Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter remembers Carlos Alberto Montaner, who died one year ago on June 30, 2023.
Carlos Alberto Montaner April 3, 1943 – June 30, 2023
“There is a secret family of victims of totalitarianism, which can be the families in Burma or the victims in North Korea or in Iran or in Cuba. We feel a special bond with them because we belong to the same family.” – Carlos Alberto Montaner, (2011)
One year ago today Carlos Alberto Montaner shuffled off this mortal coil after a long and debilitating illness. The Center for a Free Cuba released the following statement on the same day.
The death of Carlos Alberto Montaner in Spain after a long illness is a great loss for Cubans in the island and around the world who benefited from his tireless efforts to denounce the crimes of the Cuban regime. It is also a loss for millions of people worldwide whose struggle for human rights he defended in his many books, columns, and thousands of articles that appeared in major newspapers on three continents. Carlos Alberto was a champion for the victims of communism and oppression, and he urged the international community to assist them.
The chairman of the Center for a Free Cuba, Guillermo Marmol, stated: “Carlos Alberto Montaner served for many years on the Center’s research council where he made significant contributions to the Center’s policies, publications, and research. We are confident that it will not be long before the extent, significance, and importance of Carlos Alberto Montaner’s life is fully known in Cuba itself.”
The Center for a Free Cuba extends its deepest condolences to Linda, his widow; to Carlos and Gina, his children; and to his family, colleagues and friends.
The life he lived could have been very different, if at age 17 Carlos Alberto had not successfully escaped from an arbitrary detention in 1960, found protection in an Embassy, and months later was able to leave Cuba.
A year later, and the loss of this great man of letters is still felt. Three days ago, Alvaro Vargas Llosa paid homage to Carlos Alberto Montaner and observed that despite having had success in life, following his death his legacy has grown larger, and more impactful.
Continue reading HERE.
As far as I am concerned, in the final years of his life Carlos Alberto Montaner destroyed his own legacy. He not only supported Barack Obama’s engagement with the regime but did commercials for Biden for President as well. Let me make it abundantly clear, I think anyone has a right to vote for whomever they want, but when you position yourself as an opponent of the regime, but publicly support a president whose policies are helpful to the regime, you become a liability to the cause of freedom in Cuba. I was in Mexico on a business trip when Fidel Castro died and Montaner was being interviewed on Mexican TV. I’ll never forget how the interviewer asked him what he thought about Castro, the reporter was practically spoon-feeding Montaner, it was obvious that he was sympathetic towards Cuban exiles, he said, and I paraphrase: wasn’t he a dictator, didn’t he imprison his opponents? Instead of using this platform to denounce Castro, Montaner squandered the moment and said, “Oh, he is a hero to some and a dictator to others.” I was totally disgusted.
He took great care not to be seen as one of “those people” but as a far more sophisticated or “evolved” intellectual better suited to Spain than Florida. What he wound up doing recalls the saying that the problem with being too open-minded is that your brain falls out. Alas, his did.
Yes, he was so ostentatious and manufactured. And let me add, he was not an intellectual. Did you ever read any of his books? They weren’t researched, no footnotes or glossary, full of errors of fact, etc.. and his novels were horrible. No talent as a writer of novels.
Even republican Cuba’s “intellectuals” did precious little to protect it from the “revolution.” I’m not impressed by the “intellectual” label on anybody.