A Swift European Literary Response to Castro's Revolution: Juan Goytisolo's Cuban Travel Book

Abstract

In December 1961, almost three years after the downfall of the Batista regime, Juan Goytisolo arrived in Cuba and spent ten weeks travelling around the island. His motives for visiting post-revolutionary Cuba were political and also deeply personal. In 1963 Pueblo en marcha, the record of part of these travels, was published in Paris. In this travel book, the author provides an enthusiastic account of the aims of the Cuban Revolution, the socio-economic achievements of its early years, and the widespread support for Fidel Castro. However, later in the 1960s, convinced that the leadership had abandoned its initial ideals of social justice and had developed a repressive, Soviet-style regime, Goytisolo became completely disillusioned and rejected what he saw as a betrayal of the original revolutionary movement.