Welcome to the Nato Better Show, I'm Paul Vogel Singh and this is episode number

3 57. As part of our Smithsonian Associates Art of Living Author interview series, we are joined today

by author Tony Pirote.

Tony Pirote will be appearing at the Smithsonian Associates program Monday, June 3rd,

2019 and the title of his presentation is Secrets of the Cuban Revolution.

Most people are familiar with the basics of the Cuban Revolution of 1956 to 1959. It was led by two of the 20th century's most charismatic figures, Fidel Castro and Shay Guevara. It successfully overthrew the island nation's U.S.-backed dictator, Fulhensio Batista,

and it quickly went awry under Castro's rule.

But less is remembered about the amateur nature of the upstart movement or the lives of its

players.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the revolution, Smithsonian magazine writer Tony Pirote draws on his new book, Cuba Libe,

Shay, Fidel, and the Improvable Revolution that changed world history to offer a look at some of the human drama that played out against

the backdrop of political upheaval. Tony Pirote surveys how a scruffy handful of self-taught subversives, many of whom were just out of college,

young lawyers, literature majors, and art students, including a number of extraordinary women, and how they defeated 40,000 professional

soldiers.

Not only did they defeat a major army, they disarmed America, including one Ed Sullivan who actually interviewed

Fidel.

The world's most notorious guerrilla leader was about to invade their living rooms, and Americans

were thrilled.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday the 11th of January, 1959.

Some 50 million viewers tune their television sets to the Ed Sullivan show, the groundbreaking

variety review that had introduced them to Elvis Presley a few years earlier,

and would bring them the Beatles a few years later. On this winter's evening, the avuncular Sullivan was hosting a Latin celebrity

...