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Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506 Kindle Edition

by Victor Andres Triay (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 21 ratings
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Florida Historical Society Samuel Proctor Award






From the interviews:



"My [pregnant] wife once asked me, ‘How is it possible you are not thinking of your child?’ I told her, ‘It is precisely because of that child and the two others I have here that I am going. I plan to return to my fatherland, and I don’t want a Communist homeland.’"-- Jorge Marquet





"One of the sad things that has happened over this period in the history of Cuba is that historians have not given credit to the idealism of those who turned against the revolution. We were really full of good will and wanted to make Cuba better."--Eduardo Zayas-Bazán





"[A] feeling of duty to defend our faith was what motivated my husband . . . . What made me give my blessing to his activities were my own feelings of duty."-- Myrna Pardo Millán (widowed by the invasion)





This is the story of the Bay of Pigs invasion, told for the first time in the words of the idealistic participants who came together in April 1961 to overthrow Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. Most of the approximately 1,500 men of Brigade 2506 were captured by Castro’s forces in Cuban swamps and jailed until December 1962. About 114 died.





Combining oral history and traditional narrative form, Victor Triay tells us who individual members of the brigade were and what they fought for. As one veteran, only eighteen at the time of the invasion, recalls, “It was my turn to do something for Cuba. Probably the purest thing I have ever done in my life was to make the decision to go.” Triay describes the volunteers’ recruitment, training, combat experience, and the wretched months of their imprisonment. He also presents the women they left behind, including three who were widowed by the invasion.





Among the nearly 2 million people in the U.S. Cuban community today, the freedom fighters who made up Brigade 2506 have always been accorded the highest level of respect. Bay of Pigs tells the personal stories of the invasion in an account that restores the human dimension to a pivotal moment in the history of the Cold War.

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  1. Print length
    214 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    University Press of Florida
  5. Publication date
    October 20, 2020
  6. File size
    6634 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Makes a valuable contribution by righting a wrong from the perspective of the men and women whose lives the invasion forever changed. . . . Triay’s book . . . captures the views and experiences of an entire generation.”―Miami Herald

“Triay . . . has collected interviews with invasion survivors and their families to present a first-hand account of the events that shaped the idealism and sense of betrayal at the root of Cuban-American politics.”―Miami Today

“For those who may have forgotten what happened, it is a book that should be read.”―Tampa Tribune-Times

“Triay candidly portrays the heroic sacrifice of the Cuban Brigade using a combination of oral history and traditional narrative.”―Southern Historian

“Superb. . . . Triay as well as the brigadistas should be congratulated for providing us with a most moving and interesting first-hand account of the Bay of Pigs invasion.”―Florida Historical Quarterly

About the Author

Victor Andres Triay is professor of history at Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut. He is the author of Fleeing Castro: Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children’s Program, The Mariel Boatlift: A Cuban-American Journey, and various other works. Triay, whose parents left Cuba in 1960, grew up in Miami, Florida.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08L8CG77F
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Press of Florida; Illustrated edition (October 20, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 20, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 6634 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 214 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 21 ratings

About the author

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Victor Andres Triay

Victor Andres Triay

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Victor Andres Triay, Ph.D., was born and raised in Miami, Florida. His parents left Cuba for United States exile in 1960, six years before his birth. Triay is a 1984 graduate of Christopher Columbus High School in Miami. He attended Miami-Dade Community College and in 1988 received his BA in history from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He subsequently attended Florida State University in Tallahassee where he earned both his MA (1991) and Ph.D. (1995) in history. He has been a history professor at Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut, since 1992.

Triay's first historical work, "Fleeing Castro: Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children's Program" (U Press of Florida, 1998), was the first book to explore Operation Pedro Pan, the early 1960s program that brought over 14,000 Cuban children to the United States as unaccompanied refugees, and the program designed to care for them. His second book, "Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506 (U Press of Florida, 2001)," was the recipient of the 2001 Samuel Proctor Oral History Prize and was later published in Spanish translation by Random House under the title, "La Patria nos Espera." In 2013, Triay entered the world of historical fiction with his three-book saga, "The Unbroken Circle." Book I, "The Struggle Begins," was released in July, 2013; Book II, "Freedom Betrayed," in early 2014; and Book III, "On Freedom's Shores," in November 2014. All the books in the series were highly acclaimed by readers.

In 2016 and 2017, Triay conducted the largest oral history project ever on the Bay of Pigs invasion, interviewing more than 100 members of Brigade 2506, for Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute. In September 2019, Triay released his long-awaited book about the Mariel Boatlift, "The Mariel Boatlift: A Cuban American Journey." The book received a Gold Medal from the Florida Book Awards (2019, non-fiction category) and an Honorable Mention for the American Association for State and Local History's "Leadership in History" Award.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
21 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Roberto N. Allen
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Work by Author of Fleeing Castro (Pedro Pan)
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2001
Verified Purchase
Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506 by Victor A. Triay
This important new work about the Bay of Pigs was written by Dr. Triay, a prominent Cuba scholar from Miami, Florida and living in Middletown, Connecticut. Dr. Triay's work captures the poignancy of the interviews with the individuals whose personal stories were the primary sources of Triay's research. As with his previous work, Fleeing Castro: Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children's Program (University Press of Florida November 1998), Bay of Pigs incorporates Triay's trademark style of weaving historical context with personal stories.
In the book, Dr. Triay relates the stories of several members of Brigade 2506, the volunteers who united in exile to form the American-trained invasion force that went into Cuba in April 1961, after it had become clear that Castro would not live up to his promise to restore democracy in Cuba. Their stories reveal the men's conviction and the democratic ideals for which they fought. In addition, the book includes stories from the CIA's top man at the invasion, as well as the touching personal histories of some of the Brigade members' loved ones.
The stories are told from the point of view of the individuals interviewed by Dr. Triay, who introduces each chapter with an excellent synopsis of the relevant historical context. While the book is sure to gain a tremendous amount of notoriety among Cuba scholars as the first work of its kind, this fast-paced, hard-hitting, and absorbing book is a "must have" for anyone interested in the history of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the uncommon warriors who made up Brigade 2506.
The book traces the story of the volunteers who made up the Brigade, beginning with some Brigade members' early anti-Castro activities and their recruitment into the Brigade. This is followed by a section on their training in Retalhuleu and Base Trax in Guatemala and their journey across the Caribbean to the invasion site. Capturing the invasion's drama in an almost breathtaking manner, Triay relates the landings (by air and by sea), advancements, and major engagements of the Brigade.
Throughout the book, the reader never loses sight of the Brigade's courage, tenacity and determination, despite having been abandoned by their American allies. Also told in riveting detail are the stories of the defeated Brigade's retreat into the swamps, their capture by Castro forces, their wretched twenty-month imprisonment, and their ultimate joyous release. Perhaps the book's greatest surprise is an entire chapter dedicated to the women the Brigade members left behind.
Triay's book is truly an outstanding piece of Cuban history.
32 people found this helpful
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J. Graham
5.0 out of 5 stars Betrayal .......
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2021
Verified Purchase
Brigade 2506 was ' hung out to dry ' by the CIA ..... John Kennedy was as culpable as the CIA ....... Remnants of Castro's leftover air force was enough to ' sink ' the invasion and could have been and should have been completely destroyed prior to that fateful day , for the Brigade , in April 1961 . All was a complete ' cluster ' and if this nation did have the ' guts ' to follow through from planning to execution of the ' invasion ' then the whole project should have been ' cancelled ' long before it go to the defeat is was . Think this . If the April 1961 ' Bay of Pigs invasion ' had been successful there would have been no ' Cuban Missile Crisis ' of 1962 . Perhaps I simplify the whole operation . I have spoken to two surviving veterans of ' Brigade 2506 ' and much bitterness overwhat they consider a ' betrayal ' still exists .
5 people found this helpful
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Manuel J. Escobio
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Read
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2014
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Highly recommended for anyone who wants a very realistic account of what many families went through during and after the Cuban revolution.
2 people found this helpful
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Ben Gardiner
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book.
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2017
Verified Purchase
Outstanding account of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
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José López
5.0 out of 5 stars History you won't get from your Professor or Teacher.
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2009
We are doomed to repeat history, this is why one must learn.... If we had aircover it would have helped. but we were betrayed.
5 people found this helpful
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Jim Stegall
3.0 out of 5 stars The rest of the story
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2001
It's about time someone got this story right. These stories completely shatter the myths created by Castro's propaganda machine and his U.S. boot-licks over the years. Far from being Batistianos, the men of Brigada 2506 were overwhelmingly pro-democratic Cuban patriots, many of them former revolutionaries, who were exercising the only choice Castro had left them. What these men did was perhaps the purest and noblest act of self-sacrifice on behalf of human liberty in the Twentieth Century history of the Western Hemisphere. Thank God someone thought to put these stories down for the record before it was too late. In the future, when the people of Cuba are free to inquire into their history, they will be able to discover who the real Cuban patriots were.
20 people found this helpful
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