Julio M. Lara Author

Julio M. Lara, the author, was born on July 5, 1942, the son of a Cuban cattle rancher. I spent the early years of my life on our ranch, where I developed a love and caring for animals that has lasted even until this day. Then at the age of eight, we moved to the city where my brothers, sister, and I were able to go to school to learn about God, as my mother put it. Mother died when I was thirteen, and her death left me wondering if life had any meaning like loss in a cynical city. My emptiness made me an easy target for the Communists, who saw in me a means of transportation with my Jeep, a gift from my father. Since the beginning Socialism/Communist: I loved it, I fought for it, I let be brainwash by it, I went and offered my life for it, I was consumed by that ideology, for over four years. But, when we won the war in Cuba, we began to implement the socialist/communist system in my country, although I had studied the Communist Manifesto and know that the bourgeois class had to be eliminated. But when I saw thousands of human beings, been killed for the only crime of not agreeing with us. I could not take it anymore, and I could not continue; I resign and go back to my father ranch. Three months later, only Fifteen years old, still consumed by their doctrine, the Castro regime turned on me own family took our lands, our wealth, and arrested my father. I realized that my family and I were part of the bourgeois class. It was as if I had awakened from a horrible dream. One again, I had to fight to defend my homeland. I fled into the hills—a hunted fugitive. Castro sent nearly 100,000 of his soldiers after less than 3,000 men in our insurrectionist army and surrounded us with a large military force. That year was the worst year of my life, and we spent the last three months fighting vicious battles inside that military circle and running every day for our lives. For one month, I was able to eat only three meals. My companions and I stayed alive by drinking fetid...