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Vice Blog

NEW YORK - HAVANA GRANMA

So, Castro quit. Or he didn't. Or technically he did, but now everybody who checks cnn.com once a day is an expert on the nuances of PCC politburo and you should get ready to be buttonholed at every bar or party you go to for the next couple weeks about how the country is "ripe for change." Besides the Elian Gonzales business and all those goofy assassination plots the CIA tried, I basically know fuck all about Cuba, so I decided to ask my Cuban grandma what it was like living there when I was just a glimmer in my mother's undeveloped ovaries.

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Vice: First of all, Grandma, give me a little background here. What was the deal with Fidel Castro coming into power?
Grandma: We were under Batista’s government in the 50s. He kept the upper and middle classes rich, but he was a total dictator. I believed firmly that Fidel was going to make a major sociopolitical change in Cuba, so I helped some clandestine organizations that would gather up arms, money, and food for the rebels. They needed help. He and his militia were gathering for at least three years before he came into power.

Then what happened?
Batista knew that everyone was against him. So, without telling anyone he got on a plane and left on New Year’s Eve 1958. I was out partying, and when I got home, my phone was ringing off the hook with people telling me Batista was gone. Fidel drove into Havana with a huge caravan after being called out of hiding, and by the fifth of January he was in power. He gave his first speech in the capital, and he said, "Arms, for what?"

At this point he also swore that he wasn’t a Communist, and to prove that he was Christian he brought the Virgin of Charity to Havana after a procession all over Cuba. After two or three months, he started having criminals executed publicly. And he made it like the French Revolution, where everyone had to gather and watch and applaud. My brother-in-law was named a judge. He was required to find everyone guilty and finally ended up asking for exile at an embassy. He couldn’t safely live in Cuba anymore because all the families of the people he sentenced were against him.

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So this was when people started realizing maybe Fidel wasn’t all he was cracked up to be?
Yes, people noticed it wasn’t a government of love and togetherness like he had originally talked so much about. Then when he had been in power for five or six months he declared he was a Communist. That’s when the rich people started leaving.

I had a Romanian friend who told me, "I’ve seen this before in my own country. Go now." I thought he was crazy. What were you doing during all of this?
I had started working for the Department of Health on the sixth of January, the day after Fidel came into power. I helped build new hospitals, provide funds for old ones, and get medicine to the poor. My first two bosses eventually got fired for not being pro-Fidel enough. Then I had a third boss who was a Communist fanatic. When I eventually left the country he called me a "worm" for not being part of the Revolution.

How long did you stay?
I stayed there for three and half years after Fidel came into power. I thought, as did many of us, that we could take him out of power somehow. I kept working because as long as I worked there I was safe.

Things kept getting worse, and when Bay of Pigs happened, I knew I just had to get out of there. At that point I was forced to buy everything on the black market just to do my job, which put me at risk for being thrown in jail. Once, my boss cancelled an entire order of medicine for a gastroenteritis epidemic. He justified it by saying that in the Revolution only the strong survive. Of course, he still got his insulin, because he was "important."

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Once you turned against Castro did you try to actively fight him?
There was another group that formed, like Fidel had done, in the mountains. Again, I helped get them supplies and arms, but they were counting on the US government to support them because they knew they couldn’t deal with the Cuban army on their own.

Of course, the US never came, and all of the rebels were killed at Bay of Pigs. I had friends who killed themselves because they were afraid of being tortured. That’s when I started working on getting me and your mom out of Cuba. Years later, my sister told me someone had tipped her off that I was being looked for. To this day, I don’t know how they didn’t find me.

How hard was that?
People were still allowed to leave then, although you had to fill out a million papers and fork over almost all your money to phantom debts. We finally got on a flight out, and even then we weren’t allowed to take much. I had some earrings that had a lot of sentimental value to me, and I stuck them in a piece of gum, which I had saved for months for precisely this purpose. I was ready to swallow them if they made me open my mouth.

That would have killed. What was going through your mind when you left?
I made peace with the fact I would never go back. I knew Castro would be in power for decades. My family was gone and at this point, all I have there are graves, and even those are destroyed. I’ve completely disconnected myself from Cuba. I don’t know anyone there anymore.

OK, so what do you think of him stepping down yesterday?
That’s a lie. Really, the only reason Fidel stepped down was because he knows he can’t stand in front the people as physically ill as he is. Idols need to keep themselves strong and that was his forte, embodying power. If he stands there and shows people he’s as fragile as them, he’ll be totally fucked.

Whoa f-bomb!
Fidel may be physically ill, but he’s still brilliant. He still makes all the calls.

Besides, Raul isn’t half as intelligent or charismatic as Fidel is. He’s also an alcoholic. Raul was chosen because he’s a Castro, that’s it. He isn’t in power, I don’t believe that for a second.

GABI SIFRE