Ten years ago, Juanita Castro set down to write her memoirs, and thanks to the fortunate coincidence that I was both her friend and a journalist, we began working on them together. When we finished in 1999, Juanita decided not to publish them, and for the past ten years we kept this bookthe first one I had written a secret. Surprisingly, Juanita chose this year, 2009, to bear her soul in an extraordinary journey through the triumphs and tragedies of her life and, consequently, the events that have shaped the lives of millions of people during the past fifty years. This is the first-hand testimony of a person who, from the moment of her birth, was connected by the deepest bond to two of the most notable political figures of contemporary Latin American history: Fidel and Raul Castro, her brothers. It is, therefore, the most intimate and accurate analysis any person can do of their own kin: mother, father, grandparents, and brothers, the famous and those that chose to stay out of the

Juana de la Caridad "Juanita" Castro Ruz, nacida el 6 de mayo de 1933 del matrimonio de Ángel Castro Argiz y Lina Ruz González, y quinta de los siete hermanos: Angelita (1923-2012), Ramón (1924-2016), Fidel (1926-2016)), Raúl (1931), Enma (1936) y Agustina (1938-2017).
Hace algunos años Juanita Castro se decidió a escribir sus memorias, al terminarlas en 1999, simplemente decidió no publicarlas, sorpresivamente, en el 2009 decidió abrir su alma en un extraordinario recorrido por el triunfo y la tragedia de su vida, y por ende, en los acontecimientos que han marcado las vidas de millones en los últimos cincuenta años.