Persona non grata.

By staff -- Críticas, 1/15/2007

First published in 1973, this notably enduring book catapulted Edwards to fame, anchoring a career punctuated by many important successes, including the Premio Cervantes in 1999. This account of his brief but grueling stint as Chile’s first ambassador to Cuba after the election of Socialist president Salvador Allende in 1970—he served just three months after being appointed by Allende to open the embassy—sent shockwaves through the Latin American Left with its frankly critical portrayal of Castro’s character. Edwards’s firsthand descriptions of the repression and obligatory conformity he saw in Cuba cut deeply into the enthusiasm then prevailing in much of the world, where many viewed Chile’s brief turn to the Left under Allende and Cuba’s tenacious defiance of U.S. imperialism as encouraging signs of change in the hemisphere. Edwards paid attention to Cuban dissidents, who had a very different view of the situation, and his descriptions of his own encounters with Castro are certain to discomfit anyone willing to give the leader the benefit of the doubt. Edwards weathered the opprobrium of many of his fellow writers and intellectuals with the publication of this work, which made waves again in 1993 with the publication of an abridged English translation augmented by author’s notes. This edition adds to those notes and includes a fascinating new epilog. Recommended for libraries and bookstores.—Bruce Jensen, Spanish in Our Libraries, CA