A man on a bus in Havana (Thomas Leuthard/Flickr)
By Elizabeth Dore, NACLA
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Whether Cubans on the island worship Fidel Castro despite his flaws, loathe him, or are indifferent to a figure they now regard as a historical anachronism depends more on their age than anything else.
Olga, a former University teacher, remembered her faithful devotion to Fidel Castro when she was growing up in Santiago more than forty years ago. "Before the triumph of the Revolution I went to a Baptist private school. After I went to a state school, and I grew disenchanted with religion. This happened not only to me, it happened to my entire generation," she said. "The change was profound. Fidel replaced the God we had believed in. He was a very significant leader for everyone, but in particular for us of the younger generation. We threw ourselves into the struggle to make the revolution. Life was very difficult after the sugar harvest of 1970 failed. We suffered a lot, but we still had that belief, that determination, that we had to fight for the revolution. We thought of Fidel as our God the saviour, and we all closed ranks, and we struggled, and we tried not to see his errors, his flaws. I did not return to the church for many, many years.'
I first interviewed Olga (not her real name) twelve years ago, when, alongside a team of Cuban and British researchers, I began recording life histories of Cuban men and women living on the island. Olga and I last met several months ago, in Miami, where she now lives. Our team has collected the life histories of 125 Cubans from different generations, social positions and political views, of diverse racial, gender, sexual and religious identities. Many talked with us multiple times, recounting how their lives and attitudes have changed over the years.
Cubans over the age of fifty frequently brought up Fidel in our conversations. Usually they portrayed him favourably, but not always. Fearing their criticisms might be overheard, in place of his name they tapped their shoulder, [indicating his epaulets], or stroked their chin [the beard], or referred simply to "He."
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