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Island of the White Rose

ebook
This tale, set amid the Castro revolution in Cuba, is one of adventure and intrigue, of armed struggle and forbidden love, as the Batista dictatorship is overthrown. It also is a story of conscience and idealism succumbing to reality and disillusionment. Father Pedro Villanueva, 34, son of an upper-middle class Havana family, is initially non-political, and more at ease sailing at the elite Havana Yacht Club than performing his priestly duties. Still, he chafes at his church's silence amid the Batista regime's brutality. He chafes also at the life imposed on him by his priestly vows of celibacy. To free a parishioner's son from La Cabana prison, he and his brother Alberto bribe guards at the prison. The prisoner is released, but Pedro's brother is killed during the handover. Pedro joins with the underground to support the Fidelistas fighting in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
One of the women who helps lead him down that path is the sexy Vilma Espin, a former MIT graduate student, leader of a Havana underground cell, and future wife of Raul Castro. Another who will affect his life is Maria Guerra, a disaffected government official. Vilma and Maria persuade Pedro first to obtain medicines for the rebels, later to smuggle arms to them aboard his family's 40-foot sloop, The White Rose (named after a poem by Jose Marti, a 19th Century national hero, in which the white rose symbolizes Cuba and its brightest aspirations). As Pedro's involvement with the revolution grows, taking him into the mountains, gun in hand, his priestly ethics are abandoned. His celibacy vows also are left behind. After Batista flees the country and Castro's forces take power, Pedro—his core beliefs sacrificed—sees people close to him slowly realize they have fought a right-wing dictatorship only to witness a dictatorship of the left replace it. Some now are demonized as counterrevolutionaries. The White Rose, with Pedro at the helm, secretly slips off on a new mission.

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Publisher: Bridge Works Publishing Co.

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780981617565
  • Release date: August 1, 2013

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780981617565
  • File size: 631 KB
  • Release date: August 1, 2013

Formats

OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

Languages

English

This tale, set amid the Castro revolution in Cuba, is one of adventure and intrigue, of armed struggle and forbidden love, as the Batista dictatorship is overthrown. It also is a story of conscience and idealism succumbing to reality and disillusionment. Father Pedro Villanueva, 34, son of an upper-middle class Havana family, is initially non-political, and more at ease sailing at the elite Havana Yacht Club than performing his priestly duties. Still, he chafes at his church's silence amid the Batista regime's brutality. He chafes also at the life imposed on him by his priestly vows of celibacy. To free a parishioner's son from La Cabana prison, he and his brother Alberto bribe guards at the prison. The prisoner is released, but Pedro's brother is killed during the handover. Pedro joins with the underground to support the Fidelistas fighting in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
One of the women who helps lead him down that path is the sexy Vilma Espin, a former MIT graduate student, leader of a Havana underground cell, and future wife of Raul Castro. Another who will affect his life is Maria Guerra, a disaffected government official. Vilma and Maria persuade Pedro first to obtain medicines for the rebels, later to smuggle arms to them aboard his family's 40-foot sloop, The White Rose (named after a poem by Jose Marti, a 19th Century national hero, in which the white rose symbolizes Cuba and its brightest aspirations). As Pedro's involvement with the revolution grows, taking him into the mountains, gun in hand, his priestly ethics are abandoned. His celibacy vows also are left behind. After Batista flees the country and Castro's forces take power, Pedro—his core beliefs sacrificed—sees people close to him slowly realize they have fought a right-wing dictatorship only to witness a dictatorship of the left replace it. Some now are demonized as counterrevolutionaries. The White Rose, with Pedro at the helm, secretly slips off on a new mission.

Expand title description text