provides anecdotal and historical evidence for his claims.
Favorite Quote: "I said I was glad to have left Cuba, since living abroad had made me come to terms with the real, rather than fictional or idealized, world. People wherever I went organized themselves into tight groups that define the essence of who they were, based on religion, ethnicity, culture, nationality, language, race, gender, or sexual orientation. Anyone outside the in-group was viewed with a degree of suspicion, fear, prejudice, or intolerance."
Favorite Quote: "I said I was glad to have left Cuba, since living abroad had made me come to terms with the real, rather than fictional or idealized, world. People wherever I went organized themselves into tight groups that define the essence of who they were, based on religion, ethnicity, culture, nationality, language, race, gender, or sexual orientation. Anyone outside the in-group was viewed with a degree of suspicion, fear, prejudice, or intolerance."
August 12, 2012
Eyeopening!!!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews