Sartre in Cuba–Cuba in Sartre

William Rowlandson

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9783319616957
• eBook ISBN: 9783319616964
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

This book explores Sartre's engagement with the Cuban Revolution.

In early 1960 Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir accepted the invitation to visit Cuba and to report on the revolution. They arrived during the carnival in a land bursting with revolutionary activity. They visited Che Guevara, head of the National Bank. They toured the island with Fidel Castro. They met ministers, journalists, students, writers, artists, dockers and agricultural workers. Sartre spoke at the University of Havana.

Sartre later published his Cuba reports in France-Soir.

Sartre endorsed the Cuban Revolution. He made clear his political identification. He opposed colonialism. He saw the US as colonial in Cuban affairs from 1898. He supported Fidel Castro. He supported the agrarian reform. He supported the revolution.

His Cuba accounts have been maligned, ignored and understudied.

They have been denounced as blind praise of Castro, 'unabashed propaganda.'They have been criticised for 'clichés, ' 'panegyric' and 'analytical superficiality.' They have been called 'crazy' and 'incomprehensible.' Sartre was called naïve. He was rebuked as a fellow traveller. He was, in the words of Cuban author Guillermo Cabrera Infante, duped by 'Chic Guevara.'

This book explores these accusations. Were Sartre's Cuba texts propaganda? Are they blind praise? Was he naïve? Had he been deceived by Castro? Had he deceived his readers? Was he obligated to Castro or to the Revolution?

He later buried the reports, and abandoned a separate Cuba book. His relationship with Castro later turned sour.

What is the impact of Cuba on Sartre and of Sartre on Cuba?

Notes

1. 1.
   ‘Vous n’avez pas le droit d’ignorer la Révolution cubaine.’ Carlos Franqui to Sartre, Paris, autumn 1959 (Sartre 2008: 181). All translations from French to English from Appendice are my own.
2. 2.
   Sartre 2009: 175. He explains more fully earlier in the Gerassi interview: “No, not until I went to Central America and especially Mexico [did he understand U. S. politics]. No, Cuba was even worse. In those countries it is impossible not to see the damage that American businesses do, impossible not to understand that American capitalists, aided by their government, defended by the American army, just want to exploit the people living there. And by the way, it is impossible not to understand why American businessmen are racists; they justify their exploitation on the ground that the people of those countries are inferior. That alleviates their consciences” (Sartre 2009: 139).
3. 3.
   Ammar 2011.
4. 4.
   Beauvoir 1978: 499.
5. 5.
   Beauvoir 1978: 499.
6. 6.
   Beauvoir 1978: 500.
7. 7.
   Beauvoir 1978: 503.
8. 8.
   Contat and Rybalka 1974: 346.
9. 9.
   Annie Cohen-Solal writes: “This is how he wrote The Critique of Dialectical Reason : a wild rush of words and juxtaposed ideas, pouring forth during crises of hyper-excitement, under the effect of contradictory drugs, that would zing him up, knock him down, or halt him in between … up, down, stop, and so on and so forth in a constant struggle against himself, against his tired body, against time and sleep. Everything in excess. His diet over a period of twenty-four hours included two packs of cigarettes and several pipes stuffed with black tobacco, more than a quart of alcohol—wine, beer, vodka, whisky, and so on—200 milligrams of amphetamines, fifteen grams of aspirin, several grams of barbiturates, plus coffee, tea, rich meals. Heavy doses for a tough man, hyperlucid and nearly impervious to pain, who, however, would occasionally lapse into moments of absence, from which he then promptly re-emerged, ready to assume control, with vivacity and pride” (1991: 374).
10. 10.
    Hayman 1986: 338.
11. 11.
    Cohen-Solal 1991: 386.
12. 12.
    Beauvoir 1978: 501.
13. 13.
    Sartre 1974: 7.
14. 14.
    Beauvoir 1978: 502.
15. 15.
    Beauvoir 1978: 502.
16. 16.
    Franqui 1981: 134.
17. 17.
    Lunes No. 51, 21 March 1960 (Luis 2003: 12).
18. 18.
    “In France, from the third to the fifth of our successive Republics, guests were honored, are still honored, for example, by being installed in Rambouillet” (Sartre 1974: 136).
19. 19.
    Wall 2000: 383.
20. 20.
    Cohen-Solal 1991: 396.
21. 21.
    Otero 2005b: 8.
22. 22.
    Beauvoir recalls: “In Havana, Sartre had often been irritated at having to write this piece [preface to Aden Arabie ] when there were so many other things to do” (Beauvoir 1978: 511).
23. 23.
    Beauvoir 1978: 504.
24. 24.
    Beauvoir 1978: 504.
25. 25.
    Contat and Rybalka 1974: 379.
26. 26.
    Sartre 1974: 27.
27. 27.
    “Au nom des mêmes principes de liberté, nous accueillons aujourd’hui Jean-Paul Sartre—qui doute volontiers de l’indépendance de la presse d’information. Il est libre d’exprimer dans nos colonnes certaines opinions auxquelles nous ne souscrivons pas” (Sartre...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• The Invitation to Cuba
• Hurricane Over Sugar
• Sartre and Beauvoir in Havana
• Sartre’s History of Cuba
• The Philosophical Implications of the Cuban Revolution
• Sartre and Fidel Castro
• Revolution and Violence
• Sartre’s Account of Huber Matos
• Sartre, Beauvoir and Che Guevara
• Sartre and Lunes de Revolución
• Words with the Intellectuals
• Brazil, Cuba and Revolution
• Sartre’s relationship with Cuba through the 1960s
• Were the France-Soir Articles Propaganda?
• Sartre’s Other Book About Cuba
• The France-Soir Articles Today
• Backmatter