For Cuba--for Freedom!

An M-26-7 Leader Aiding the Castro Revolution from America, 1955-1961
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4766-9099-5
Verlag: McFarland

Buch, Englisch, 277 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 518 g

Raul Villamia's childhood in Cuba revolved around baseball and bloodshed. The violence that he witnessed led him to support Castro's revolution, and his brother Mario, a political activist since his mid-teens, introduced him to Castro's 26th of July Movement (M267). Minor league baseball brought him to the United States, where he hoped to pursue a career in the majors, and left Villamia uniquely placed to aid Castro's revolution from abroad.

From Tampa, New York City, Bridgeport, Union City, Miami, and Key West, the Villamias, Angel Perez-Vidal, Howard K. Davis and others supported Castro through fundraising, collecting supplies for the revolutionaries, propaganda campaigns, and arms smuggling. Raul rubbed elbows with Castro and his top men and with American gangsters who did business in Cuba. He was hounded by the FBI, and his brother Mario is mentioned in the Warren Commission Report. This memoir recalls his experience as an agent for Castro in the United States and tells the story of those in America whose efforts helped to oust Batista.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Villamia, Raul Andres

Villamia, Rhonda J.

Guzzo, Paul J.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Regional- & Stadtgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Nachrichtendienste, Geheimdienste

Über Autor(innen)

The late Raul Andres Villamia came from Cuba as a professional minor league baseball player in 1947. In 1955, his brother Mario asked him to help Castro establish a M267 branch in Tampa. Raul served as its secretary and president, and as Tampa's first Cuban Consul under Castro. He retired from a 30-year career with the City of Tampa Traffic Department. He died on December 2, 2010, at the age of 95.

Rhonda J. Villamia was a production crew member for an children's educational TV series, a teacher with the New York City Board of Education, and an interpreter for Hispanic marketing research focus groups. She has written articles for the Woodside Herald, La Gaceta, and Cigar City Magazine. She lives in Tampa, Florida.

Paul J. Guzzo is a filmmaker best known for Charlie Wall the Documentary about Tampa's first organized crime kingpin, and journalist whose work includes the discovery of lost segregation-era Black cemeteries throughout the Tampa Bay area. He lives in Lutz, Florida.