美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Confessions Of A Cuban Boy' Author Taks Life As A Cuban Refugee

'Confessions¹ Of A Cuban Boy' Author Taks Life As A Cuban Refugee 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0004:15repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

We're hearing reaction today to the death of Fidel Castro. He overthrew³ a dictator in 1959 and was hailed as a national hero. But he held on to power with repression⁴ and brutality⁵, jailing former friends, sentencing dissidents to forced labor⁶. He turned countless⁷ Cuban families upside down and created two generations of exiles.

Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba in 1962. He wrote a celebrated⁸ memoir⁹ of his childhood, "Waiting For Snow In Havana." Professor Eire of Yale University joins us now from Connecticut. Carlos, thanks so much for being with us.

CARLOS EIRE: Thank you for inviting¹⁰ me to be on your show, Scott. It's great to talk to you.

SIMON: How do your years of exile shape your views of Fidel Castro today?

EIRE: Well, nothing has changed since even before I left Cuba. Even as a 10-year-old boy, I felt someone was trying to steal my mind, my heart, my soul. And there was one man behind it. And it was Fidel Castro. So my view hasn't changed. It's just the fact that he held on for so many years.

SIMON: But let me ask...

EIRE: All of the evil that he represents for me is kind of hard to put into words.

SIMON: But Carlos, aren't there are a lot of Cubans who believe that Fidel Castro was responsible for giving them free, quality health care and nearly universal literacy?

EIRE: I'm not sure about many. We don't know because there's no real polling down there. I think the fact that 20 percent of Cuban population lives in exile says something. The health care is not everything it's touted¹¹ to be.

There are actually two systems, one for the Communist Party members and one for everyone else. And that's very, very bad. And education is not education. It's indoctrination. Plus, it's not free because every school child has to spend his or her summer doing slave labor in agricultural camps.

SIMON: When President Obama ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba a couple years ago, you wrote a piece for The Washington Post. I'm going to quote a line that you wrote. Quote, "I am furious, in pain and deeply offended by those who laud¹² this portrayal¹³ of the Cuban people as a great moment in history." Is that still your feeling, or are you reconciled?

EIRE: Oh, yeah. It only deepened with the passage of time because, exactly as I suspected, repression has increased in Cuba since December 17, 2014, when the announcement was made. So, no, things only got worse. And this policy set in place by President Obama is nothing more than a total license¹⁴ for the Castro regime to act with impunity¹⁵ within the island itself.

SIMON: What about the idea, Carlos, that the old way wasn't working with an embargo¹⁶ and limited contact between the two countries?

EIRE: The new way has made things worse. The old way was working in one sense. And that - it was setting place for containment¹⁷ of the damage that the Castro regime could do to the United States. And one of the largest mistakes made by the Obama administration, which was intentional¹⁸ - it wasn't - they didn't think it was a mistake.

But it was taking Cuba off the list of terror-sponsoring states. Cuba is still a terror-sponsoring nation. So the embargo was set in place for containment primarily. And the second reason - the immediate¹⁹ reason - back in 1960 was the fact that the...

SIMON: We just got about 10 seconds left.

EIRE: OK. All the property that the Castro regime stole remains²⁰ stolen. And people who lost that property, especially American firms, remain unrecompensed.

SIMON: Carlos Eire, professor of history and religious studies at Yale, thanks so much for being with us.

1 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 overthrew   

overthrow的过去式

参考例句：

• The people finally rose up and overthrew the reactionary regime. 人们终于起来把反动的政权推翻了。
• They overthrew their King. 他们推翻了国王。

4 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

5 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

6 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

7 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

8 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

9 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

10 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

11 touted   

v.兜售( tout的过去式和过去分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• She's being touted as the next leader of the party. 她被吹捧为该党的下一任领导人。
• People said that he touted for his mother and sister. 据说，他给母亲和姐姐拉生意。 来自辞典例句

12 laud   

n.颂歌；v.赞美

参考例句：

• Kathy was very pleased to have graduated cum laud in her class.凯西在班上以优等成绩毕业，她为此而非常高兴。
• We laud him a warmhearted man.我们称赞他是个热心人。

13 portrayal   

n.饰演；描画

参考例句：

• His novel is a vivid portrayal of life in a mining community.他的小说生动地描绘了矿区的生活。
• The portrayal of the characters in the novel is lifelike.该书中的人物写得有血有肉。

14 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

15 impunity   

n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除

参考例句：

• You will not escape with impunity.你不可能逃脱惩罚。
• The impunity what compulsory insurance sets does not include escapement.交强险规定的免责范围不包括逃逸。

16 embargo   

n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商）

参考例句：

• This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
• During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间，他们禁止与敌国通商。

17 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

18 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

19 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

20 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。