A gorgeous tobacco plant awaits harvest near a town for peasants who rebelled against Communist laws to control crop production and seize lands during a five-year long civil war in the Escambray highlands of central Cuba from 1961-1966. Utterly unknown to most today is the secret history of this war. It included the forcible translocation of the entire male population of Escambray in 1971 to undeveloped rural sites in Pinar del Rio and Camagüey. The men then built housing and infrastructure for their wives and children whom the military brought there in 1975. Until 1993, leaving or visiting such colonies required police authorization. Until I visited my cousin (Pucho’s son who expressed his opposition to the state by choosing to move there), I had never heard of this history or this place like most people, whether in or outside Cuba.
