The choice was brutal: abandon everything or live like a serf under the Castro Revolution. This is the story of a Cuban refugee who rejected serfdom. His story shatters the myths surrounding Castro and his revolution and draws a portrait of life in Cuba through its most turbulent years. It describes what it was like to grow up in a small town in central Cuba; live through the murderous Batista dictatorship; cope with the suffocating oppression of Castro's totalitarian revolution; leave behind family, friends, everything he knew, everything he had; and struggle to make a new life in peace and freedom in the United States. A rich, personal, and illuminating narrative set in the historical context of the times.