As a student of history I found this series to be very beneficial in understanding the history and culture of Cuba. I disagree with the other review that claims that this narrative is one sided. The events in Cuban history are detailed and explained which helps the viewer to understand what brought Cuba to the point it is today. As there long struggle is explained, one can see that Cuba still has a long way to go to really become free. Yes, Castro was no hero and was a dictator who murdered thousands and turned on many of his friends. To leave that out would do Cuba an injustice. Hopefully we can see the day when we have normal relations with the island nation as this older generation of leaders in Cuba die off and American Presidents don't feel the need to "politicize" the issue of Cuba, and reverse progress toward normalization like Trump did.
28 Reviews
It's very balanced and not one sided
martham-9885122 June 2021
I took off 1 star because most of the series covers from 1900 to the present and I wish they had spent more time on earlier history. Also they mostly focused on rural Cuba and ignored Havana.
Overall I still I thought this series was very informative because they talked to a lot of people who were there at the time. That means you don't have to just rely on historians to tell you what they think. They interview Cubans on the island as well as in exile - that is as fair and objective as you can get. Maybe the people that think this series is biased shouldn't assume the subtitles catch everything and give it to you verbatim.
Overall I still I thought this series was very informative because they talked to a lot of people who were there at the time. That means you don't have to just rely on historians to tell you what they think. They interview Cubans on the island as well as in exile - that is as fair and objective as you can get. Maybe the people that think this series is biased shouldn't assume the subtitles catch everything and give it to you verbatim.
Very good!!!
tkatsoufris2 February 2021
Enjoyed, at first, then went down Hill.
Naturalragman17 December 2019
The only point they want to make towards the later episodes is: Socialism Bad!
They keep referring to Socialism as a form of Government, when in fact it is an economic system. Dictatorship/Authoritarianism is the problem, not socialist economy.
There is some good history but it's hard to get around the Reich Wing fog cast upon it.
This is very good and whoever gave it a star missed the point and has never been in Cuba
yahicisne19 March 2020
As the title says. I was born in Cuba in 1989, so don't tell me I know nothing because I do. This documentary is very well made, and is up to you whether you understand the point they are making or not. I love History and I love Fidel Castro so don't get me wrong. I have read Cuban history books, and I had the pleasure of having great professors from kindergarten all the way through my years in the University of Havana. I lived 26 years in Las Tunas and my mom has a MD in Economics and taught me about Marx, Lenin and Castro. I have lived on both sides of the country and have seen things first hand, if you didn't like it because it didn't match your views or your reckoning, get your facts together and go and read "El diario del Che en Bolivia", "La historia me absolverá" and "La edad de oro", oh, and also some history book written for the kids in the fifth grade, then you will see the documentary is not that bad after all.
Highly recommend this!
ywpbbase9 June 2020
Disappointingly inaccurate as to the terms of the lease
guginom17 May 2018
The lease is available online. It is not a long document. The standard cover story for the US is repeated. For example, that the lease is perpetual. That the rent is some 4000 a year. There is no excuse for not reading the lease and seeing what the actual terms are. A careful review undercuts the US claim that it occupies Guantanamo legally, unfortunately.
White Male Commentators
samtrak120427 January 2018
Great Documentary, well researched
lulu-momo28 August 2017
I really enjoyed this documentary. It provides a quite objective view about the whole history of Cuba from the beginnings to today. The several comments from authors, historians and witnesses are very helpful guiding the story. Sadly I don't really like the narrator's voice in English. If you are a German speaker, I'd recommend you to switch to German, because then all of the Comments are narrated, and the narrator sounds better to me.
Not Bad
rickvaldes12 September 2021
Everyone on either side gets shot at here and a lot of the reviewers here just want their politics better represented.
And while we're on that subject it would have been nice to show that the country with the best health care has no medicine and how a once prosperous country has been ruined. Yes the mob controlled the casinos, they do that in the US too.....
And while we're on that subject it would have been nice to show that the country with the best health care has no medicine and how a once prosperous country has been ruined. Yes the mob controlled the casinos, they do that in the US too.....
Fascinating History At First, But Kind Of Pro-U.S. Propaganda Toward the End
timcurryisgod11 July 2023
Extremely interesting at first, covers the centuries of colonialism in Cuba. I really appreciated the historical perspective to understand how long-lasting the Spanish colonial rule was, and how devastating and oppressive it was for the Cuban peasants and enslaved Africans. And how the U. S. simply took over managing the colonial rule of Cuba instead of actually "liberating" the people.
The episodes regarding Castro's childhood and upbringing were extremely insightful. Also interesting information on the Cuban Revolution and the years leading up to and after 1959. Fascinating.
But a couple of things were troubling. One is, the documentary completely skips over the Tricontinental Conference of 1966, an important anti-colonial world event in politics hosted by Cuba, which took place in Havana. Revolutionary leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America were in attendance, including Amilcar Cabral, and Salvador Allende.
And also seems to paint Castro as wrongly "always" blaming the U. S. for Cuba's problems. Well. The U. S. is responsible for the embargo which has lasted decades. So, the U. S. is culpable and it is correct to say so.
Also, the documentary seems to blame Cuba for Guantanamo's existence, that was absolutely bizarre. It's the U. S. that is responsible for the massive human rights violations and war crimes that have occurred on their own military base, which should not exist, period, in Cuba. And it is a provocation that it should be there at all. This is not accurately portrayed in the documentary.
The fact that Cuba still exists and has free healthcare and education, and exports doctors and medical assistance throughout the world, also during the Pandemic, should tell the viewer much. Especially when the documentary strangely tries to say "socialism failed in Cuba," um, free healthcare and education is a success, not a "failure." So it's kind of pro-U. S. imperialism especially towards the end. Also, left out Che's dying words: "Shoot, coward. You will only kill a man." Because the Cuban Revolution lives on, and will eternally. Viva Cuba!
The episodes regarding Castro's childhood and upbringing were extremely insightful. Also interesting information on the Cuban Revolution and the years leading up to and after 1959. Fascinating.
But a couple of things were troubling. One is, the documentary completely skips over the Tricontinental Conference of 1966, an important anti-colonial world event in politics hosted by Cuba, which took place in Havana. Revolutionary leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America were in attendance, including Amilcar Cabral, and Salvador Allende.
And also seems to paint Castro as wrongly "always" blaming the U. S. for Cuba's problems. Well. The U. S. is responsible for the embargo which has lasted decades. So, the U. S. is culpable and it is correct to say so.
Also, the documentary seems to blame Cuba for Guantanamo's existence, that was absolutely bizarre. It's the U. S. that is responsible for the massive human rights violations and war crimes that have occurred on their own military base, which should not exist, period, in Cuba. And it is a provocation that it should be there at all. This is not accurately portrayed in the documentary.
The fact that Cuba still exists and has free healthcare and education, and exports doctors and medical assistance throughout the world, also during the Pandemic, should tell the viewer much. Especially when the documentary strangely tries to say "socialism failed in Cuba," um, free healthcare and education is a success, not a "failure." So it's kind of pro-U. S. imperialism especially towards the end. Also, left out Che's dying words: "Shoot, coward. You will only kill a man." Because the Cuban Revolution lives on, and will eternally. Viva Cuba!
Pure US Propaganda
gpeters-211-25151825 November 2018
This documentary is a great portray of Cuba's History until 1959. Then it is just a propaganda from the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 9 out of 10 commentators are CIA Agents or Cuban Exiles. For them Castro is just another one dictator who destroyed Cuba's economy (the Batista's casino-mafia economy) and oppress his own people. Of course I would have the same opinion if my family cooperated with mafia, Batista's corrupted officers and US Companies. There is no serious judgement about the US embargo which destroyed Cuban Economy and deprived basic medical and drugs supplies to the Cuban people. Moreover, they don't either judge the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a direct US invasion to an independent nation and its President, so as to protect the interests of their multinational companies (ITT, United Fruit, Francisco Sugar Company, Bethlehem Steel Corporation etc). Moreover, this "documentary" don't even judges the assassinations attempts from the CIA to Castro (they comment the excessive number of the rumored assassinations and not that a foreign country tried to kill a President of a foreign State). Finally, they don't even bother refer to Cuba's medical and educational system (both systems are considered as top quality systems globally) or any other facts about the Cuban economy from 1959. Let me refer that, there isn't any homeless Cuban citizen, there aren't any more the Batista's era slums, the child mortality is the lowest globally, the life span is even higher than the US', and there isn't any unemployment. In general, this is a shameless, ahistorican, anti-socialist propaganda from Netflix.
Unbalanced
rainermack7 December 2018
A disappointing documentary. Very unbalanced in terms of point of view. Very much from a US perspective (though apparently a German production?). It is missing dissenting voices and voices from within Cuba. Absence of attention on US policy in Latin America and, especially, the impact of the US embargo on Cuba is egregious. The story is simply not complete without this. European scholars provide the most balanced points of view on the history. The bias becomes most clear in the last 2-3 episodes, though with hindsight the relatively cavalier treatment of Batista is clear. Can not recommend this documentary. Read Julia Sweig's What Everybody Needs to Know about Cuba instead.
Interesting in the Beginning, Becomes US Imperialist Propaganda Later
red_macbook3 August 2020
I wish I had seen the reviews earlier. It seems the narrator does not understand what socialism is and countries aligned with USSR are given the label of 'socialism', and the word is used in a derogatory manner. In the last episode there is mention of Guantanamo Bay, and it's amazing how the discussion of known US war crimes and cruelty is sugarcoated and brushed aside.
In summary, they want to say that Cuba wants to blame US for all its problems. A line of argument the US propaganda machine loves to use for all countries that try to speak up about it or resist it.
There is also an interesting 'oh they are so poor' depiction that similar to what you see in Nat Geo when it goes to Africa. Poverty exists everywhere. If I wanted to speak in that way about the US, it would be worse.
Similarly, there is an interesting storyline about US is the saviour of cuban refugees, as if they were granting asylum to everyone wanting to leave Cuba, and that most people wanted to leave.
This was a waste of time.
In summary, they want to say that Cuba wants to blame US for all its problems. A line of argument the US propaganda machine loves to use for all countries that try to speak up about it or resist it.
There is also an interesting 'oh they are so poor' depiction that similar to what you see in Nat Geo when it goes to Africa. Poverty exists everywhere. If I wanted to speak in that way about the US, it would be worse.
Similarly, there is an interesting storyline about US is the saviour of cuban refugees, as if they were granting asylum to everyone wanting to leave Cuba, and that most people wanted to leave.
This was a waste of time.
A one sided narrative...
cakyolcu30 March 2020
Unfortunately it is far away being objective...Poor one sided American narrative based on mostly exile Cuban accounts: The revolution in Cuba is almost a coincedence, Castro brothers are bloody dictators, USA "only" tried to protect their financial interest, the bad Soviet guys did not wait for a sec to cooperatw with evil Cuba. A waste of time unless you are interested in propoganda movies.
Anti-Socialist Propaganda
jaysonpullen19 April 2018
Yet another anti-leftist film produced by biased right wing bourgeoisie. This is a great documentary about Cuba's history up until Castro seized power. The film portrays Batista in a better light than the Castros. Lies about Castro killing his own men to retain power, lies about how Castro ruined the economy and not America's embargo, lies about the USSR not being embargoed, lies about the extent of imperialism of the United States. Surprised they didn't portray the Spanish in a better light at this rate.
It's laughable how they attempt to demonize this humanitarian anti-capitalist nation when the United States is guilty of much, much worse than anything true or false they tell of the Castros. If you truly think Cuba is part of the "Axis of Evil", that capitalism is sustainable, and that the CIA are the good guys then grab yourself a fresh glass of KoolAid and sit on down for a great tale, kiddos.
It's laughable how they attempt to demonize this humanitarian anti-capitalist nation when the United States is guilty of much, much worse than anything true or false they tell of the Castros. If you truly think Cuba is part of the "Axis of Evil", that capitalism is sustainable, and that the CIA are the good guys then grab yourself a fresh glass of KoolAid and sit on down for a great tale, kiddos.
Great start, disappointing ending
one-angry-man30 December 2020
The first 6 episodes are great resources of information on the last 150 years of Cuban history, and exactly what I was expecting from this documentary. The events are commented by historians, experts and even some of the witnesses alive. If only those were to be reviewed, I would give them 9 out of 10.
However, the last two episodes, the ones that relate to the Castro era, are nothing but western propaganda. There is no chronology of events anymore, and the figure of Fidel Castro becomes the focus. There are very few contributions from experts/historians and the only perspective given is the one coming from CIA agents and Cuban exiles. The US is presented as a selfless actor, and the motives and consequences of the embargo are omitted.
However, the last two episodes, the ones that relate to the Castro era, are nothing but western propaganda. There is no chronology of events anymore, and the figure of Fidel Castro becomes the focus. There are very few contributions from experts/historians and the only perspective given is the one coming from CIA agents and Cuban exiles. The US is presented as a selfless actor, and the motives and consequences of the embargo are omitted.
Inaccurate facts
jeronimomelendez20 July 2018
Just in the very beginning chapter about the history of the island most of the facts shown are from the Hispaniola Island (Shared by Dominican Republic and Haiti). It is just like they sank the island (La Hispaniola) because they referred as Columbus brothers used to live in Venezuela when they really did in La Hispaniola, the natives that Columbus took to the Spanish kings were from la Hispaniola.
Disappointingly one sided propoganda
nezilmuhammed-8855015 January 2021
The way this series protraits the revolution and the histroy of cuba will make you feel like its just another American propoganda. Except cuban historians, all other western historians are their to tell you about cuba and also, no one seems to care about the American intervention.
You should ask yourself before you start to watch this series, why netflix is showing just the cuban revolution of all other revolutions and struggles in the world!!???
You should ask yourself before you start to watch this series, why netflix is showing just the cuban revolution of all other revolutions and struggles in the world!!???
Don't waste your time
maxborges23 July 2020
Not very good.
davidjamestownd5 July 2022
Interesting subject presented with middle school simplicity
sharris-4496520 September 2021
I thought this would be interesting as the subject of Cuban history from Cuba's perspective is unusual in the US. Sadly, the presentation was highly simplistic and superficial with little real insights. Wasn't looking for a particular political perspective and didn't care if it was pro or anti US, but the treatments of various events were really dumbed down and that made for a disappointing watch.
Full of fallacies
dmacineiras31 March 2023
There are so many mistakes in this documentary, and the first chapter is completelly based on the anti-spanish black legend. Curiosly, It doesnt participate any spanish historian, the german historian is especially biased.
By the way, the first indios that Colon took and carried to Spain were form the current island of Dominican Republic and Haiti.
It would be great if the directors would do some serious research about the history on the sixteen century.
On the other hand, the last chapters are again full of propaganda and biased stories that are just not true. Sorry but this is a 1 out of 10 for me.
By the way, the first indios that Colon took and carried to Spain were form the current island of Dominican Republic and Haiti.
It would be great if the directors would do some serious research about the history on the sixteen century.
On the other hand, the last chapters are again full of propaganda and biased stories that are just not true. Sorry but this is a 1 out of 10 for me.
Can't read the subtitles
janetpowell-5624011 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I just tried to watch this documentary but found that I could not read the subtitles when individuals speaking languages other than English were being interviewed. The subtitled script was in white, which blended in with the colour of most of the clothes of the people being interviewed (only exception was a man wearing a light blue shirt), So the translated text could not be discerned very well at all - add to that the names of the people being interviewed were superimposed on the translated text for a few seconds, which was needed information but it made the text absolutely impossible to read as long as the names were superimposed. I got so frustrated with not being able to follow the narrative that I gave up watching this documentary.
Good piece of information on history. Ignore communist-fascinated teenage reviews
acid_dark12 May 2020
The tv show is good, very informative. As always, one or two things are incorrect, but otherwise quite neutral narrative.
Safely ignore younger generation's comments about it, as the saying goes:
"who defends communism? Those who never lived in communism"
I just don't feel it's anything specialy above average historical documentary and it's unnecessary long, hence the score.
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