Signed book: La Educacion en Revolucion. Havana, Cuba: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1974. Hardcover with dust jacket, 9.25 x 9.5, 233 pages. Signed and inscribed on the half-title page in blue ballpoint in Spanish by Fidel Castro with good wishes for a successful career, "Para Valerie, deseandole los majores exitos en su carrera…Fidel Castro, Cuba, Agosto 22, 75." In fine condition, with heavy wear only to the dust jacket.
The recipient, Valerie Landau, is the daughter of renowned documentary filmmaker Saul Landau. In 1968, he spent two weeks filming Fidel Castro as they traveled in a jeep caravan across Cuba. Decades later, that film, 'Fidel,' was selected for restoration and preservation by the National Film Preservation Foundation as a culturally significant work.
In 1973, Saul Landau took his daughter, Valerie, on a journalist tour to attend the Revolutionary Day (July 26th) celebration in Santiago de Cuba. Valerie served as a translator for several of the American journalists, including one interview with the vice minister of education.
At the end of the interview, the minister, impressed with Valerie's ability to translate and to interject culturally appropriate commentary, invited her to spend a year in a brand new model school for engineering. He told her she would be sharing a bunk with Che Guevara’s daughter.
The following August, Valerie received a telegram at her home in San Francisco stating that a place was ready for her at the school and she should present herself in two weeks. Landau made quick travel plans to arrive in Cuba, only to find out there was no room at the school and it would be impossible for them to make room as all the beds were assigned.
Finally, after weeks of daily trips to the Ministry of Education, a new receptionist noticed the date on the letter: the telegram had been sent in July 1973, not 1974, and it had taken over one year to be delivered.
They placed Valerie in an agricultural boarding school where days were split between field labor and study. At the end of the school year, Valerie met with Fidel Castro and he presented her with this inscribed book. Accompanied by an image of Castro combing his hair during his meeting with Landau.
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