Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba Quotes

“In August 1956, about a year and a half after Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Bacardi Rum Company hosted a reception for him and his wife, Mary, at its Hatuey brewery, not far from the Hemingways’ home. He had been offered parties at exclusive private clubs, but he agreed only to the event at the brewery, because he knew he could bring his fisherman friends, even if they came barefoot and in shorts—as they did.”
― Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

“They would like to impose on us that era when the conscience did not exist, because only the [priest] confessor ruled,” he wrote, “when bright ideas were smothered before they could be born, and when terrified men went around mindlessly crossing themselves all day and wondered where their God was.”
― Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

“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

“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

“¡Qué Suerte Tiene el Cubano!”
― Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

“Show much guile and smiles to everyone. We will have time later on to trample underfoot all the cockroaches.”
― Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

“The 1950s would be seen simultaneously as Cuba’s best and worst years. The country’s irresistible sensual pleasures were on full display, but it also became clear that the overripe fruit was due to burst. The good life would succumb to ills that had gone untreated for too long. There were Cubans skilled enough to lead their country through those difficult years, and there were Cuban enterprises, such as Bacardi, with the outlook and the resources to help. But they were too few in number or too weak to make a lasting difference, and the Cuba that entered the 1950s did not make it to the decade’s end.”
― Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba