American Comandante |
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Pre-Castro Cuba
On the eve of Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, Cuba was neither the paradise that would later be conjured by the nostalgic imaginations of Cuba’s many exiles, nor the hellhole painted by many supporters of the revolution. These revolutionaries recall Cuba as “the brothel of the Western hemisphere” — an island inhabited by a people degraded and hungry, whose main occupation was to cater to American tourists at Havana’s luxurious hotels, beaches and casinos. Rather, Cuba was one of the most advanced and successful countries in Latin America.
A native house. Courtesy of the Cuban Heritage Collection, Univ of Miami Libraries
Credit: WGBH Archives
Fighting. Credit: Andrew St. George Papers, Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University
Fidel and Raul Castro with Che Guevara, 1959. Credit: Osvaldo Salas Estate
Hopes for Honest Government
Even Castro — a dynamic national figure following his failed Moncada assault of 1953 — spoke in those terms. “Not Communism or Marxism is our idea. Our political philosophy is representative democracy and social justice in a well-planned economy.” Many wealthy Cubans welcomed Castro’s rebel triumph in January 1959. “My parents, my grandparents and my uncles went out and paid their back taxes,” recalls Professor Marifeli Pérez Stable, “because finally, there was going to be an honest government in Cuba.”
*This article was originally published on the site for the 2005 American Experience documentary Fidel Castro.
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Publish date : 2015-11-17 13:50:00
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