I first learned that Fidel Castro was someone important from a book by Eduardo Galeano, although it was not obvious to me why. I was about 12 years old, and reading one of the first books I can remember, Galeano recounting the history of World Cup soccer.
From the 1962 World Cup in Chile and onward, he explained the context in which the cup was taking place, including this phrase: “Well-Informed sources from Miami announced the imminent fall of Fidel Castro; it was only a matter of hours.”
He used this exact same phrase over and over again throughout the book. As a child, who knew little about Cold War history and politics, I found it entertaining at first, but shortly afterwards I understood the relevance of this dose of brazen sarcasm.
Fidel Castro was more than a revolutionary icon, he was the person charged with bringing ideals to practice. He wasn’t merely satisfied with the applause for his triumphant entry into Havana, he placed it upon himself to fulfill (or attempt to fulfill) the promises and communist ideals that Jose Marti, Che Guevara and many others had offered to the Cuban people.
To his unlucky detractors and American economic interests, he was a fool; an obstinate person, who did not give in when the Cuban missile crisis put the island at the center of world tension, who did not yield after the various insurgent attempts against his government, when the Soviet Union fell or during that special period, or after each of the hundreds of assassination attempts perpetrated against him. He especially did not relent when Mexican ex-President Vicente Fox sadly and famously told him: “Come, eat and leave,” hoping to avoid the anger of George W. Bush at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Mexico in 2002. Fidel’s response was to call Fox “the puppet of the empire.”
“We were born in a free country that our parents bequeathed to us, and the island will sink first before we consent to be slaves to anyone,” Fidel Castro said in 1953.
On Nov. 25, decades after leading the Cuban Revolution, after leading the country during special periods and economic crises, and after hundreds of attempts to overthrow him by the CIA, under Republican and Democratic governments of the United States, Fidel died in his bed.
Fidel died, and he did so after witnessing the dominant power of the United States, and wondering whether the policies of the embargo, which threatened the human rights of Cuban people, were worth it. We should recall that last year Barack Obama historically acknowledged that the Cuban embargo never had the desired effect on the island, but that it instead hurt the island’s people. This gave him the last laugh, and although the United States is still far from embracing the ideals of Revolutionary Cuba, Fidel leaves this world with the hope of seeing his island out of the precariousness of the embargo.
Today, more than ever, Cuba is the future. They heard it here first.
“I die as I lived” goes the song of Silvio Rodriguez titled “The Fool,” and this is the best description and apology of the legendary man, the revolutionary, the dictator, the leader. It best describes the life of the one who fought with everything and against everything, who gave Cuba the revolution that was possible, though he could not fully consecrate the revolution he had envisioned. It’s simple, if you want to know who Fidel Castro was, just look at who weeps for his death and who celebrates it.
Nov. 25 was the last day Fidel was among us, but the first of his legend; one of the phrases that has left the biggest imprint on me is: “A revolution is a fight to the death, between the future and the past.” That’s why we keep going. Hasta la victoria siempre, comandante!