Meeting Castro in Cuba — Nearly

Tales from an itinerant writer #2

I research, I write. I live on a boat and travel, and in December 2017 I tied up in Cuba.

Have you read ‘The Cuban’ by Nelson de Mille? Or ‘Havana Bay’ by Martin Cruz Smith? They’re both great thrillers and very educational about Cuban society. I’d read ‘Havana Bay’ many years before visiting bit it proved to be a great primer — not that I investigate political murders. I just write some fiction about them.

And although I haven’t set a book in Cuba yet, least I’ve done the research. I’ve even been to see Capablanca’s tomb in El Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón, also called La Necrópolis de Cristóbal Colón in Havana. But no, I didn’t meet him. In case you’re wondering José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera is one of the most illustrious (and dead) grandmasters of chess. It’s not a game I play, but I had heard of him. If you ever get there, the cemetery itself is worth a visit, even if you don’t play chess.

Most of Cuba’s famous people are buried here, people from before and after the revolution.

Monstrous mausoleums, tremendous tombs, crazy crypts and voluminous vaults. They certainly know how to fix fancy funerals and dote on death in Cuba — and still do despite its being a secular society.

The meeting

Anyway, the interesting (at least for me) meeting that I mention in the subtitle was with a man — let’s call him Jorge — in Cayo Largo, an island off the coast of Cuba, where we’d made landfall after sailing up from Jamaica.

I’d gone into his office to deal with some boat-related matters and saw a picture on the wall and that piqued my interest. Here’s the pic (I couldn’t get rid of the background reflection off the glass):

It turned out that Jorge had served as a personal translator for Fidel Castro. He spoke seven languages fluently and we got to know him over a period of a couple of weeks over the Christmas that year. He was obviously not keen to tell us much about his experiences, beyond the fact that he served with Cuban forces in Angola and Ethiopia. And that he hated JFK with a vengeance.

During our stay there he was very helpful arranging flights and accommodation for a trip to Havana. I’ll write about that another time.

A chance meeting? Yes, but what a chance. If only Jorge had opened up I could have retired on the stories! And he’d probably be in a prison cell, or worse. It’s said that we’re only six handshakes away from anyone in the world. I wrote about it here:

While we’re on the subject of Castro, here’s some of the home-made armor that Castro used during the revolution:

Back to the Colon Cemetery. Fidel Castro isn’t buried there. His ashes were interred next to those of the 19th Century Cuban independence hero, Jose Marti in Santiago. Santiago is known as the birthplace of the Cuban Revolution. It’s in the province of Granma and there’s an interesting story behind the naming of that province.

I’ve written a couple of other stories about my experiences there — I was on my boat, off the tourist track, and finding food was a challenge. Just for starters.

We spent a week sailing through Jardines De La Reina — The Queen’s Gardens:

…often called the crown jewel of the Caribbean. This is one of the healthiest and most vibrant marine ecosystems in the world

If you’re thinking about a visit I’d definitely recommend a trip — but it will certainly be easier if you stick to the tourist track. You never know who you will meet.

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