Jimper/Cuba/Synopsis

CUBA SHORT SYNOPSIS PROLOGUE. On a warm and humid Havana night, a young man struggles with his conscience while he waits for the man he came to kill. After silently shooting a uniformed officer in the head at point-blank range, he joins thousands of his compatriots in the sea of anonymity that became the Mariel boatlift. Aboard an overcrowded shrimp boat heading for Florida, with the Cuban navy closely in pursuit, the young man tells the captain of the boat a story that is part confession, part ode to the sacrifices his family made for Cuba and for freedom.

BOOK ONE: THE COLONY. MANUEL GOMEZ, a 17 year-old boy with dreams bigger than reality can produce, arrives in Havana from his native Spain in 1850. Within days of his arrival, he is faced with the brutal reality of a colonial system marred by the scars of slavery and Spanish Imperial rule. Barely a day into his first job as a slave overseer, Manuels life changes dramatically when he spends all the money he had so painstakingly saved for his voyage to buy OCTAVIO, a slave about to be executed for trying to escape. Manuels act of kindness is rewarded with a lifetime friendship as well as unexpected and unimaginable riches. Within a few years and with the help of mentor DON FILIBERTO MENDIETA, who adopts him as his son, Manuel becomes one of the richest men on the island. He marries MAGDALENA ROQUEFUENTE, a society girl from Havana. They return to his hacienda and start planning a conspiracy to secede from Spain and abolish slavery. Together with other wealthy landowners, Manuel frees his slaves and embarks on a war of independence from Spain. Colonial forces raid the hacienda killing most and wounding the nine-months-pregnant Magdalena. Octavios 8-year-old son, PEDRO pulls Magdalena into the jungle, where she dies in his arms after giving birth to a baby boy. Struggling for days through dense jungle while carrying the newborn, Pedro manages to find the insurgents only to discover that the Spanish Army has decimated the rebels. Both his father and Manuel have been killed in action.
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Under Pedros watchful eye, Manuels son MARIO GOMEZ-MENDIETA grows up in the midst of war and becomes one of the most respected generals of the Independence Army. In 1898, after decades of conflict, Cuba gains freedom from Spain at the end of the SpanishAmerican War. In one of its first decrees, the new government returns to its rightful owners all the properties and riches confiscated by the Spanish Crown, and Mario finds himself in the possession of his fathers vast wealth. With Pedro by his side, he goes to the United States to study law, returning to his beloved Cuba after graduation, when he is called to a higher duty. A group of prominent citizens and veterans of the independence war have asked Mario to save Cuba from another U.S. military intervention by running for President of the Republic.

BOOK TWO: THE REPUBLIC. In the midst of a heated Presidential campaign Marios paramour, a society woman named MATILDE confesses she is pregnant. Mario marries her out of duty, not love. The wedding helps propel his campaign, and he is elected president. When Matilde gives birth to a girl, Mario uses the excuse of security to send her and their daughter, ANA MARIA, to the old hacienda in Oriente province. He refuses to even see his daughter, alleging that they are distracting him from his official duties. Under Marios rule, Cuba begins a period of economic and democratic recovery. Massive public works are completed and prosperity comes to the island. During a rally to announce his reelection bid, leftist anarchists launch an attack. Mario is wounded, and Pedro and his wife are killed. Mario declares martial law, plunging the country into chaos. Calm is eventually restored to the country and Mario decides to retire from politics and announces he will not seek a second term. Facing the end of his political career and feeling a sense of loneliness after Pedros death, Mario returns to the hacienda in Oriente to meet his daughter and try to regain his family. But Matilde immediately asks him for a divorce and returns to the capital, taking Ana Maria with her. Mario is left alone in the hacienda to care for JOSEFINA, Pedros orphaned daughter.

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Growing up in the capital, Ana Maria becomes a rebellious, morally bankrupt young woman who gives birth to twin boys out of wedlock. She gives the babies to Mario and moves to Europe, where she dies alone years later. Mario raises the twins ERNESTO and ENRIQUE as his own with the help of Josefina, who is now in her teens. The boys enroll in a military school in the U.S., where Enrique becomes a military jet pilot and Ernesto a military engineer. During a holiday in New York City Ernesto meets LADY CONSTANCE WOLPER, a young woman from England, and the two fall in love. Against her familys wishes, Constance runs away to Cuba with Ernesto and they make plans to marry, with Marios blessings. Mario builds a colossal mansion in Havana as a wedding present for the newlyweds. Their wedding is the social event of the year, attended by local and international society. At the wedding reception, the current president of Cuba FULGENCIO BATISTA announces theres been a rebel attack to the Moncada Barracks, a military garrison in Santiago. Batista, who installed himself as president in a military coup only a few months earlier, orders that every rebel be killed. He returns to the wedding reception to announce there are no survivors among the rebels. The leader of the attack, a young lawyer named FIDEL CASTRO has managed to escape into the mountains with a handful of his men. Through mediation from the Catholic Church, the survivors of the Moncada attack surrender and are put on trial. Castro takes full advantage of the public forum offered by the trial to promote his revolutionary agenda. The rebels are found guilty and sentenced to long prison terms. A year later, with the country growing unstable and the people rebelling against the rampant corruption and government abuses, Batista decides to pardon Castros rebel group and sends them into exile in Mexico. In Havana, Ernesto completes construction of the military airport he designed. At the opening ceremony, he is rewarded with the news that Constance is pregnant with their son. Elated by the news, Mario proclaims his unborn grandchild to be his universal heir. When the baby is born, DANIEL GOMEZ-MENDIETA becomes the richest heir in the country. In 1956, Fidel Castro returns to Cuba with a small expeditionary force to start a guerrilla war against Batista. The populations general discontent with the abuses of the Batista military regime helps fuel the insurgency. By the end of 1958, after the U.S. withdraws its support of the Batista government, the rebels take Santiago, Cubas second largest city.
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Enriques plane is shot down by the rebel forces while he is on a mission to bomb their positions around Santiago. Faced with imminent defeat, Batista and his family abandon the country in the middle of the night. They take with them a vast fortune from Cuban National Treasury and leave the Presidential Palace full of unsuspecting guests dancing at the New Years Ball.

BOOK THREE: THE REVOLUTION. Castro enters Havana like a Roman conqueror atop a Sherman tank to the cheering of the crowds and proceeds to publicly execute everyone who was part of the Batista regime. As the entire Gomez-Mendieta family watches in horror, Enrique, captured by the rebels when his plane was shot down, is put on trial on live TV and found guilty of treason. He is executed by firing squad moments later. Mario gathers the family and tries to whisk them away to safety in the U.S. The escape is derailed when Constance, eight months pregnant, becomes ill from the stress and must be rushed to a hospital. By the time she delivers baby boy LUIS, both her husband and MARIO have been detained by the Castro troops. All their property is confiscated. With the help of the British ambassador, Constance tries to save Ernestos life. She gains an audience with Castro to plea for her husbands life but ends up calling him a murderer. After a tense scene, Castro commutes the execution order for a sentence of permanent house arrest. The family makes a new enemy in GUSTAVO RAMIREZ, the Lieutenant in charge of Ernestos execution. A sadistic killer, Ramirez feels cheated when the stay is issued and vows to bring down the despised bourgeoisie family. With the house arrest order, the family mansion becomes a prison. The family is constantly harassed by Ramirez, now the Chief of Secret Police. Brothers Danny and Luis grow up under the loving tutelage of Josefina but also with the stress of near daily house searches and the constant witnessing of Ernestos interrogations at the hands of Ramirez as the traumatic backdrop to their childhood.

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The death of his beloved Enrique and the loss of all his possessions prove fatal to Mario. He dies of a stroke while his grandson Danny sleeps peacefully on his lap. The man who once ruled the country is buried in silence. His son is not allowed to leave the house for the funeral. Barely a week after Marios death, American warplanes bomb the military airport, causing severe damage to Castros Air Force. Ernesto is arrested and tortured, accused of smuggling the blueprints of the airport to the CIA. He is about to be summarily executed by Castro when news arrives that an invasion has landed on Cubas southern coast. Helped by the hesitation of JFK to provide military support to the invasion, coupled with a brilliant military strategy on his part, Castro defeats the Bay of Pigs attack in 72 hours. Jubilant after his victory, he again pardons Ernestos life and returns him to house arrest. The military victory emboldens Castro to seek installation of nuclear missiles on Cuban soil from the USSR, precipitating a new and even more dangerous confrontation with the young American president. In the fall of 1968, Castro announces he is banning the capitalist Christmas holiday. He argues that December is the best month for the harvesting of sugar cane, and that people should be working for the betterment of the motherland, not celebrating a false God. This brings a heated confrontation between Constance, who insists on decorating the mansion for the children, and Chief of Police Ramirez. Ramirez destroys the familys Christmas ornaments and cuts off the power to the mansion for several months. During this period, while watching after the children, Josefina falls down the stairs in the dark and breaks her neck, dying instantly. The family is devastated by the death of the kind woman, the last descendant of the family born to former slaves and the person the children knew as Granny. Enrolled in public school, Danny and Luis excel in spite of the hardships imposed on them by the political establishment instigated by the ruthless Ramirez. When time comes to choose a career, Danny wants to be a writer but is forced by the government to study medicine. During his last year of medical school, Danny writes a novel disguising a scathing critic of the government under the veil of a tragic romance. The novel is published and becomes an instant hit in anti-government circles, but the Chief of Police reads between the lines; Danny is swiftly arrested and tortured for several days. Constance becomes desperate when Danny disappears without a trace and suspects Ramirez has her son. Fearing for Dannys life, she seeks out a BBC reporter on assignment in Cuba. Constance
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gives the reporter exclusive rights to publish Dannys book in Europe, plus an on camera interview. In the interview, she denounces the brutality of the government and accuses it of human rights violations and torture. The reporter sneaks out of the country carrying the tapes of the interview, which air on international channels that evening, causing an international uproar. Castro orders Dannys release, but Danny is so severely injured from the torture that he must be taken to a hospital. The secret police take him there in an ambulance, alleging he is the victim of a motorcycle accident. By the time Constance finally locates Danny and brings him home, Ramirez has struck again. Soldiers have come and taken Luis away to serve the mandatory military service at a labor camp in the provinces, and Ernesto has been arrested. Danny receives a letter from the government informing him that he will be sent to serve five years as a medic in the war in Angola after his graduation from medical school. Faced with the possibility of losing her son to a savage war, Constance procures a false passport for Danny by selling some of her jewels to a government official. She convinces Danny his only alternative to a warzone is to flee to the U.S. in the Mariel boatlift. After initially refusing, Danny finally agrees to leave, if only to spare his mother further pain. He retrieves an old gun belonging to Mario, which had been hidden in their basement for years and waits outside the building where Ramirez lives. Danny kills his familys nemesis before joining the Mariel boatlift and gaining his freedom in America by becoming the first Gomez-Mendieta immigrant in five generations.

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