Cuba: “Listen Yankee!”—A Review

In 1956, Juan Jose Arevalo, revolutionary and President of Guatemala from 1945-1950, published a book with the title Fable of the Shark and the Sardines. Into the book, written after the subversion of the left-wing government of Guatemala by American-armed invaders, was poured all the bile and frustration of the Guatemalan patriot. The thesis was simple. The United States was a Shark and all the Latin American countries were Sardines. The sardines existed for the pleasure of being eaten by the shark. And the shark had three faces, Wall Street, the Department of State and the Pentagon, “three distinct aspects and one true personality.”

The book, which to the knowledge of this reviewer has not yet been translated into English (which is of itself revealing), swept the student body of Latin America by storm. It had certain magnificent advantages. It tied into one neat package the filthiest aspects of American imperialist and monopolist practice, always seen more clearly from the outside by the injured party. It was a clear description of what had happened in Guatemala. And it presented a common enemy to unite against. The fact that it made general a particular case, that it presented only some of the facts and ma...