Glenn

“Terrible things rarely happen all at once,” she answers. “They’re incremental, so people don’t realize how bad things have gotten until it’s too late. He swore up and down that he wasn’t a communist. That he wanted democracy. Some believed him. Others didn’t.” “Did you—” “Believe? Support Fidel then?” I nod. “No.”
― Chanel Cleeton, Next Year in Havana

“In the wake of the attack against him, Fulgencio Batista began demanding public demonstrations of loyalty from anyone who depended on government largesse or favors—public employees, landowners, pro-Batista union leaders, businessmen, and bankers. Workers who failed to take part in scheduled demonstrations could be fired. A succession of industrial leaders, fearful of alienating the regime, called on Batista to offer their sympathy and pledge their allegiance.”
― Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

“he figured a cup of coffee would hit the spot. For what is more versatile? As at home in tin as it is in Limoges, coffee can energize the industrious at dawn, calm the reflective at noon, or raise the spirits of the beleaguered in the middle of the night.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“The French agronomist René Dumont identified the problem: “The man who opposes Castro’s ideas is quickly rejected, and as a result when Castro sets forth a mistaken proposition nobody dares oppose him if he wants to hold on to his job.”
― Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba