[Marxism] Portia Seigelbaum: Reinventing Fidel Castro (CBS)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(I'll be going to this event and will report back on it later.)
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Reinventing Fidel Castro

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/12/world/printable1890081.shtml

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug. 12, 2006(CBS) This report was written by CBS News
Havana Producer Portia Siegelbaum.

Ten years ago, a very different Fidel Castro celebrated his birthday.

Instead of being stuck in a sick bed, the Cuban president was
walking, talking in public and sharing birthday cake with his most
intimate friends. Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, his good
buddy, toasted to his health at the luxurious home of Cuban poet
Pablo Armando Fernandez.

Fernandez has many photos taken from that night and in some, the
collar of a sports shirt can be seen peeking out from under the Cuban
leader's ubiquitous olive green fatigues. As the sultry evening wore
on, says Fernandez, image-conscious Castro removed his uniform jacket
but didn't allow any more pictures to be taken of him.

Still, there are photos of him cutting a miniscule cake and watching
TV surrounded by the same men he dubbed just two weeks ago to
temporarily fill in for him while he recovers from intestinal
surgery. The people who he named to take over for him were here that
afternoon, Felipe Perez Roque (Foreign Minister), Carlos Lage
(Vice-President), Jose Ramon Balaguer (Minister of Health).

Fernandez, 77, met Castro five decades ago in New York when the young
rebel went abroad to raise money for his battle against the Batista
regime. Fernandez, then with two published books under his belt and a
solid income from his wife's business, was trapped by what many
describe as the Castro "charisma." To this day, Fernandez considers
himself a loyal Fidelista although he never joined Castro's Communist
Party.

"Fidel was handsome, wealthy, educated, cultured. He could have had
the best life on earth. And what did he do in 1953? He tried to save
the Cuban people, to restore that voice and that face that was lost.
And, he risked his life," explains Fernandez, his voice still
conveying amazement.

This August's planned festivities have been postponed for five
months, but still an air of expectation hangs over the island.

Cubans are wondering if President Fidel Castro, or at least a message
from him, will be broadcast by state-owned TV as the longest running
head of state marks his 80th birthday.

A concert Saturday evening in the "Anti-Imperialist Tribune" across
from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, billed as "A Cantata for
the Homeland," brings together 83 artists from different generations
to show that the Castro magic works as much with young people as it
does with those who made the revolution.

Sponsored in part by the young communists' organization, the event
represents one more government-organized effort to project an image
of unity in the face of what Cuban leaders see as a "threat from the
United States."

Officials in Washington have repeatedly denied any intention of
intervening militarily in Cuba. "Our desire is for the Cuban people
to choose their own form of government," President George W. Bush
said in Crawford, Texas.

On Sunday, in a tradition harking back to the early days of the
Revolution, sugar industry workers will head for the cane fields for
a morning of voluntary work. Again, the foreign press has been
invited to attend this photo op that shows everyone pulling together
at a difficult moment.

One of Cuba's better known dissidents, Oswaldo Paya of the Christian
Liberation Movement, worries about a backlash against Castro's
critics in a society that has long been intolerant of political
opposition. Just a block from his home, government supporters painted
a sign that equates dissidents with "traitors" and across from his
living room window hangs another that depicts revolutionaries
crushing a "worm," the term commonly used to refer to the opposition.

"The wisest course for the country, the best and most just for the
people of Cuba is, in first place, to maintain the social peace,
because any violence, any confrontation will bring grave consequences
for the people of Cuba," he says.

Whether Fidel lives or dies is not the issue according to Paya. "The
people of Cuba want changes, the people of Cuba need changes and not
because Fidel Castro is ill."

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, who spent more than 20 years in Castro's
jails, issued a statement entitled "On the Succession and the
Future." While insisting that he and Castro "are at opposite ends of
the political spectrum," Menoyo says change should not depend on
Castro's death. "The participation of Fidel in the dialogue with the
opposition would be very positive."

Pastor Pablo Oden, Episcopal rector of the Matanzas diocese attended
a multi-denominational prayer vigil for Castro's recuperation. No foe
of the communist government, Oden is suggesting that the island's
religious leaders at the forefront of Cuba's civil society play a
greater role in the post-Castro Cuba.

"We have a great responsibility in the teaching of our people
especially regarding the values of the Christian faith regarding
morals, ethics, and spirituality. We can make a great contribution in
order that we can live in a greater democracy and a greater freedom
in Cuba even after Fidel."

Incongruent as it may seem, Fidel Castro - the professed atheist -
once sought out Oden at the pulpit. It was after the Elian Gonzalez
custody fight and the Episcopal rector, who had been part of the team
working for his return, had been left off the guest list at a public
ceremony honoring the boy's father. When Castro learned of the
oversight he personally attended a church organized event to honor
Oden. "I'll never forget it," he says.

"You know Fidel is not a Christian. Everybody knows that but he is a
man of faith, he has a great faith in history, a grand faith in Cuban
people, great faith in the revolution. I should say his faith is not
a religious faith. But Fidel is a man of big faith in many things and
that is what makes him a very, very big man for this country"
concludes Oden.

Since Castro fell ill, everyone here seems to be dredging up a
personal story that involves the 80-year-old Castro, tainting him in
their own likeness. This not only expands the myth that has
surrounded him for the half-century that he has been on the world
political stage, but forces people to reflect on the impact - good or
bad - this one man has had on an island of 11 million.

CMMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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