Cuba Libre . . .
I was struck by the death of Fidel Castro, in particular the contrast on the news between the celebratory street parties in Miami and elsewhere in the United States, and the mourning (as well as relief or even indifference) happening in Cuba.
I suspect there are many Canadians like me who only have a very superficial experience or knowledge of Cuba. I am mildly embarrassed to note that I have been to Cuba several times as a tourist at all-inclusive resorts, but I never made it to Havana, any other urban centre nor the countryside. I do have a faint memory from school of a daring Pierre Trudeau visiting Cuba in the 1970s (similar to his visit to China).
So, if you're interested in knowing more about Fidel Castro and Cuba, I hope the following autobiographical and personal writings of Castro may be of some interest.
Castro was well known for the hours-long speeches he used to give to hundreds of thousands of Cubans — the scale of that is suggested by the photo below.
1969 Toronto Star Archives photo of Castro addressing a crowd of 600,000 Cubans in Havana on the 10th anniversary of the revolution.
In addition to the huge crowds, notice the huge Che Guevara artwork on the buildings in the background. Who of us didn't date (or have a secret crush on) someone who had a large Che poster on their dorm walls?
If you're interested in Che, try some of these books:
- Che: A memoir by Fidel Castro
- Remembering Che: My life with Che Guevara by Aleida March de la Torre (his widow and mother of his four children); also available in Spanish
- Fidel and Che: A revolutionary friendship
- The Bolivian Diary by Che Guevara
- Che: The diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara
- and Steve Soderberg's Che. Part one, The argentine Che. Partie un, L'Argentin. and Che. Part two, Guerrilla Che. Partie deux, Guérilla.
Surprisingly, there are not a lot of biographies about Castro. Below are some suggested titles:
- Volker Skierka's Fidel Castro
- The Real Fidel Castro by Leycester Coltman
- Fidel Castro by Robert Quirk
- Fidel & religion: Castro talks on revolution & religion with Frei Betto
And we also have documentary DVDs about Fidel Castro:
If you are more interested in Cuban history and culture as a whole, you may want to read some of these:
Toronto Public Library also has some material in Spanish on Cuba including the book Fidel y Raúl, mis hermanos: la historia secret by Juanita Ruiz Castro, Fidel and Raúl's sister. She initially embraced the revolution against Batista but then became disillusioned at the rise of the Cuban communists and fled to the United States.
See also:
The contrasting Western (Canadian) view of Cuba and the Castro-led revolution can be summarized through the headlines of the two photos below from the Toronto Star Archives; these are available through TPL's website.
"Cuba: Once known as the brothel of the Caribbean; Cuba has made tremendous strides under its charismatic leader Fidel Castro" – 1970 Toronto Star Archive
"The line-up is about the only thing that's abundant in Cuba today" – 1969 Toronto Star Archive
History makes strange bedfellows, so I wanted to give a brief explanation about the title of this blog post: Cuba Libre = Free Cuba.
Many people will know the rum, coke, lime and ice drink Cuba Libre. Ahhh the rum and coke — the beloved drink of many Canadians.
The history of the drink is tied up with the American occupation of Cuba from 1898 – 1902. This was following the invasion of Cuba by the United States and Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Riders etc in 1898, which ended the Spanish American War and the "freeing" of Cuba from its Spanish colonial masters (Cuba was the last Spanish colony in the Americas). Cuba Libre is also the name of a famous Elmore Leonard novel about the Spanish American War.
Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and their guerrillas led the 1950s revolt in Cuba that ultimately overthrew the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Castro freed Cuba from an dictator. He also freed them from an economic domination of foreign economic interests (especially but not exclusively, US). In turn, Castro moved to what Americans felt was communism and in 1961, an attempted coup sponsored by the United States known as the Bay of Pigs invasion failed. Within a year, the Cuban Missile Crisis would grip the world. During the 1960s and 70s, Cuba for some represented a standing up to America. Over time though, the economic support of communist Russia declined and the economy as a whole soured (also likely due to the American economic embargo) and this led to a declining standard of living for many Cubans.
Cuba was freed to an extent from Spanish colonial powers, but was then subjected to direct and indirect American political and economic domination. In turn, Cuba revolted and moved to Communism and some measure of independence but was also dependent on the support (control?) of Russia. Within Cuba, the rise in situation among rural Cubans would be at the expense of wealthier land owners (such as Castro's own sugar plantation owning family). Castro in turn would be identified as father of a nation / revolution and as an oppressive dictator of a one party system. With his passing, Cuba Libre – Free Cuba again comes into play — possibly "freeing" Cuba from communism or possibly simply freeing Cuba from Fidel himself (what to make of his brother Raúl though?). There is a Reddit board called Neutral Politics (is such a thing really possible?) and it recently had an online discussion "Was Fidel Castro a "benevolent dictator?" "How was life under his power?" that you may find interesting.
Throughout this weaving back and forth of history, opponents and losers are jailed, executed, assassinated and killed in war by the hundreds and by the thousands. And for every death, there is also sometimes a slower harm in poverty and limited access to opportunities. It's impossible to really know the truth over time and over distance — it's unlikely there is one truth — and it's further complicated by the cliche "History is written by the victors".
Fidel Castro passed on power to his brother Raúl Castro in 2006 as his own health declined. It was Raúl who organized the nine days of mourning and the three-day march of Castro's ashes back to Santiago, retracing in reverse the route that the triumphant rebels took upon overthrowing US-backed Batista in 1959. Castro's ashes are buried in a simple monument. According to Raúl, there will be no cult of the personality for his brother with no buildings or streets etc. to be named after Fidel.
I wanted to end with some architectural interior design photography books that capture all that is great and not so great with Castro's Cuba.
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