The Boys from Dolores - Softcover

'Unsentimental and funny, this book combines the spiritedness of a gonzo journalist with a serious reporter's sense of purpose.' Publishers Weekly

Fidel Castro's schoolmates a portrait of the generation that made and lost Cuba


The Boys from Dolores is a chronicle of 230 young students and the Cuba they were born to lead. Brought together one day in 1940 for a school photo at one of the island's most elite academies, their ranks included future doctors and engineers, refugees and warriors, and two brothers - Fidel and Raúl Castro - who would come to rule the fate of all Cubans.

The Boys from Dolores follows the tale of this generation, born to privilege and power, which gave birth to the Cuban Revolution. Dozens of the boys from Dolores would aid their classmate Fidel in his rise to power; some would later take up arms against him. Ranging from the basketball courts and alleys of Santiago, Cuba, to the beaches of the Bay of Pigs and Miami, The Boys from Dolores offers a collective biography of the generation that made and lost Cuba.

This is the story of Cuba across 70 years of tumult, battle, Revolution, and diaspora, a tale of success and ruin, or escape and defeat. It gives unique insight into one member of that group photograph in particular - a 15-year old boy named Fidel Castro.