Estimated Price:

$2,000 - $3,000

Realised Price:

$700

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Title: Cartas del presidio: Anticipo de una biografia de Fidel Castro
Editor: Luis Conte Aguero
Publisher: Editorial Lex (Havana)
Printing Year: 1959 First Edition Signed by Fidel Castro

Condition/Details: Bound in red and white wrappers with prison mug shot of Fidel Castro on front cover, this antique volume is a scarce autographed collection of letters written by the Cuban leader while he was serving the two-year prison sentence that resulted from the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician, one of the primary leaders of the Cuban Revolution, the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then the President of the Council of State of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He is currently the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
The Moncada Barracks was a military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, named after General Guillermon Moncada, a hero of the War of Independence. On July 26, 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. This armed attack is widely accepted as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. The date on which the attack took place, July 26, was adopted by Castro as the name for his revolutionary movement (Movimiento 26 Julio or M 26-7) which eventually toppled the government of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. The attack on the barracks did not, however, succeed, and a handful of rebels, including Fidel Castro, escaped into the nearby countryside but were apprehended shortly thereafter.
The trial in the Santiago de Cuba Palace of Justice began on Sept. 21, 1953 and ended on Oct. 6, 1953, after eleven sessions. The Cuban Civil Code of Justice, based on the Napoleonic Code practiced in Europe and Latin America, has the verdict determined by a panel of three judges instead of a jury of peers under "common law" in the U.S. and Great Britain. In accordance, after the accused heard the charges against them, they were called to testify on their own behalf. The defendants were represented by 24 attorneys. Fidel Castro assumed his own defense and lied under oath to avoid implicating rebels on trial. During the questioning of rebel witnesses, Castro raised accusations of the murder of prisoners by the military. In consequence, Moncada chief Col. Alberto del Rio Chaviano, impeded Castro from returning to court by claiming that he could not attend due to illness. The tribunal then separated Castro from the proceedings and granted him a separate trial. Nineteen rebels were found not guilty based on lack of evidence and their false testimony. Confessed leaders Raul Castro, Oscar Alcalde, Pedro Miret, and Ernesto Tizol received 13-year prison sentences. Twenty other rebels received 10-year sentences. Rebels Manuel Lorenzo, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Orlando Cortez Gallardo, who refused to participate in the attack at the last moment, got 3-year sentences. Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria were given seven-month sentences since it was never proven that they handled weapons.
Castro, a lawyer, later published as a speech and titled "History Will Absolve Me," was written in his cell and smuggled to a friend from the 26th of July attack, Haydée Santamaria, page by page. It became the platform of the 26th of July Movement, detailing plans for reform in Cuba, and was later frequently used in Castro's speeches. on the Isle of Pines (now known as the Isle of Youth).
Two years later, in 1955, a group of prisoners' mothers launched a campaign to free Castro and the other rebels imprisoned with him. As popular support for the rebels and opposition to Batista's rule mounted, a group of political leaders, editors, and intellectuals signed a public appeal demanding "liberty for the political prisoners". That year, the Cuban Congress passed a bill granting general amnesty to political prisoners. After being signed by Batista, the thirty imprisoned rebels were freed. They served 22 months in prison.(background information courtesy of Wikipedia)
There are twenty-one letters (nine to Conte Aguero, six to his late sister and close collaborator, Lidia, one to his wife Mirta, one to his comrade in combat, Melba Hernandez, and one to the great scholar Jorge Manach). These letters are regarded as the single most valuable and revelatory document regarding Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.

Castro's signature appears on the front flyleaf, together with the date 3/ 05/ 59. They both appear over a stamp reading "Operacion cultura organizada por la F. E. U. en la Universidad de La Habana - Feria del Libro, 19-30 de Mayo de 1959. Anyo de la Liberacion. Editorial Lex - Obispo 461." The work contains a title page illustration showing Fidel Castro inside the prison of Isla de Pinos, as well as a photostatic image of one of the letters. This lot is accompanied by provenance to establish authenticity, in the form of copies of a letter signed by Manresa's son and and the original export certificate issued by the Cuban government. The volume shows light external age/wear. The binding has detached at front hinge. Mildly age-toned pages are otherwise clean. The book measures approximately 5 3/4" x 8 1/2" and contains 93 pages. Shipping cost (within the U.S.) for this lot will be: $4.50