Cf. Bukharin, Escalante ("Microfaction, " alist, (see details on his self-criticism on pgs. 588-590 of Robert Quirk's bio of Castro) or Padilla.
Also, Hope and Memory : Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Tzvetan Todorov (Author) "This is a very rich book, full of interesting--and often highly controversial--conversation as well as moving portraits of striking figures of the century that has just passed. It is addressed to a general public very much engaged in discussing what the twentieth century was all about and where we are going from here."--Charles Taylor
http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5926/5926_28.html The Padilla case Q: Would the Padilla case be treated differently today?(4)
A: I am sure it would be. I am convinced that the Padilla case was an error. Of course, it's easy today, in 1993, to stop and criticize errors. I even believe that his book Fuera de juego [Out of play] might have simply faded away. But we made it into something with the famous imprisonment of Heberto Padilla for several hours-I don't know how long, but it was very short.
Later Padilla's famous self-criticism became a ridiculous trap that the comrades involved fell into. Very valuable people, revolutionaries, intellectuals, believed that piece of theater, that self-criticism.
A short while ago I saw the film made by Santiago Alvarez, and it would be very good for the young people to see it. We saw it together. But it is very sad, because it is a type of caricature of the Moscow trials.
There are moments of genuine humor in it. In one of these Padilla states he is impressed by those very brilliant leading cadres in State Security, and he asks them: "Where do you dig up such cadres?" Then he relates how the official told him, "Stay here with me." And Padilla looks out a window and sees some Pioneers leaving. And he exclaims, "Now I see how much I was mistaken, how worthless I have been!"
At the time Casa de las Américas published a very complete transcript of the famous self-criticism. Really, to believe the thing was truthful, that such a piece of buffoonery could have been sincere, makes one realize the extent of the prevailing climate of collective myopia, or collective delirium. Because as the film ends you see people hugging Padilla. Revolutionary people, good people, hugging Padilla. "You have come back to us!" It was pathetic, truly sad. You leave the film extremely depressed. Didn't that happen to you? You leave depressed because there you have good people, valuable people, caught in the trap of this charlatan. Because while Padilla is a good poet, he is an absolute charlatan. His political game was only too obvious.
The New York Review of Books: The Case of Heberto Padilla ... Since then Le Monde has reported that Padilla was released on April 25 and that he issued a statement of self-criticism written in jail. ... http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10544 - 6k - Cached - Similar pages
The Sexual Politics of Reinaldo Arenas-part 2 ... Padilla's famous self-criticism was a ridiculous trap into which fell the comrades involved in this. Very brave, revolutionary, and ... http://www.blythe.org/arenas-e2.htm
Johnson, Scott (editor).
The Case of the Cuban Poet Heberto Padilla.
Gordon Press 1977. First edition "On March 20, 1971, Padilla was detained for questioning by the Cuban police. A few weeks later he signed a statement from jail in which he accused himself of various misdeeds against the Cuban Revolution. On his release on April 5 he appeared before a meeting, convened at his request, of the Cuban Writers and Artists Union where he delivered an improvised 11,000 word self-criticism Padilla's detention and statements caused a furor in liberal and left-wing intellectual circles." Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. "In difficult times." 3. Second letter of European and Latin American intellectuals to Fidel Castro. 4. Declaration of Cuban film workers. 5. Padilla's self-criticism. 6. Declaration of UNEAC dealing with the prizes granted to Padilla in poetry and Anton Arrufat in theatre. 7. Leopoldo Avila, "On Some Cuban Critical and Literary Currents." 8. Declaration of the First National Congress of Education and Culture. 9. Fidel Castro's closing speech of the Congress. 10. Appendix: Castro's speech dealing with the Soviet invasion fo Czechoslovakia. 175 pages. Hardback without jacket, as published. Fine condition, unused. +. ISBN:0849013615 Bookseller Inventory #8787
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