The book provides information about 614 people murdered by Castro-Communism and whose remains were buried in hidden tombs.
Your name will appear on the balconies
from the sky of your country.
You won’t die at all,
you will continue to flourish
in your definitive cemetery.
From the poem: To each of the victims (Miami, February 24, 2006 / Angel Cuadra)
The disappeared of Castroism(Institute of Cuban Historical Memory Against Totalitarianism and Alexandria Library, 2025) —a recent work (199 pages) by professor and university academic Dr. Daniel I. Pedreira, with a prologue by journalist and essayist Pedro Corzo— constitutes an important document that abounds, providing responsible and historically verifiable information, to the extent possible, on the 614 people, men and women of Cuban and foreign nationality who, in one way or another way, they have been murdered for Castro-communism and their remains buried in hidden tombs or gone forever. The relatives who have survived the brutality of the island’s totalitarianism hope, one day, to obtain information that will allow them to rescue the bones, of incalculable sentimental value, and thus be able to close one of the most painful chapters in our national history, which, by the way, has a worthy precedent.
Juan Evangelista Valdés Veitía, (Santa Clara, 1836-1918) barber, poet, journalist, editor and revolutionary, at the end of our last war of independence (1895-1898), supported by other patriots, created the “Relics of the Homeland Committee” to rescue the remains of Cubans who fell during the war and whose remains lay in hidden tombs scattered throughout the country. length and width of fields, mountains and savannahs. More than 150 bodies, including that of violinist Joaquín Palma, were recovered and buried in the Villa Clara “Panteón de los Mártires de la Independencia.”
As an important piece of information, I add that on December 27, 1947, in remembrance and tribute to the day of his birth, “Barber and Hairdresser Day” was legally established in Cuba, a provision that, although many Cubans are unaware of, remains in force.
And since Castro-communism is an infamous continuator and amplifier of the brutality developed by Spanish colonialism, during our independence wars, fought during the last 19th century, Daniel I. Pedreira, with The disappeared of Castroismin an unequivocal sign of historical memory – just as, at the time, Juan Evangelista Valdés Veitía had it – shows in this work, to the civilized world, the barbarism committed, which still does not stop, carried out by the current goalkeepers of human rights and kidnappers of all national liberties. That is why I think, in the heat of reading this important book, that in the Cuban tomorrow, when the Castro atrocity has disappeared from our land, it becomes imperative, in fair historical continuity, to revive the “Relics of the Homeland Committee.” Thus, the hurt Cuban people will achieve, without forgetting the injury, healing consolation.
Daniel I. Pedreira, also a managing member of the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory Against Totalitarianism – in chapters such as: “Forced disappearances, El Escambray: Clandestine fighters, missing in combat and shot, Disappeared in other lands, Attempts to leave Cuba, Refugees missing at sea and land, Searching for missing persons in Cuba and Achieving closure with justice”, in addition to other valuable information – does not allow the collective retentiveness of the Cuban, in a future of full freedoms, blurs what happened on the Island fromJanuary 1, 1959 and that reaches the present.
Testimony that hurts and hurts the sensitivity of the reader, permanently, is the transcription and publication, in this volume, of the interview, recorded on video, for the series: “Cuba Encounter with Memory” that Pedro Corzo, director of the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory Against Totalitarianism, conducted, on January 24, 2022, with Mary de Graux Villafaña, sister of the young anti-Castro fighter Andrew (Andy) de Graux Villafaña, disappeared from the Cienfuegos hospital, in the early hours of September 17 to 18, where he was recovering, in prison conditions, from wounds received in combat.
In this review, I am unable to fully comment on the ordeal that Andy and his family suffered in life, before and after his unclarified murder. It is essential to read the entire text.
Dr. Pedreira—in the previous published works—“The last constituent: The political development of Emilio, MilloOchoa (Editorial Habana Vieja. 2013), “An Instrument of Peace: The Full-Circled Life of Ambassador Guillermo Belt Ramírez” (Editorial Lexington Books, 2019) and the bilingual, culturally and historically informative book titled: “Pen Club of Cuban Writers in Exile: Foundation, struggle and present” (Editors Luis de la Paz and Ángel De Fana, Rodes Printing, 2019)—shows extensive knowledge of the topics covered, and absolute command of writing that is clear, direct and at the same time concise, a quality that does not allow mental distractions.
Therefore, based on the previous concept, I believe that Daniel I. Pedreira with The disappeared of Castroismtestimony of palpitating topicality, has contributed to the praiseworthy dissemination that the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory Against Totalitarianism, over the years, has been carrying out through booksessays, conferences and film testimonies, in relation to the true, dark and bloody mark that Castro-communism has traced and continues to outline, on the face of the nation, with the same malevolent and shameful rancor that motivated the fratricidal Cain.
NOTE: The disappeared of Castroism and other works by Daniel I. Pedreira can be found on Amazon books, as well as all the titles published by the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory Against Totalitarianism.
