LA AURORA DE LOS HÉROES [INSCRIBED BY FIDEL CASTRO]

Santiago de Cuba: Editorial Oriente, 1999. First Edition. Softcover. Octavo, 376 pages; Poor; bound in original wraps with significant wear, pages 51-376 detached but present; middle of title page torn out; Inscribed by Fidel Castro on the interior of front cover, dated May 1999; Presumed inscribed to Juan Almeida Bosque, the author and one of the original commanders of the insurgent forces in the Cuban Revolution, with the inscription translated to "To you Juan I send my eternal gratitude for your grand and beautiful history in this book"; CX consignment; shelved case 3. PSA/DNA Certification Number: AB06398;




Juan Almeida Bosque (1927-2009) was a Cuban politician and one of the original commanders of the insurgent forces in the Cuban Revolution. After the rebels took power in 1959, he was a prominent figure in the Communist Party of Cuba. At the time of his death, he was a Vice-President of the Cuban Council of State and was its third ranking member.




His time and friendship with Castro was substantial and long-lived. He befriended Castro while studying law at the University of Havana in 1952, and in 1953 joined Fidel and Raúl in the Moncada Barracks assault in Santiago as a member of the 26th of July Movement. He was arrested and imprisoned with the Castro brothers in the Isle of Pines Prison, and only released with the amnesty of May 15, 1955. A year later he joined the Castros, Che Guevara and 78 other revolutionaries on the Granma expedition and was one of just 12 who survived the initial landing. In 1958, he was promoted to Commander and head of the Santiago Column of the Revolutionary Army. In 1998, Fidel Castro named Almeida a "Hero of the Republic of Cuba. 1345492. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.