The Initials of the Earth

by Jesus Diaz

Las iniciales de la tierra – the title is from a poem by  the Chilean Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda (who, strangely enough, had taken the name of a 19th century Czech poet and writer as his pseudonym. Even more strangely, the name means “a rude person”.)

The discussion of this book suggested by Anne took place over lunch provided by  Anne. Present were: Anne, Christa, Christine, Loeky, Iréne, Susan and myself.

The book chronicles the Cuban revolution through the eyes and experiences of Carlos Pérez Cifredo, from his prerevolutionary bourgeois childhood through the first dozen years of the Castro era. In many ways it is an exercise in “self-criticism”.” Carlos is reviewing his past behaviour in preparation for a Communist Party meeting at which his comrades will rule on “whether he was or was not an exemplary worker”, and whether or not he can be admitted to the Central Committee – the Sanctus Sanctorum - of the Party. Written in the 60´, it was rewritten when the author lived in exile in Spain, and published in Cuba in the 70´. It has strongly autobiographical elements, though according to the post script, the author was a rather different person in real life. (Possibly even less “simpático”.)

The majority opinion of the group was that the protagonist was not a very likeable  character, and that the book was too long and often boring. Some objected to the vulgarity of certain passages. (I´d like to point out here that, unfortunately, it came over much more vulgar in English, than it would have been the case in Spanish.) As I  tried to explain at the lunch, I had been quite captivated by it. Cuba was very much present on the scene of the Socialistic Czechoslovakia, and I could relate to what Carlos was going through. It yet again confirmed, that the Communist doctrine corrupts people in the same way, whatever their race and background – from Russia, to China, from the Eastern Bloc to Cuba, even if the communist regime itself in Cuba was  milder and in some respects beneficiary to the country (p.e. the literacy campaign.  I thought that there was a great deal of criticism of the regime and the higher echelons of the Party in the novel, disguised as irony and exaggeration – the sugar mill episode, for example.

Christa found it overall okay, but his style of writing not so easy to comprehend, and she expected more inside information about Cuba.

Loeky contributed to the discussion by telling us about her growing up in the Dutch Antilles.

Anne, as usual, picked up a lot of interesting points and thoughts – I read the book after her and could only agree with her annotations.

It all goes to show, that our opinion of the books we read is to a great extend influenced by our own experiences…

Blanka