The Uprising (ePub)

On August 6, 1960, in Havana's main sports arena, Fidel Castro announces the expropriations of American and national businesses. Elpidio García and his family lose the bulk of their properties. A fourth-generation farmer with a no-nonsense attitude, he doesn't run away to Miami. Instead, he arms himself and goes up into the Sierra del Escambray he knows so well, joining what came to be known as the Escambray Uprising, a real historical event. Friends, neighbors, and family follow him, including a young gay woman named Rosa, who can't care less that women are supposed to stay home and not meddle in a man's world.

In dire need of weapons, Elpidio and his guerrillas attack an army outpost and wipe out the garrison. Lieutenant Reynaldo De la Huerta dies in the fight and his brother Antonio, also an army officer, swears revenge.

Months later, in Langley, VA, and counting with the Escambray Uprising's strength in numbers, the CIA starts assembling an exile force capable of storming into the island and securing a sizable beachhead in preparation for a full-blown American intervention. In Miami, as soon as they hear about it, two Cuban exiled friends, Néstor Guttman and Luis Muriel, volunteer, to the dismay of Néstor's mother and Luis' pregnant wife.

Soon the 2506 Brigade becomes a fighting unit to be reckoned with. The plan is for the Brigade to land on the southern coast of Cuba, near the coastal fishing town of Casilda, ten kilometers south from the city of Trinidad, and just a stone throw away from the Sierra del Escambray, where close to five thousand men and women are up in arms. Later, Admiral Arleigh "31-Knot" Burke orders the US Task Force Alpha to escort the invaders from Nicaragua to Cuba; 2500 U.S. Marines are on board. It's April 1961.

But that was Eisenhower's plan.

President Kennedy, wary of heavy civilian casualties in a populated area, first changes the landing zone and at the last minute cancels all American participation, to the dismay of the U.S. Navy and the CIA. The 2506 Brigade is defeated and Lieutenant De la Huerta goes after the insurgents like a bloodhound.

In a display of courage, fortitude, and resilience, the men and women in the mountains don't shy away from an uphill battle and they're still fighting when in October of 1962 the Missile Crisis comes around. When Kennedy and Khrushchev agree to defuse the situation, the rebels are left out to dry; they become collateral damage, but they keep on trudging along, determined to fight to the last bullet, to the last man.