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Wings of the Morning Cuban Pilot's Courageous Flight to Save His Wife and Children
A few days before Christmas 1992, in a feat of astonishing audacity, former Cuban Air Force Major Orestes Lorenzo, flying an aging Cessna, banked sharply over Matanzas, Cuba, touched down on a busy highway, and roared off moments later with the wife and sons he had left behind when he defected to America 21 months before.--Washington Post. To be a fall '93 TV production.
346 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 1958
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 1, 2023
Love of family and trust in God gave him the courage to risk the wrath of the country from which he fled to return and rescue his wife and sons. A gripping true story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2021
While researching a project on political rhetoric, I stumbled into Orestes Lorenzo’s name. I had forgotten about his daring rescue of his family from Cuba in 1992, but was curious to learn of his life following that feat. The research project stalled the way his Cessna could have on that fateful night of December off the El Mamey beach road. I am 70 and near blind, and thus I had to listen patiently to Kindle’s text-to-speech monotonous voice, nevertheless driven to deep emotion at the narration—some laughter, much amazement, tears of joy and tears of sadness.
This is a thrilling book, not just because of the suspense it builds (naturally, I knew how the story ended, and the suspense was created in its telling), but because it is told by a man driven by ethics, a conscience and, above all, love. The book’s narrative structure is enveloped in such an intimate portrait of family life and betrayed revolutionary convictions, that were it not for the fact that it is a true story, it often reads as alternately heartwarmingly intimate diary and hauntingly harrowing fiction. The reader comes to feel the anguish, the fear, the despair that he, his beloved Vicky and Reyniel and Alejandro experience. A longtime student of Cuban culture and politics, first through my exiled classmates in a boarding school in Puerto Rico and later from my mentor, college professor and second mother Violeta G. Pintado in her double exile in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for 25 years I had postponed an analytical study of the linguistic means Fidel Castro used to manipulate revolutionary ideals since January 1, 1959. Meanwhile, I have published fiction and nonfiction, always wondering whether at some point I would undertake the Castro project. Orestes Lorenzo’s book has inspired me to complete my study, hopefully to provide a deeper insight into how tyrants use language to subjugate entire countries, and perhaps develop greater awareness of the dangers of demagoguery and political oppression.
Together with Armando Valladares’ Against All Hope, Huber Matos’ How Night Fell and Juan Reinaldo Sánchez’s The Double Life of Fidel Castro, Orestes Lorenzo’s Wings of the Morning comprise an encyclopedia of Fidel Castro’s revolution’s decadence, deceit, infamy and narcissism while sustaining a political construct built to uphold a cult of personality that sustains itself as both means and end, not because it bestows its citizens any true benefit or welfare. Those writings remind us that tyranny and autocracy, whether from the left or the right, are always toxic.
This is a thrilling book, not just because of the suspense it builds (naturally, I knew how the story ended, and the suspense was created in its telling), but because it is told by a man driven by ethics, a conscience and, above all, love. The book’s narrative structure is enveloped in such an intimate portrait of family life and betrayed revolutionary convictions, that were it not for the fact that it is a true story, it often reads as alternately heartwarmingly intimate diary and hauntingly harrowing fiction. The reader comes to feel the anguish, the fear, the despair that he, his beloved Vicky and Reyniel and Alejandro experience. A longtime student of Cuban culture and politics, first through my exiled classmates in a boarding school in Puerto Rico and later from my mentor, college professor and second mother Violeta G. Pintado in her double exile in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for 25 years I had postponed an analytical study of the linguistic means Fidel Castro used to manipulate revolutionary ideals since January 1, 1959. Meanwhile, I have published fiction and nonfiction, always wondering whether at some point I would undertake the Castro project. Orestes Lorenzo’s book has inspired me to complete my study, hopefully to provide a deeper insight into how tyrants use language to subjugate entire countries, and perhaps develop greater awareness of the dangers of demagoguery and political oppression.
Together with Armando Valladares’ Against All Hope, Huber Matos’ How Night Fell and Juan Reinaldo Sánchez’s The Double Life of Fidel Castro, Orestes Lorenzo’s Wings of the Morning comprise an encyclopedia of Fidel Castro’s revolution’s decadence, deceit, infamy and narcissism while sustaining a political construct built to uphold a cult of personality that sustains itself as both means and end, not because it bestows its citizens any true benefit or welfare. Those writings remind us that tyranny and autocracy, whether from the left or the right, are always toxic.
November 9, 2024
I'm sure it's a good book, but the writing did nothing for me so I stopped reading after 35 pages. Sorry
February 12, 2017
This memoir was suggested just as we were leaving on a cruise to Cuba. It is an exciting and interesting story, but more importantly it gave me insights into how life was under the Communist dicatatorship of Fidel Castro. Reading this book helped me understand what our guides answered questions about the economic side of life in Cuba with the response: "It's complicated." I'm so glad this book was recommended to me before I left and so nice to be easily able to locate and download it to my Kindle from Amazon just before our departure. No, I didn't read it in 2 days, but internet access has been spotty.
October 6, 2020
Due to understandable cultural and linguistic challenges, the author’s story is likely told with the help of other writers. There’s flowery language and a high sounding, idealistic tone at times. Yet, that doesn’t diminish the heart of his experience nor it’s import. It’s a compelling story in need of hearing and remembrance clearly identifying the evils of communism acted out against human freedom and relationship. According to polls, many today don’t understand the dangers. In a personal, relatable way, he gives the world a concrete example of the harms done and the hope that can be found in freedom and love - even amidst imperfection. The stories of his own escape from Cuba as well as his return to rescue and liberate his wife and children are exciting and hard to put down. I highly recommend this book. (For full transparency: While a police officer, I met the author prior to the rescue of his family. Some suspected foreign agents had reportedly tried to enter his apartment but left the scene when he and an associate arrived. The apartment building in Alexandria, Virginia, where this occurred, is mentioned in the book but the incident is not.)
April 29, 2009
I read this book when it first came out and enjoyed it very much. It was intriguing and interesting. It tells the story of a Cuban Airforce Pilot who escaped in a jet to the USA and later went back to rescue his wife and 2 sons. I have just recently started rereading the book and have realized how much Obama's dream for America, is what Orestes Lorenzo was escaping from in Cuba. Spreading the wealth, national health care, better education for our children, mandatory voluntary services by all Americans with indoctrination on being a "good citizen". Read it and weep as I have.
January 4, 2016
Excelente historia narrada por un ser humano excepcional quien no tenía como objetivo la grandeza material sino la libertad suya y de su adorada familia, Vicky y los niños quedaron detrás pero el amor y la tenacidad de Lorenzo los reunió para siempre en tierras de libertad. Una historia para apreciar el precio de la libertad para aquellos que no nacimos con ella.
January 3, 2024
Que relato tan extraordinario. Orestes Lorenzo es la personificación de integridad, lealtad, carácter y valentía. Una historia muy bien contanda, al punto que siento cariño por esa familia tan linda y aguerrida.
Muy recomendado. La libertad ideológica no es un privilegio, sino un derecho.
Muy recomendado. La libertad ideológica no es un privilegio, sino un derecho.
March 9, 2024
Had a real battle putting this book Dow.
Engaging, fast paced real life account of the moral decay reflected by communism in Cuba. This is an amazing book that celebrates family, courage and most of all the will to love at all costs.
Engaging, fast paced real life account of the moral decay reflected by communism in Cuba. This is an amazing book that celebrates family, courage and most of all the will to love at all costs.
October 11, 2011
This was a great book I read years ago.
March 28, 2016
It illustrates the big lie of communism.
December 22, 2020
Heartbreaking view inside communist Cuba.
February 6, 2021
Excelente libro.
Me encanto el relato, aprendí mucho de la vida que bien en Cuba, y me di cuenta de la farsa del comunismo. El libro tiene mucha emoción, la verdad me encanto!
Me encanto el relato, aprendí mucho de la vida que bien en Cuba, y me di cuenta de la farsa del comunismo. El libro tiene mucha emoción, la verdad me encanto!
October 30, 2025
Such a Emotional book. I loved it! I felt especially connected to this book because of my Cuban Parents and family still left behind in that country to rot.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews