Kissing Fidel: A Memoir of Cuban American Terrorism in the United States
by Magda Montiel Davis
University of Iowa Press, 2020 Paper: 978-1-60938-726-6 | eISBN: 978-1-60938-727-3 Library of Congress Classification F319.M6 Dewey Decimal Classification 305.8687291073
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
What does it mean to be instantly transformed into the most hated person in your community? After meeting Fidel Castro at a Havana reception in 1994, Cuban-born Magda Montiel Davis, founder of one of the largest immigration law firms in South Florida, soon found out. The reception—attended by hundreds of other Cuban émigrés—was videotaped for historical archives. In a seconds-long clip, Fidel pecks the traditional protocol kiss on Montiel Davis’s cheek as she thanks him for the social benefits conferred upon the Cuban people. The video, however, was mysteriously sold to U.S. reporters and aired incessantly throughout South Florida. Soon the encounter was an international cause célèbre.
Life as she knew it was over for Montiel Davis and her family, including a father who worked with the CIA to topple Fidel, a nohablo-inglés mother who lived with the family, her five children, and her Jewish Brooklyn-born attorney husband. Kissing Fidel shares the sometimes dismal, sometimes comical realities of an ordinary citizen being thrown into a world of death threats, mob attacks, and terrorism.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Magda Montiel Davis is a former Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, an immigration lawyer, and the first recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s national Pro Bono Award. She lives in Key Biscayne, Florida.
REVIEWS
“Kissing Fidel is most generous in how it treats the layered nuances of history; not just as fact, but as something that impacts the body, the landscape, the maze of the mind. I love how this work intersects, how it asks questions of both reader and self, with the understanding that there is no one clear answer. This is a rich and resonant text.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, judge, Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction
— Hanif Abdurraqib
“A powerful, terrifying vision of a dark political landscape unfamiliar to most Americans. After reading Kissing Fidel, I will never see Miami, or this country, quite the same way again.”—Kerry Howley, author, Thrown
— Kerry Howley
“In April 1994, Magda Montiel Davis was thrust into a maelstrom of injustice, violence, and bigotry. In this book she writes eloquently of the power drawn from her personal convictions, her family, and the colleagues who stood by her.”—Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former President of Haiti
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologo
Part One. Atrevimiento
1. You Think That's Right?
2. You're Either on the Bus or Off the Bus
3. Spy
4. Flying with Your Wings Cut
Part Two. Atolondramiento
5. Get Ahold of Yourself
6. Emerge in the Singular
7. Bienvenidos A Miami
8. Stranger than Fiction
9. Let's Just Go
10. Kitchen Debate
11. Before it Goes Silent and Dies
12. Ousted
13. Fully Under
14. Father Roses
15. Shit, Sherlock
16. Cubana de Aviacion
17. Good Fences, Good Neighbors
18. Dare
19. Ringo the Rottweiler
20. Guns in the Plural
21. Swat
22. Radio Rebeloe
23. Fuck Truck
24. Yellow Journalism
25. Tossed Coins
26. Eventuality
27. Raise the Antenna
28. Nothing Comes Between Me and My Claims
29. Scoundrel
30. Mother's Day
31. F = FBI
32. Exit Visa
33. Order
34. Flying Carpet
35. Streetdance
36. Aristide
37. Baseball Breakfast
38. Naked
39. But Now I Have Sushi Chef
40. Repentance
41. Plot to Kill
42. The Person I am Becoming
43. Sonesta
44. The Kid
45. Monster
Part Three. Al Carajo
46. The Return
Epilogo
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Kissing Fidel: A Memoir of Cuban American Terrorism in the United States
by Magda Montiel Davis
University of Iowa Press, 2020 Paper: 978-1-60938-726-6 eISBN: 978-1-60938-727-3
What does it mean to be instantly transformed into the most hated person in your community? After meeting Fidel Castro at a Havana reception in 1994, Cuban-born Magda Montiel Davis, founder of one of the largest immigration law firms in South Florida, soon found out. The reception—attended by hundreds of other Cuban émigrés—was videotaped for historical archives. In a seconds-long clip, Fidel pecks the traditional protocol kiss on Montiel Davis’s cheek as she thanks him for the social benefits conferred upon the Cuban people. The video, however, was mysteriously sold to U.S. reporters and aired incessantly throughout South Florida. Soon the encounter was an international cause célèbre.
Life as she knew it was over for Montiel Davis and her family, including a father who worked with the CIA to topple Fidel, a nohablo-inglés mother who lived with the family, her five children, and her Jewish Brooklyn-born attorney husband. Kissing Fidel shares the sometimes dismal, sometimes comical realities of an ordinary citizen being thrown into a world of death threats, mob attacks, and terrorism.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Magda Montiel Davis is a former Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, an immigration lawyer, and the first recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s national Pro Bono Award. She lives in Key Biscayne, Florida.
REVIEWS
“Kissing Fidel is most generous in how it treats the layered nuances of history; not just as fact, but as something that impacts the body, the landscape, the maze of the mind. I love how this work intersects, how it asks questions of both reader and self, with the understanding that there is no one clear answer. This is a rich and resonant text.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, judge, Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction
— Hanif Abdurraqib
“A powerful, terrifying vision of a dark political landscape unfamiliar to most Americans. After reading Kissing Fidel, I will never see Miami, or this country, quite the same way again.”—Kerry Howley, author, Thrown
— Kerry Howley
“In April 1994, Magda Montiel Davis was thrust into a maelstrom of injustice, violence, and bigotry. In this book she writes eloquently of the power drawn from her personal convictions, her family, and the colleagues who stood by her.”—Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former President of Haiti
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologo
Part One. Atrevimiento
1. You Think That's Right?
2. You're Either on the Bus or Off the Bus
3. Spy
4. Flying with Your Wings Cut
Part Two. Atolondramiento
5. Get Ahold of Yourself
6. Emerge in the Singular
7. Bienvenidos A Miami
8. Stranger than Fiction
9. Let's Just Go
10. Kitchen Debate
11. Before it Goes Silent and Dies
12. Ousted
13. Fully Under
14. Father Roses
15. Shit, Sherlock
16. Cubana de Aviacion
17. Good Fences, Good Neighbors
18. Dare
19. Ringo the Rottweiler
20. Guns in the Plural
21. Swat
22. Radio Rebeloe
23. Fuck Truck
24. Yellow Journalism
25. Tossed Coins
26. Eventuality
27. Raise the Antenna
28. Nothing Comes Between Me and My Claims
29. Scoundrel
30. Mother's Day
31. F = FBI
32. Exit Visa
33. Order
34. Flying Carpet
35. Streetdance
36. Aristide
37. Baseball Breakfast
38. Naked
39. But Now I Have Sushi Chef
40. Repentance
41. Plot to Kill
42. The Person I am Becoming
43. Sonesta
44. The Kid
45. Monster
Part Three. Al Carajo
46. The Return
Epilogo
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE