Cuba Solidarity in Canada
Five Decades of People-to-People Foreign Relations
Cuba Solidarity in Canada is a collection of essays about the Canadian Solidarity movement in support of Cuba during more than 50 years. The book suggests a framework that informs the reader on the meaning, positive influence and potentially valuable role that solidarity can play in the relationship between peoples, indeed between nations.
Brian Gordon Sinclair is proud to have contributed the twelfth and final chapter to this fine work and to have shared the pages of this book with several friends and colleagues. What follows is the abstract for his chapter. Read the abstract, read the chapter, read the book. Enjoy it all:
Abstract: Brian Gordon Sinclair (Hemingway On Stage)
Ernest Hemingway: One Canadian’s Doorway into Cuba (Brian Gordon Sinclair)
I speak not of politics but of love. Ernest Hemingway opened a doorway that allowed me to discover the vibrant love of literature and people that is Cuba. He lived there for twenty years until forced out by America’s fear of socialism. His spirit, however, is still there. I know that because when I meet the people of Cuba, as a writer and performer of Hemingway, I can feel it. His spirit exists in the people, in their hearts. Now he has moved into legend. In Havana, in Holguin and in Santiago, I have had the pleasure of sharing that legend. I have portrayed Hemingway at the 50th Anniversary of the meeting of Fidel Castro and Ernest Hemingway. They met at an international fishing tournament organized by Hemingway and where Fidel won the trophy for catching the most fish. I have appeared in Holguin at the Cuban 5 Colloquium while speaking in support of freedom and relishing the joy of a festival called Los Romerias de Mayo and I have appeared in Santiago de Cuba, sharing my work with students at the University of Oriente and participating in the astounding Festival of the Caribbean. In each case, my experience was intensely personal. In each case, Ernest Hemingway led me to and through an island that I did not know, to an island that now summons me to know more, much more.