Long Time Gone

Scene One

Attack on Moncada Barracks

July 1953

In a driving rain, Castro gathers 165 revolutionaries for the attack on the Moncada Barracks, ordering his troops not to cause bloodshed unless they met armed resistance. The attack took place on 26 July 1953, but ran into trouble; 3 of the 16 cars that had set out from Santiago failed to get there. One had a flat. Reaching the barracks, the alarm was raised, with most of the rebels pinned down by machine gun fire. Four were killed before Castro orders a retreat.

Scene Two

Mississippi Drowning

1935

Bill and his sister are taken by his mother to the banks of the Mississippi where she intends to drown herself with her children in the swift muddy current.

Scene Three

Beaumont Stabbing

1943

Bill finds his step-father, Mr. Walter, struggling to walk home holding his right side. He had been stabbed. Soon after he is convicted of stealing rice and imprisoned. Bill’s mother decides it’s time to leave the south and they move to Oakland.

Scene Four

First Fight/first love

1945

With the help of new found friend Jimmy Dee, Bill learns how to deal with the Neighborhood gangs. Soon after he meets Ginger, his first girlfriend.

Scene Five

The Trial of Fidel Castro

1954

Castro is rounded up along with 122 defendants  and put on trial on September 21 at the Palace of Justice, Santiago. Acting as his own defense counsel, Castro cited Martí as the intellectual author of the attack and convinced the three judges to overrule the army's decision to keep all defendants handcuffed in court, proceeding to argue that the charge with which they were accused – of "organizing an uprising of armed persons against the Constitutional Powers of the State" – was incorrect, for they had risen up against Batista, who had seized power in an unconstitutional manner. 

Castro defends himself and the others with a unique defense entitled “History Will Absolve Me.”

“I come to the close of my defense plea but I will not end it as lawyers usually do, asking that the accused be freed. I cannot ask freedom for myself while my comrades are already suffering in the ignominious prison of the Isle of Pines. Send me there to join them and to share their fate.”

Scene Six

First Brush with Injustice

1947

Bill and his friends get in trouble in the all-white Berkeley Hills as they chase down two white boys who shot in their direction. The judge rules against Bill and his black friends and puts them on probation.

Scene Seven

You are in the Army Now

1947

To get himself off the streets, Bill buys a phony birth certificate for 10 dollars and uses it to join the Army. He only last eight months and uses his falsification of age to gain an honorable discharge.

Scene Eight

Castro is released

1955

Castro's supporters agitate for an amnesty for the Moncada incident's perpetrators. Some politicians suggested an amnesty would be good publicity, and the Congress and Batista agreed. Backed by the U.S. and major corporations, Batista believed Castro to be no threat, and on 15 May 1955, Castro and the other prisoners were released. Castro is 29 years old.

Scene Nine

Bill is Busted

1949

Bill is busted for riding a borrowed stolen bike and is sent to the California Juvenile Camp in Lancaster. He is transferred to a forestry camp where in six months, he is paroled.

Scene 10

San Quentin

1952-1962

After working in various jobs, Bill steals a Buick and tries to fence it in LA. He is picked up shortly after arriving. Although his other passengers are given light sentences, Bill draws two five years-to life sentences at San Quentin. He is ultimately transferred to the minimum security facility at Tehachapi. In March of 1962, he is released at the age of 32. Bill vows to never be in prison again.

Scene 11

Castro Invades Cuba

1956

After purchasing the decrepit yacht Grandma, on 25 November 1956, Castro sets sail from Tuxpan Veracruz, with 81 armed revolutionaries. The 1,900-kilometre (1,200 mi) crossing to Cuba was harsh, with food running low and many suffering seasickness due to the tropical storms. At some points, they had to bail water caused by a leak, and at another, a man fell overboard, delaying their journey.

Upon arrival, Castro discovered that only 19 rebels had made it to their destination, the rest having been killed or captured. Setting up an encampment the survivors included the Castros, Che Guevara, and Camilos Cienfuegos.

Scene 12

Bill Becomes a Black Panther

1965

Bill gets interested in a group founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton called the Black Panthers and soon finds himself as the body guard for Eldridge Cleaver, their information minister.

Scene 13

Castro Marches into Havana

1959

Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Raul Castro march hand in hand into Havana without a shot being fired as Batista absconds from the country with over 300 million dollars after losing his army in the mountains of eastern Cuba during a rainstorm. Castro becomes the Prime Minister.

Scene 14

Bill Becomes a Teacher for the Panthers

1967

Bill becomes an avid reader reading Malcom X, Earl Ofari, E Franklyn Frazier and Franz Fanon’s “The wretched of the Earth” which discusses the reasons why oppressed people turn their rage and violence against themselves, and why armed struggle and revolution is necessary. Bill teaches the 10-point program throughout the region while working long hours in the Black Panther Breakfast Program for Children.

Scene 15

The Shoot Out

1968

In his zeal for the Panthers, Bill leaves his girlfriend and partner Gloria. In a normal run in the Panther News Van and in a haze of exhaustion, pills, and lack of sleep, Bill wakes up from the fog to find that police had stopped them because of non-payment of gas. A fire-fight ensues and Bill is captured. Two police are seriously wounded. Coming to in the hospital, he is grateful he is still alive. A short time later, Eldridge Cleaver calls a press conference and announces Bill’s expulsion from the Panthers for violating Panther principles. 

Scene 16

The Bay of Pigs

1961

In January 1961, Castro orders Havana’s US Embassy to reduce its 300-member staff, suspecting that many of them were spies. The U.S. responded by ending diplomatic relations, and it increased CIA funding for exiled dissidents; these militants began attacking ships that traded with Cuba, and bombed factories, shops, and sugar mills. 

Both President Eisenhower and his successor President Kennedy supported a CIA plan to aid a dissident militia, the Democratic Revolutionary Front, to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro; the plan resulted in the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961. 

Scene 17

Castro Becomes a Global Revolutionary

1966

In 1966, Castro staged a Tri- Continental Conference of Africa, Asia, and South America in Havana, further establishing himself as a significant player on the world stage. From this conference, Castro created the Latin American Solidarity Organization (OLAS), which adopted the slogan of "The duty of a revolution is to make revolution", signifying Havana's leadership of Latin America's revolutionary movement. 

Castro refuses to sign the Treaty of the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, declaring it a Soviet-U.S. attempt to dominate the Third World Diverting from Soviet Marxist doctrine, he suggested that Cuban society could evolve straight to pure Communism  

rather than gradually progress through various stages of socialism.

Scene 18

Bill Hijacks TWA Flight 154

1969

Choosing to not go to trial, and after a young white friend hands him a book with the title Spanish Made Simple, Bill decides to go to Cuba where Panthers were known and respected. It was known that Cuba gave asylum to revolutionaries and Bill was a revolutionary who needed political asylum.

Not having a passport or other means to leave the country, Bill gets a 38 caliber pistol the night before he boards TWA Flight 54 with his gray suit, hat and dark tie. Traveling under the name of Charles Davis, his friend Daryl buys a one-way ticket for New York City, roughly the same distance as Havana. He will be the 26th Hijacker that year. But Bill’s will be the longest.

Scene 19

Havana

1969

Bill arrives in Havana at Jose Marti International Airport hoping to be met as a fellow revolutionary.  Lt. Galves of the Cuban immigration service comes up the passageway and says “Give me your gun”. Bill thinks for a moment, and Galves reads his mind, “It’s OK, You are under our protection now. No one will harm you. Give me the gun.”

Bill is loaded into a jeep and the questions begin. Soon Bill finds himself in a dark smelly jail cell.

Scene 20

Prison Again

1970

Seeing his initial hopes dim, Bill settles down to prison life once again. This time he has no language skills, no money, and no friends on the outside to help him. He is in isolation. The guards bring food and a weekly change of clothing. Occasionally he would get a 10 minute walk.

Scene 21

Castro Celebrates 10 Years

1970

Castro publicly celebrates his administration's 10th anniversary in January 1969; in his celebratory speech he warns of sugar rations, reflecting the nation's economic problems. 

The 1969 crop was heavily damaged by a hurricane, and to meet its export quota, the government drafted in the army, implemented a seven-day working week, and postponed public holidays to lengthen the harvest. When that year's production quota was not met, Castro offered to resign during a public speech, but assembled crowds insisted he remain. 

Despite the economic issues, many of Castro's social reforms were popular, with the population largely supportive of the "Achievements of the Revolution" in education, medical care, housing, and road construction. 

In May 1970, the crews of two Cuban fishing boats were kidnapped by Florida-based dissident group Alpha 66, who demanded that Cuba release imprisoned militants. Under U.S. pressure, the hostages were released, and Castro welcomed them back as heroes. 

In April 1971, Castro was internationally condemned for ordering the arrest of dissident poet Heberto Padilla who had been arrested 20 March; Padilla was freed, but the government established the National Cultural Council to ensure that intellectuals and artists supported the administration.[2

Scene 22

Hijack House

1971

After 22 months in jail, Bill is released to a halfway house. Bill finds new friends at Hijack House where he learns of Mao’s Little Red Book and other readings from Che Guevara and Malcolm X. Bill is eager to learn Spanish, even though many at the house consider it another Colonial Slave Language. Bill thought that idea was a little extreme.

In April of 1971, Bill writes his mother and his sister Ella for the first time since his arrival.

Scene 23

Sugarcane, soap, and Love

1973

Bill takes a job in sugarcane fields and works 10 hours a day seven days a week doing back breaking labor for the Revolution. Margaret and Joan share themselves with Bill, as Bill’s circle of friends grow. At a meeting of the Union of North American Residents, Jane McManus is elected president and Bill is elected ideology secretary. Soon Jane and Bill are living together.

Scene 24

Huey Newton finds Bill

1974

Bill is interrupted from his studies at the University of Havana by a knock at the door. It is a well-dressed lawyer who says he represents a mutual friend. He invites Bill to the Capri Hotel where he meets Huey Newton, the co-founder of the Panthers. “Brother Bill, how would you like to rejoin the Panthers”? “I would be proud to say the Bill Brent is still a member of the Black Panthers” Huey says.

Scene 25

Bill Beaumont

1986

After graduating from the University of Havana in Hispanic Languages (1981), Bill becomes

a teacher and ultimately gets a job at Radio Havana with his own radio show called Tour Radio Taino. 

He has become a transformed man.

A beautiful mountain of a man.