29.2.12

The Havana-Miami Carousel

Angela Maria Castro Ruz
        Angela Maria Castro Ruz, the oldest sister of Ramon, Fidel, and Raul Castro, died at dawn Tuesday, Feb. 28-2012 in Banes, Cuba, near the ancestral Castro home. She was 88.  
Lina Castro
         Angela Maria was the first of Lina Castro's seven children and, like her mother, all her life she supported the revolutionary ideals of her two famous, and infamous, brothers. She lived very modestly and many of her neighbors rarely associated her last name with her always friendly persona. She was notably non-political. However, one of Angela Maria's quotes that made the Santiago de Cuba newspaper in 1984 when she attended a musical concert came when she bristled at a lady that she perceived had made an anti-Fidel remark: "If you want a ticket to Miami to join the Mafia that he kicked off the island, I'll help you get it!"
Juanita Castro Ruz
          Juanita Castro Ruz, one of the four Castro sisters, announced the death of Angela Maria in Miami before it was mentioned in the Cuban media. Poles apart from Angela Maria, Juanita worked for the CIA in Havana,  defected to Miami where she became wealthy in the pharmaceutical business, and wrote an anti-Castro book.
      The other two Castro sisters, Emma and Augustina, also spent time in Miami but, unlike Juanita, their visit was not a defection. Emma and Augustina are shown above in Miami at a function in 1957 to raise money for their brothers' anti-Batista revolution, which seemed to them a sisterly thing to do. 
        In fact, Fidel was also quite fond of using Miami as a source of money to aid his revolution. The above photo shows him making a rousing anti-Batista speech at the Flagler Theatre in Miami in 1955, shortly after his exit from a Batista prison on Cuba's Isle of Pines. 
        That's Fidel on the right gyrating at the microphone as he mesmerized his Miami audience in 1955, with the photo of Jose Marti at center stage between the U. S. and Cuban flags.
        In 1948 when he married Mirta Diaz-Balart (above) Fidel took her to Miami to celebrate their honeymoon.
Mirta and Fidel on their wedding day
       In addition to Miami, Fidel also liked visiting New York City. That's him strolling in Central Park in 1950 while Fulgencio Batista, between his two Cuban dictatorships, was living in his Miami mansion near his Mafia friends.
         Fidel's daughter Alina (from his 1955 affair with Havana socialite Naty Revuelta) followed his sister Juanita's path to riches in Miami where Alina today hosts an anti-Castro radio show, writes anti-Castro books and articles, and flies all over the U. S. making lucrative anti-Castro speeches on college campuses. And, oh yes, Alina's first haul of Western dollars came from a Spanish publishing company when she sold the love letters Fidel wrote to Naty while he was imprisoned, breaking her mother's heart because Naty, to this day, remains deeply supportive of Fidel.         
       Mother and daughter Naty and Alina were very close in Havana, till Alina made a clandestine trip to Spain and from there defected to Miami where she began her very rewarding anti-Castro career.
       Naty (Natalia Revuelta), shown above giving a rare interview to U.S. News & World Report, remains "100% supportive of Fidel" to this day. She depicts their daughter's defection to Miami this way: "It is one of those things, money you know; Fidel was born rich and never took money for himself and never showered it on those around him. Alina held that against him. Most of us admire him for it."
Photo courtesy: Cuba Y La Masoneria
        Fidel's mother Lina was a peasant woman working as a maid for his father Angel. But Lina and Angel were married by the time the above photo was made. Lina was born in 1903 in Cuba and Angel was born in 1875 in Spain.
          Angel Castro became a multi-millionaire in Cuba. He owned 36,000 acres and his own railroad took his produce to the city.
          All his life Fidel has deeply loved his mother but was never close to his father. He strongly resented Angel's contract with the Boston-based United Fruit Company that he believed was enslaving poor Cubans. So his mother Lina, the peasant maid, was his idol as a boy. Above, he stares at her photo long after she died.
 The above photo of Fidel's beloved mother is pertinent to historians. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959, Fidel ordered that the Castro home place be flooded to provide irrigation for surrounding peasant farms, with a plan to move his mother to a big city. Lina took exception and used the rifle shown above to chase her eldest son Ramon off her property when he came to explain Fidel's reasoning to her. Lina then famously went to see Celia Sanchez, knowing that Celia was the only person on the island who could over-rule Fidel. Celia agreed with Lina and simply tore up his written order, and that was the end of it. Georgie Anne Geyer, in her seminal Castro biography, explained in detail that episode, including the decisive role played by Celia Sanchez.
        Lina and Angel, by the way, had three sons to go with their four daughters. Ramon was born on September 30, 1924; Fidel was born on August 13, 1926; and Raul was born on June 3, 1931. As of June-2019 Ramon and Fidel, both of whom reached the age of 90, have died of old age and, at 87, Raul is semi-retired former Education Minister and non-revolutionary Miguel Diaz-Canel the new President of Cuba.
         The three Castro full brothers had a half brother named Martin Castro, shown as the taller of the two farmers in the above photo. Martin was born in 1930 with Angel Castro his father and Generosa Mendoza, a woman who worked for Angel, his mother. Martin has been offered a home in Havana but chooses to live on his farm near Biran, Cuba. He is well known to all his neighbors as Fidel's half brother and for being the father of triplets.
 Fidel Castro as an infant
Dressed for his first day at school
Fidel Castro and his first girlfriend
Fidel Castro at the University of Havana, 1945
Fidel Castro, student and street leader, 1947
Fidel Castro, on the left, on a tumultuous street in Bogota, Colombia, in 1948
Moncada Military Barracks, Santiago de Cuba, 1953
Fidel's mugshot after he led the ill-fated attack on the Moncada Military Barracks on July 26, 1953
Fidel undergoing interrogation after the Moncada attack
         Fidel is shown above serving his 15-year sentence at Batista's Isle of Pines prison. Most of the Moncada prisoners were tortured to death but Fidel was not simply because of his high profile as the hero of the majority peasants and because the media, especially Fidel's huge fan (Herbert L. Mathews) at the New York Times, kept a close watch on the young rebel's welfare.
      The two female Moncada attackers, Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria, shown above at the Isle of Pines prison, were unmercifully tortured by Batista goons. Haydee's brother Abel was Fidel's 2nd in command for the attack. While Haydee was tied to a chair in her cell, she heard Abel and her finance being tortured to death in a nearby cell, after which their warm eyeballs and testicles were rubbed over Haydee's face and chest. Melba is still alive and still a huge supporter of the Cuban Revolution. The full name of Haydee's murdered brother was Abel Santamaria Cuadrado; the full name of her murdered fiance was Reynaldo Boris Luis Santa Coloma. Haydee's experience at the Isle of Pines prison propelled her to become one of the two greatest female guerrilla fighters of all time although she never recovered from the deaths of her brother and fiance.
       Fidel, on the right, is shown leaving the Isle of Pines prison in 1955 after Batista was forced to grant amnesty to the Moncada prisoners because Batista's key supporter, the United States, was finally embarrassed by the New York Times and other influential media reports about the incredible atrocities being committed by the Batista dictatorship.
        Fidel first of all comforted his two female Moncada warriors, Melba on the left and Haydee on the right, as best he could.
        The fiercely motivated Haydee Santamaria, shown above at the head of a guerrilla column in the Sierra Maestra, quickly joined Celia's anti-Batista rebels. Those two women (Celia Sanchez is right behind  Haydee Santamaria in the above photo) would change history and become, beyond question, the two greatest female guerrilla fighters in world history.
 Rebels directed by Celia Sanchez operating in the Sierra Maestra.
       After 23-year-old Frank Pais and his teenage brother Jesus were captured and murdered in 1957, Frank's funeral march lined the streets of Santiago de Cuba (above) and Celia Sanchez was left as the lone major recruiter and organizer for the anti-Batista movement. 
         When Batista's U. S. - supplied warplanes caused havoc against her guerrilla units, Celia Sanchez procured Browning Automatic Rifles from her Venezuelan backers to bring down several low-flying bombers, and give pause to other would-be warplanes, especially the smaller spotter planes. (Photo courtesy: Wisconsin Historical Society; Dickey Chapelle Collection)
       At this point, Celia Sanchez was directing the operation in the Sierra Maestra, including the audacious planning of hit-and-run attacks as well as continuing her vital recruitment of rebels and supplies. At one point she sent her best guerrilla fighter, Haydee, on a trip to Miami to secure money for the overall viability of the revolution. And by now Fidel Castro, freed from the Isle of Pines prison, was taking her directions too because, without ever having seen her, Fidel's worship of Celia Sanchez began when he learned about her while he was imprisoned.

        Fidel (shown above the very night of his fortuitous alignment with Che Guevara in Mexico City) was spirited off to Mexico via a series of Cuban safe houses followed by trips to Miami and New York City...all because Celia Sanchez well knew that Batista had put death squads on Fidel's trail soon after his release from prison. Celia's fierce desire to keep Fidel alive was because he was the rebel idolized by the majority peasants.
        After some trials and tribulations, including three weeks in a Mexican prison on an arms violation, Fidel bought an old yacht (the famed Granma shown above) and piled himself and 81 other rebels -- including the Argentine doctor Che Guevara, his brother Raul, and Camilo Cienfuegos -- on board the yacht that, in its heyday, was designed for 12 passengers, not 82, and it was not built to handle the weapons, ammunition, and gas cans that basically covered the deck. But the Granma almost made it to the arranged rendezvous with Celia Sanchez and her rebel unit at a prescribed beach on the southeastern edge of Cuba near the Sierra Maestra mountains. But the old boat began leaking and Batista helicopter pilots, tipped off by phone calls from Mexico City, spotted it just offshore as it was barely moving and beginning to sink. A strong Batista army set up an ambush but Fidel still had to order his men to abandon the yacht and swim ashore as best they could...three miles from where Celia waited to protect their arrival! The ambush picked them off unmercifully but a total of 17 of the 82 managed to crawl into the dense briar-infested thickets and were eventually saved as Celia's rebels rushed to their aid. The Castro brothers, Che, Camilo, and Juan Almeida were among the 17 survivors and the wonder is how many of the other 65 rebels who didn't survive would have also become famous revolutionaries if they had lived beyond the ill-fated Granma landing.   
        In that context, Antonio "Nico" Lopez comes to mind. Nico, the one with the glasses and moustache, is shown above with Raul Castro in Mexico City in November of 1956, a few weeks before they joined 80 other rebels aboard the Granma to go back to Cuba and wage war against the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Nico played an historic role in Mexico City. He met Che Guevara and it was Nico who talked the young Argentine doctor to go with them to Cuba to free the island from the Batista scourge. Nico then was the rebel that first took Che to meet Fidel Castro, an epic meeting that will fascinate historians for generations to come. But Nico prior to that venture in Mexico had garnered revolutionary fame. On July 26, 1953, Nico led a 21-man squad that attacked the Moncada barracks, and 12 of his men were killed either in the attack or later when they were "questioned." Nico was captured and, like Fidel and Raul, sentenced to 15 years in prison. Extremely close to the Castro brothers and Che Guevara, Nico was among the 65 men on the Granma who were killed in the ambush as they swam and crawled to shore. Nico is a prime martyr with an oil refinery among the things named for him today in Cuba. But Celia Sanchez, who would know, said years later (in 1970 when she and Fidel visited Trinidad, Cuba), "Frank (Pais) and Nico (Lopez) died so young in our fight. Had they lived, I have always wondered if those two would now be ahead of Fidel and me in the leadership of the island." That magnanimous and surprising Celia Sanchez quote was heard in Trinidad by a Spanish reporter and it later appeared in Bohemia Magazine.
        The above map shows the perilous trek of the Granma from Mexico to the Sierra Maestra and then the progression from December-1956 to Jan.-1959 till the Cuban Revolution defeated the Batista-Mafia dictatorship, creating history by becoming the first rebels to overthrow a U. S. - backed dictatorship. But even more significantly, the overthrown Batista-Mafia stewardship in Cuba became the first and only overthrown U. S. - backed dictatorship to quickly, and it seems eternally, reconstitute itself on U. S. soil, namely the Mafia havens of Miami and Union City (NJ).
         Fidel and Celia, the new leaders of Cuba, took their time from January 1 till January 8, 1959, to make the trek from Santiago de Cuba, the old capital on the southeastern tip of the alligator-shaped island, to the current capital of Havana on the western tip. Fidel relished the acclaim but Celia detested it, as indicated by the victorious photo above.
         For the next 21 years Celia Sanchez made the decisions for Cuba, with the total support of Fidel Castro, whether or not he always agreed with those decisions. Thus, Celia was always the studious one, allowing Fidel to sometimes just sit back in his rocking chair with his slippers off, as depicted in the above photo, while Celia, quite appropriately, was hard at work. Note: Whether it's machismo or the fact that Celia, the angelic doctor's daughter, was a bit harder to demonize, to this day many of the controllers of Cuban history, namely the radical Cuban exiles in Miami, minimize Celia's incomparable role in the Cuban Revolution. But Cuba's top historian, Pedro Alvarez Tabio, got it right: "If Batista had managed to kill Celia Sanchez anytime between 1953 and 1957, there would have been no viable Cuban Revolution, and no revolution for Fidel and Che to join." And Cuban insider Roberto Salas, the renowned photographer in Cuba from 1959 (when he was 14) till today, got it right: "Celia made all the decisions for Cuba, the big ones and the small ones." But as far as the biased and self-serving U. S. chroniclers of the Cuban Revolution -- the radical fringe Cuban-exiles in Miami and Union City -- are concerned, Celia Sanchez, of course, was "a non-factor." If she had been, those two generations of radical exiles would not be in charge of Miami and Union City while also dictating the U. S. Cuban policy; they would still be ruling and robbing Cuba, probably with, as usual, Washington's blessing. 
Dicky Chapelle photo, Sierra Maestra, 1957, courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society
        Celia Sanchez was a chronic note-taker, rarely seen without a writing pad. She discussed options and registered the opinions of her associates, whom she called companeros. However, she reserved for herself the final decisions. Beginning in the Sierra Maestra at the start of 1957, Fidel never failed to support her positions and therefore it didn't matter much what others thought. This relationship was prioritized by Fidel himself for the rest of Celia's life. Was it because he felt she had saved his life and the life of the revolution? Yes. Was that the only reason? No. He trusted her and he loved her, far above and beyond any other person during his lifetime. To understand Fidel Castro, one must understand Celia Sanchez. They were the ultimate collaborators, and much more.
        But the two people Fidel Castro has most idolized during his long lifetime -- history's two greatest female guerrilla fighters, Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria -- both died in 1980, with Haydee committing suicide after Celia died of cancer at age 59. That definitive version of the deaths of Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria has been confirmed by, among others, Celia Hart, Haydee's daughter who was named for Celia Sanchez, and Haydee's American biographer Betsy Maclean of New York City.  
       Fidel Castro's two soul mates have been gone a long time and he is now 85-years-old and convalescing from a near-fatal intestinal illness that beset him way back in July of 2006. The reconstituted, still determined, utterly rich and immensely powerful Batistianos remain, since January of 1959, headquartered in nearby Miami and still in control of Washington but not Havana. And 2012 is the year that the Guinness Book of World Records finally and officially recognizes that the old man has survived the most assassination attempts in history -- 638! All of which is a reminder of the most famous Celia Sanchez quote, dating back to 1959 (and later repeated at least four times):  "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." When the coda is written on the Cuban Revolution, that Celia Sanchez prophecy should get more than a footnote but, as usual, all that will depend on who writes the history.
       Meanwhile, the famed Versailles Restaurant, the centerpiece of the Little Havana section of Miami, is bracing for the most boisterous celebration in its raucous history -- and that will occur when word reaches Miami that Fidel Castro has finally succumbed to old age (if not to assassination attempt #639). All of which brings us back around to the theme that tops this essay: "The Havana-Miami/Miami-Havana Carousel." In all of history, there has never been anything like it and there has never been a fiction writer that could have envisioned it. For example, it permanently redefined the meanings of such rancorous terms as "dictator" and "democracy" not to mention "terrorist" and "embargo."  In other words, it is, shall we say, "rather unique."  The Cuban Revolution elevated an island onto the world stage far out of proportion to its size and population, and it reshaped a simple U. S. - backed dictatorship into the first and only overthrown one to reconstitute itself on hallowed U. S. soil. Its scenic, sinuous, bewitching rhythms seem both endless and timeless although, admittedly, a bit disjointed and, at times, obstreperous. And since Jan. 1-1959 till today the arduous, continuous, and irrepressible vacillations include this immutable fact: If Fidel sneezes in Havana, someone is sure to catch a cold in Miami, punctuating the world's most fascinating and endearing carousel.  When will it end? No one knows! And that's the most fascinating thing of all.
     Fidel Castro died on November 26th, 2016, at age 90. His ashes are entombed in a huge rock on the southeastern tip of the island far from Havana. But it's his legacy that still sustains the island during the dire threat from the latest Republican administration in the USA, Trump's, determined to strangle, starve, and overpower the vulnerable island on behalf of the rich and politically powerful Batista-exiles entrenched in Little Havana, Miami.
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30.1.12

3 Women May Lead Post-Castro Cuba


3 Women May Lead Post-Castro Cuba
#1
Josefina Vidal
      If she wants it, Josefina Vidal can be the post-Castro leader of Cuba. The 85-year-old Fidel Castro "thinks she walks on water"; the 80-year-old Raul Castro "thinks she is the smartest person on the island"; and the 81-year-old Jose Ramon Machado Ventura "thinks she would be the best guerrilla fighter on the island if such a defense is ever needed." Those salient depictions of Vidal from the Castro brothers and Ventura, easily the three most powerful Cuban men and the last of the famed revolutionary guerrilla fighters, comes courtesy of a keen insider source -- one of Fidel's eight sons, all of whom live modestly and are essentially non-political. Vidal is currently the ultra-powerful Minister of North American Affairs for Cuba and twice she has turned down Fidel's offers for promotions. However, last week after reading a Miami Herald article about what the top three Republican presidential candidates were promising the Cuban exiles, she confided to a close female friend: "An Obama loss next November would change my mind about retiring. Or...maybe I study the Miami Herald too much."
#2
Gladys Bejerano
      If she wants it, Gladys Bejerano can be the co-leader of post-Castro Cuba. The CIA, which famously has gotten most of its assessments of Cuba wrong over the decades, now astutely ranks Gladys as the third most powerful government official in Cuba, behind only 80-year-old Raul Castro and 81-year-old Jose Ramon Machado Ventura. Today, far above anyone else on the island, Gladys makes the uncontested decisions regarding anything that resembles anti-revolutionary corruption on the island, either foreign or domestic. No one...repeat, no one -- over-rules her regardless of what, where, when or against whom her decisions are rendered.
Alejandro Castro Espin
       Alejandro Castro Espin, the son of Raul Castro and Vilma Espin, works in a low-profile position for Gladys Bejerano.
Vilma Espin
     Vilma Espin, a famed guerrilla fighter in the Sierra Maestra, married Raul Castro in 1959 and is the mother of his four children. From 1959 till her death from cancer on April 7, 2009 at age 77, Vilma was, except for the military aspect, more powerful and more high-profile than Raul...and her overall power on the island was exceeded only by her revolutionary friends Celia Sanchez and Fidel Castro.
       The above photo shows Celia Sanchez at the bedside of Vilma Espin the day Vilma gave birth to Alejandro Castro Espin in 1965. At the time, Celia and Vilma were arguably the two most powerful people on the island, Celia the decision-maker fully backed by Fidel Castro and Vilma the wife of Raul Castro and the absolutely unchallenged head of the Cuban Federation of Women.
      The above photo shows Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin in 1957 in the Sierra Maestra when they were guerrilla fighters against Batista. Celia, as always, was the studious one, befitting the fact that she was also the chief recruiter (of rebels and supplies) and the prime decision-maker.
Photo courtesy: Getty Images
      In addition to an Alejandro Castro Espin there is an Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle. He is shown above with his girlfriend and mother Dalia Soto del Valle. Dalia married Fidel in 1980 shortly after the death of their beloved Celia Sanchez and at the direct request of Celia on her deathbed. Alejandro is the only one of Fidel's and Dalia's five sons that still lives at home, which (as the CIA well knows) is a modest house on 166th Street in the Siboney section of Western Havana. From 1959 till Celia's death from cancer (at age 59) on Jan. 11-1980, Fidel spent most of his nights at her modest little apartment on 11th Street in Havana.
#3
Leira Sanchez Valdivia
      Very ambitious and exceptionally bright and capable, the still young and already powerful Leira Sanchez Valdivia will likely get her wish to someday be the sole leader of Cuba, although she will probably have to follow the now 50-year-old Vidal and the grandmotherly Gladys.  Leira is the leader of a wave of fresh female pro-revolutionary nationalists who have swept into the Cuban political scene determined to keep the island free of foreign domination "regardless of what sacrifice we must make or what price we must pay." It is well known that the precocious Leira keeps her eyes peeled on both Miami and Washington. At the moment she is the strongest leader of an emerging force that seems capable of dominating the future course of the island. Like Fidel Castro and Jose Marti themselves, Leira's prime strength lies in her fervent desire for Cuban sovereignty, especially the more it seems threatened by Miami or Washington. As a politico, Leira is smart enough to know that her base in Cuba is strengthened markedly as anti-Cuban rants and rhetoric (such as from pandering presidential candidates who never fail to promise radical Cuban exiles they will soon regain control of the island) gets louder and more frequent. Leira is emblematic of the creation and manifestation of a new generation of Cubans who want more freedom and more wealth but most of all desire an independent and sovereign Cuba, making them much more pro-Castro than pro-Miami. Would they fight a foreign attempt to regain dominance of the island? Leira's answer: "You betcha." But, even if you win it might mean Wal-Marts would not saturate the island. Reply: "So what? Neither would Miami." Fidel's son Alejandro recently summed up Leira's influence as opposed to, say, that of the Western world's beloved anti-Castro bloggers whom Leira (and many others on the island) believe are financed from abroad: "My dad loves Josefina and Leira and my uncle is afraid of just one person on the island, and that's Gladys. But everybody loves Josefina and Leira and everybody is afraid of Gladys. So...go figure."  Uh, yeah...go figure. And while doing so, note that Alejandro always passes on any chance to criticize dissidents because that rather small contingent is usually well contained by the perception that they are financed or influenced by foreign entities. That perception, as Leira well knows, pits the majority on the island against dissidents. Nationalism, independence, and sovereignty pervade the islanders, and Leira comprehends that fact: "Marti fought and died for that; Fidel fought and lived for that. That's where we stand and that's why we will build a stronger firewall. We will fight and die or fight and live." 
 General Ulises Rosales del Toro
      As things now stand, the only Cuban male likely to compete for the top position in post-Castro Cuba is General Ulises Rosales del Toro. He will turn 70 on March 8, 2012.
Generals Ulises Rosales del Toro, Ramiro Valdes, and Raul Castro (left to right)     
      Ramiro Valdes, shown above in the middle, is Raul's other most beloved and still living revolutionary general. But the still powerful Valdes turns 80 on April 28, 2012, so he is the same age as Raul and a full decade older than del Toro.
General Juan Almeida
      Juan Almeida, a black Cuban who fought alongside Raul Castro in the Sierra Maestra, was a political power on the island till he died of a heart attack at age 82 on September 11, 2009. Till his death, Juan was considered Raul's closest friend.  
Jose Ramon Machado Ventura
      Jose Ramon Machado Ventura is now the strong #2 man in the Cuban government, behind only Raul Castro.
       Shown above standing between the uniformed Ramiro Valdes and Raul Castro, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura turns 82 on October 26, 2012. With both Castro brothers and all the other historic and still living male revolutionaries in their 80s, the 69-year-old General Ulises Rosales del Toro is Raul's choice to lead post-Castro Cuba but even Raul will not attempt to block the path of a much younger Cuban, including females favored by the 85-year-old Fidel. 
         Fidel Castro, mostly retired now except for writing his Reflections of Fidel essays, has strong desires and lofty visions for a woman to be the leader of post-Castro Cuba. And the three that tickle his fancy the most are Josefina, Gladys, and Leira. That puts them in the favorites role, even ahead of Raul's favorite (General del Toro) because when the smoke and the fog and the haze clears away on post-Castro Cuba and fades out to sea, the leadership of the island will come down to two factors: (1) Fidel's legacy and (2) the emerging demands of the majority of Cubans on the island who were not even born when Fidel came to power on January 1, 1959. Yes, many Cuban-watchers believe that the two prime factors that will predicate the post-Castro leadership on the island are (1) Miami and (2) Washington.  But having been to Cuba, and having noted the effect Leira Sanchez Valdivia has on young Cubans and Josefina Vidal has on middle-aged Cubans,  I'll stick with my two factors till proven wrong. Indeed, if Miami and/or Washington are viewed as the prime predators, there will surely be more revolutionary blood shed on the island.
          The fact that all three of the likely post-Castro leaders will be Cuban women is neither accidental nor coincidental.
       Beginning in 1952, it was Cuban women who bravely took to the streets to begin the fight to oust the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. At the time it was considered impossible because no nation had ever come close to overthrowing a dictatorship backed by the United States, the nearby world superpower.
       Cuban women like the fearless Celia Sanchez were the leading recruiters, planners, and fighters both before and after macho men like Fidel, Che, and Camilo finally made it to the Sierra Maestra.
      Cuban insiders, meaning real experts like Marta Rojas, consider the above photo to be very appropriate and definitive. It shows Celia Sanchez poring over notes while Fidel Castro relaxes in his rocking chair with his shoes (or slippers) off. Celia, after all, "made all the decisions for Cuba, the big ones and the small ones" according to insider Roberto Salas, the great photographer and author. Thus, Fidel's primary role was to back up her decisions, and he did so whether or not he agreed with them.  Cuban insiders knew that and so did his best American biographer, Georgie Anne Geyer.
 Marta Rojas
      Marta Rojas, quite healthy and just shy of her 82nd birthday, is the renowned revolutionary-journalist-author who knows more about Celia Sanchez, Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and Revolutionary Cuba than anyone on earth.
        As depicted in the above photo,  young Marta Rojas introduced Fidel Castro for his very first television address in 1959. She also knows what he had for dinner last night. After I returned from Cuba and just before the publication of my biography of Celia Sanchez, Marta Rojas told me via e-mail in 2005: "Since Celia died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has ruled Cuba only as he perceives Celia would want him to rule it." (Yes, I still have that e-mail). Re-reading that sentence from Marta reminds me of why three women -- Josefina, Gladys, and Leira -- are currently positioned ahead of any men on the island (or in Miami) to be the post-Castro leaders of Cuba.
     All his life Fidel Castro has been most comfortable around women, and his two all-time favorites (as his wife Dalia knows) were Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria, depicted above.
      Fidel remembers that it was the guerrilla warriors Haydee and Celia who presented him his first rifle when he finally joined their fight in the Sierra Maestra. And he remembers that Haydee committed suicide in 1980 because of the death of her dear friend Celia. "I know," Marta Rojas says, "that if there are only two things that Fidel has thought about every single day since 1980, those two things are Celia and Haydee. And when it comes to Celia, it's probably every hour."
       Fidel's son Alejandro says Josefina Vidal reminds his father of Celia Sanchez. That alone means that the 50-year-old Josefina Vidal has an excellent shot at being the post-Castro leader of Cuba, if she wants it. It is also known that the 85-year-old Fidel has cast favorable eyes at the young,  feisty, and ambitious Leira Sanchez Valdivia. That also means that Leira Sanchez Valdivia has a pretty good shot at being a future leader of Cuba.
Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil
(Photo courtesy: Bra Silia/Reuters)
     It is also neither accidental nor coincidental that females now and always have been Fidel Castro's greatest admirers, and that includes some of Latin America's new crop of democratically elected women leaders. The economic and political Latin American superpower, of course, is Brazil. Brazil's new president, Dilma Rousseff, worships one living soul -- Fidel Castro. And today (Jan. 31-2012) she flies into Havana to see her idol Fidel and to firm up Brazil's funding of such things as a $800 million refurbishing of a container terminal at the port of Muriel,  $200 million for Cuban farmers to buy tractors, and financing for sugar-cane ethanol technology. Prior to her trip to Cuba this week, President Rousseff told Anthony Boadle of Reuters that, like her wildly popular predecessor Luiz Inacio Lulu da Silva, she idolizes Fidel as the world's greatest anti-imperialist revolutionary. She reminded Boadle that, like Fidel, she was imprisoned and tortured -- she for three years beginning in 1970 and him for two years beginning in 1953 -- for fighting against U. S.-backed military dictators in their respective countries. Boadle began that Jan. 25th article with these words: "Some forty years ago, Dilma Rousseff was a guerrilla fighter working clandestinely to bring a version of Cuban leader Fidel Castro's revolution to Brazil. How times change. When Rousseff visits Cuba next week as Brazil's president she will have capitalism on her mind, specifically the building of a container terminal at the port of Muriel aimed at future trade with the United States when Washington one day lifts its 50-year-old embargo of Cuba."  She also indicated that Chinese-style capitalism is what Fidel and her have in mind for post-Castro Cuba.
  Cristina Kirchner, President of Argentina 
   Cristina Kirchner, who has recently been  reelected overwhelmingly as the President of Argentina, is as big a booster of Fidel Castro as the Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff. During a week when it appeared he was dying, President Kirchner flew to his bedside to help care for him.
Michelle Bachelet
(Photo courtesy: LoDeRaulo
       Michelle Bachelet was the very successful President of Chile from March of 2006 till March of 2010, after which she was named head of UN Women by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. She is a pediatrician and epidemiologist who speaks Spanish, English, German, Portuguese, and French. Secretary of State Condi Rice represented the U. S. at her inauguration as President of Chile, and got a respectful but chilly reception. That was because Bachelet's father, who worked for the democratically elected President Salvador Allende,  was tortured to death by the infamous U. S.-backed Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Allende in a bloody coup on September 11, 1973.
        Salvador Allende, shown above, fought to his death in his presidential palace using an engraved rifle that had been given him by his Cuban friends Celia Sanchez and Fidel Castro.
       Augusto Pinochet, shown above, ruled Chile for 19 very bloody years with strong support from the U. S. till waves of democracy began sweeping back over Latin America.
     Like her Pinochet-doomed father before her, Michelle Bachelet is Fidel Castro's dear friend and, as shown above, she has visited him more than once since his illness. All of which indicates that the Latin American trend of democratically elected female presidents might boost Fidel's soon-to-be legacy.
Photo courtesy: Enrique De La Osa/Reuters
      Update: The above photo shows Dilma Rousseff, the President of Latin American superpower Brazil, waving as she arrives in Havana today (Jan. 31-2012). The Reuters article written by Jeff Franks on Rousseff's arrival at Jose Marti Airport noted: "In her youth, Rousseff was a leftist guerrilla fighter inspired by Fidel Castro...in 1970, she was arrested, tortured and imprisoned for three years." In 1953 in Batista's Cuba Castro was arrested, tortured and imprisoned for two years. His emergence inspired Rousseff and a plethora of other revolutionaries who are now democratically elected leaders across Latin America relishing the break from past colonial (foreign) rule. Castro's legacy will not stand for democracy but it will burnish sovereignty. He succeeded in doing what all others, including the legendary Cuban Jose Marti, had died trying to do. Fidel's longevity and his legacy have and will also be forever embellished by such things as the terrorist attack on Cubana Flight 455 and the 600 or so failed assassination attempts against him.  As with Marti, Bolivar, etc. -- his legacy might supersede his life, especially if the U. S. continues to defy the world, including its best friends such as England, Canada, etc., with the long out-dated embargo that also punishes and dictates to all other countries around the world. But Brazil, Nicaragua, Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela, etc., have already had democratically elected Castro-disciples. The U. S. support of Batista created Castro; the U. S. support of the most radical exiles from the Batista dictatorship predicate his remarkable longevity and will also dictate the length and strength of his legacy. Personification of all that is today's arrival of Latin America's most powerful leader, a Castro disciple, at Jose Marti Airport in Havana (Jan. 31). She wants a capitalist Cuba and Brazil now has the power, wealth, and influence to make that happen in relatively short order, probably Chinese-style capitalism. China, also an increasingly big supporter of Cuba as a way to infuse more influence throughout Latin America, has recently become Brazil's top trading partner, replacing the U. S., which needs to, perhaps, devote more emphasis on the Americas as opposed to more faraway outposts. Rousseff is aware that the U. S. makes hay criticizing Cuba's dependence on Venezuela's financial support and that's why she wants to wean Cuba from that largess via such means as supporting the building of Cuban ports, increasing its sugar production, encouraging even more Chinese financing, and joining eight other nations in backing the island's promising search for oil.
      In fact, while she is in Cuba this week President Rousseff might do what these fisherman can do -- gaze out into the sea north of Havana and see through the misty haze the world's biggest and deepest-drilling oil platform probing the depths for Cuban oil. The 200-man platform known as "Scarabeo 9" is costing Spain's oil giant Repsol $514,000 (over half a million dollars) per-day just to rent, so many oil experts believe the findings will be huge, perhaps 20 million barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The U. S. embargo, of course, prevents U. S. companies from participating although they were invited to do so before successful overtures were made to Spain, China, Brazil, Canada, Norway, Vietnam, Venezuela, etc. If Cuba becomes an oil exporter with deeper and refurbished ports to export it, capitalism might be expedited on the plush island, or so Brazilian President Rousseff believes.  Repsol is the world's best at deep-sea drilling and when the rig stopped off at Trinidad and Tobago U. S. experts inspected it and confirmed that it complied with all international and U. S. standards, much to the chagrin and consternation of the Cuban-American members of the U. S. Congress.
Teresa Bo
      And lastly, by the way and for what it's worth (and staying on topic with burgeoning female power in a machismo world), Fidel Castro considers Teresa Bo to be "the best Latin American television reporter." She is based in Buenos Aires and is seen regularly on top international networks, including Al Jazeera. She has recently reported from Havana but she has also traveled deep into the jungles of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia to make award-winning "war on drugs" reports. Spain gave her two awards for her outstanding coverage of the war in Iraq and then presented her its prestigious Lara Prize for being "The Best International Journalist Under 30." A native Argentinean, Teresa Bo has a bachelor's degree in International Politics and a master's degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution.  And now she has a salute from Fidel Castro as "the best Latin American television reporter." Visitors to his home have noted that the only expensive item he seems to have is a very large television and it is well known that he is an insatiable news-hound, so his appraisal of Teresa Bo's work is interesting.  Also, as Cuban expert Ann Louise Bardach has noted, he has always been partial to "pretty blonds," so he might be a little biased in his critique.
Shasta Darlington
     Also adding a little insight into the Fidel Castro psyche that has vexed the world for all these decades is Shasta Darlington. Prior to discovering the blond Teresa Bo, Fidel's favorite television reporter was a brunette, Shasta Darlington. She joined CNN as its Havana-based producer-reporter in 2006 after impressive stints in Brazil, Los Angeles, Mexico City, etc. According to his son Alejandro, Fidel can get "a bit miffed" if he watches a male reporter on Al Jazeera, the BBC, CNN, or Miami stations air an unfavorable report on either him or the revolution. However, he "just smiles right through" even more critical reports aired by the likes of Teresa or Shasta. "One of Ms. Darlington's CNN reports," Alejandro remembers, "was on a windy day on a street in Havana. She really tore into both the present government and the revolution. I kept glancing around at Papa. He just smiled all the way through it, as if he enjoyed the presentation and ignored the content, which he understood perfectly. Now if that had been a man...well, he would have needed his third television in a year's time. I remember he destroyed two t-v sets half-way through male reports that weren't nearly as harsh as Shasta has sent around the world from Havana." To learn such facets of an historic life is to learn -- in this case, I believe -- how and perhaps why Fidel Castro separated Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria from all others in his revolutionary world and how and perhaps why he separates Teresa Bo and Shasta Darlington from male reporters in the media world that has always commanded so much of his attention, especially as he has aged. Feminine beauty and feminine mystique explains much of it, but not all. It is well known that he adored his mother Lina, a peasant maid, but did not like his father Angel, a wealthy farmer. In post-Castro Cuba he would like to envision females like Josefina Vidal in charge and females like Shasta Darlington reporting on windy days from the streets of Havana.  
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cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story)

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