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Biography of a Runaway Slave
In this remarkable testimony, Cuban novelist and anthropologist Miguel Barnet presents the narrative of 105-year-old Esteban Montejo, who lived as a slave, as fugitive in the wilderness, and as a soldier in the Cuban War of Independence. Honest, blunt, compassionate, shrewd, and engaging, his voice provides an extraordinary insight into the African culture that took root i...more
Paperback, 217 pages
Published
July 1st 1995
by Northwestern University Press
(first published 1973)
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This book is a collection of interviews with a Cuban man who was born enslaved, escaped and then fought in the war of independence. The interviews were conducted when he was 103-105. So he made it to after the Revolution and died at about 113.
I didn´t finish the book. I actually stopped during the most interesting bit, with only about 40 pages to go. I enjoyed what I did read. It is more anthropolgy than history in the sense that these fields don´t overlap. For example he talks exten...more
I didn´t finish the book. I actually stopped during the most interesting bit, with only about 40 pages to go. I enjoyed what I did read. It is more anthropolgy than history in the sense that these fields don´t overlap. For example he talks exten...more
In a time of despotism and heavy governmental censorship -- say, in Cuba in the decade after its 1959 Revolution -- how do you write stories?
With this book, Miguel Barnet founded one potential answer in what he would call the "testimonial novel". The trick is this: You (the author) interview another person, preferably an ordinary person whose voice would otherwise be considered too inconsequential for the pages of history, and you turn his/her experiences into a novel, main...more
With this book, Miguel Barnet founded one potential answer in what he would call the "testimonial novel". The trick is this: You (the author) interview another person, preferably an ordinary person whose voice would otherwise be considered too inconsequential for the pages of history, and you turn his/her experiences into a novel, main...more
This gets my vote for the worst book group book ever (the previous prize belonged to Saramago's Balthasar and Blimunda, another book I couldn't finish). I think maybe if the author had actually written a biography rather than what appears to be transcribing tapes, it could have been interesting. It's tedious. I read 100 pages. I quit. Is it possible to give no stars at all?
As a historical source, there was slim information but very interesting information about folklore, religion and culture of Afro-Cuban's, both before and after the abolition of slavery. I also found myself liking the cranking, sometimes fiery, loner and patriot Esteban Montejo. The man was 105, so I allowed for the occasional Abe Simpson moment.
I'm working on my Spanish so... it might have been a 5 if I were up to the job. In the mean time it's about the problem of wanting to participate in a community when you have always separated yourself from the community you see and can't accept. The translation of the title into "Story of a Slave" is bad because Montejo is giving his story (of being a cimarron--more a 'fugitive') in contradiction to the official history of his person as slave. We talked about how testimonio is always a...more
Una cuenta triste pero real sobre la vida de un esclavo en las plantaciones de cana de azucar en Cuba. (A sad yet real account about the life of a slave in the sugar cane plantations in Cuba.)
I started this and there was some interesting information, but it was alittle slow-going.
The Cuban Revolution (that one against Spain) from a Cuban slave's perspective.
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