BY TONY PERROTTET • PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOÃO PINA VIVAVIVA LALA REVOLUCIÓNREVOLUCIÓN ON THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIDEL CASTRO’S SECRET LANDING ON CUBA’S SOUTHERN SHORE, OUR MAN IN HAVANA JOURNEYS INTO THE ISLAND’S REBEL HEART

Today Santiago de Cuba, which lies at the foot of the Sierra Maes- tra, is a bustling cultural capital.

26 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 October 2016 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 27 Getting to Castro’s hide-out feels like a covert mission. Castro’s cabin at the rebel headquarters had a simple bed, a fridge, a study and a secret trapdoor, in case he came under attack.

T’S NOT HARD TO SEE WHY FIDEL CASTRO’S guerrilla headquarters during the Cuban revolutionary war was never found by the army. Even today, getting to the command post feels like a covert mission. Known as Comandancia La Plata, the remote hide-out was built in the spring of 1958 in the suc- culent rainforest of the Sierra Maestra at Cuba’s eastern tip, and it still lies at the end of steep, treacherous, unpaved roads. There are no road signs in the Sierra, so photogra- pher João Pina and I had to stop our vehicle II and ask for directions from passing campes- inos on horseback while zigzagging between enormous potholes and wandering livestock. In the hamlet of Santo Domingo, we fi lled out paperwork in quadruplicate to se- cure access permits, before an offi cial government guide ushered us into a creaky state-owned four-wheel-drive vehicle. This proceeded to wheeze its way up into one of the Caribbean’s last wilderness areas, with breathtaking views of rugged green peaks at every turn. The guide, Omar Pérez, then directed us toward a steep hiking trail, which ascends for a mile into the forest. Rains had turned stretches into muddy streams, and the near-100 percent humidity had us soaked with sweat after only a few steps. A spry local farmer, Pérez pushed us along with mock-military exhortations of Vámanos, muchachos! By the time I spotted the fi rst shack—the dirt-fl oored fi eld hospital set up by the young medical graduate Ernesto “Che” Guevara— I looked like a half-wild guerrilla myself. guerrillas gained one unexpected vic- The structures are all original, Pérez Paths lead to the press offi ce, where del—Castro’s cabin. Perched on a ledge In any other country, the Comandancia would make tory after the next and began to seize insisted, and are lovingly labeled with the rebels’ newspaper, El Cubano Libre, above a burbling stream, with large an excellent eco-lodge, but in Cuba it remains one of the the rest of the island. Its 16 thatch- wooden signs. Che’s hospital was used was produced mostly by hand. At the windows propped open by poles to let in revolution’s most intimate historical shrines. The base roofed huts were home to some 200 to treat wounded guerrillas and enemy summit, Radio Rebelde was transmit- a cooling breeze, it’s a refuge that would rebel soldiers and had the ambience of soldiers, and ill local peasant support- ted around Cuba using an antenna that suit a Cuban John Muir. The spacious was fi rst carved out in April 1958 and continued to be a self-contained—and strikingly beau- ers. (“Che performed a lot of dentistry could be raised and lowered unseen. two-room hut was designed by his re- Fidel’s main command post until December 1958, as the tiful—jungle republic. here,” Pérez said. “Not very well.”) The main attraction is La Casa de Fi- sourceful secretary, rural organizer and

28 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 October 2016 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 29 in 1934, the island remained a virtual “The Cuban Revolution was filled with these American colony, with everything from power plants to sugar plantations in U.S. extraordinary, larger-than-life characters.” hands. This troubled situation took a dire turn in 1952, when a strongman with Fidel Castro (seated left) and his comrades matinée idol looks named Fulgencio Ba- in revolution review plans at the Sierra Maestra command post in 1958. tista seized power in a coup. Although Cuba remained one of the wealthiest lover, Celia Sánchez, and the interior But even the hallowed Comandan- Che’s beret, Fidel’s tommy gun, or home- nations in Latin America, Batista’s rule still looks like the revolutionary power cia cannot escape Cuba’s modern real- made Molotov cocktails. It’s still possible was marked by blatant corruption and a couple has just popped out for a cigar. ities, as the Socialist system is slowly to meet with people who lived through savage level of political repression. There is a pleasant kitchen table and being dismantled. As we hiked back the battles, and even the younger gen- “If you really want to understand the gasoline-fueled refrigerator used to down the mountain, Pérez explained eration likes to remain on a fi rst-name Cuban Revolution, you should start in store medicines, complete with bullet that he had landed his prized job as a basis with the heroes. Cubans remain Santiago cemetery,” Nancy Stout ad- holes from when it was shot at while guide a decade ago, in part because his extremely proud of the revolution’s vised me before I fl ew to the city. San- being transported on the back of a mule. grandfather had helped the rebels in self-sacrifi ce and against-all-odds victo- tiago de Cuba, whose palm-fringed The bedroom still has the couple’s arm- the 1950s. Although he has a university ries. Recalling that moment of hope can plazas and colonial cathedrals now chairs, and an ample double bed with degree in agricultural engineering, he be as startling as seeing photographs of bask in splendid decay, is the country’s the original mattress now covered in said he makes far more money in tour- the young Fidel without a beard. second-largest city. No sooner had I plastic. Raised in a well-to-do family ism than he could on a state-run farm. arrived than I hopped on the back of a of landowners, Fidel enjoyed his crea- “My salary is 14 CUC [$16] a month, “The war was both a long time ago and motorbike taxi and gritting my teeth in ture comforts, but Celia also thought it but I get by on propinitas, little tips,” he not so long ago,” says Jon Lee Anderson, the unnerving traffi c, sped to the ancient important for visitors to see the rebel added pointedly. Pérez also hoped the author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary necropolis of Santa Ifi genia. The memo- leader well established and comfort- opening of the economy since 2011 by Life. “For Americans, the best way to rial to “Those Fallen in the Insurgency” able—acting, in fact, as if the war were Raúl Castro—Fidel’s younger brother, understand what the era was like is to is a simple wall with dozens of bronze already won and he was president of a guerrilla who also spent time at the visit Cuba itself. You see the world as it plaques, each one adorned with a fresh Cuba. She would serve guests fi ne co- Comandancia—would speed up. “Cuba was 60 years ago, without expressways red rose, naming those killed by Batista’s gnac, cigars and potent local coff ee even has to change!” he said. “There’s no or fast-food stores or strip malls. Today, security forces, usually after sickening as enemy airplanes strafed randomly other way for us to move forward.” the U.S. has been tamed. It’s a subur- torture. Many mutilated bodies were overhead. Celia even managed to get It was a startling admission at such a ban landscape. But in the 1950s, there found strung from trees in city parks or a cake to the hut packed in dry ice via hallowed revolutionary spot. Ten years were no cellphones, no internet, there dumped in gutters. Some victims were mule train for Fidel’s 32nd birthday. ago, he might have been fi red for such weren’t even many telephones. Every- as young as 14 and 15. “The police offi - The interior of the cabin is off -limits a declaration. thing moved in a diff erent time frame.” cer in charge of Santiago was, literally, to visitors , but when Pérez meandered Following the path of the revolution- a psychopath,” Stout said. “Some of Ba- off , I climbed up the ladder and slipped Cubans love anniversaries, and this De- ary war also leads to corners of Cuba tista’s generals had only fi fth-grade edu- inside. At one point, I lay down on the cember 2 marks one of its greatest mile- that few travelers reach. While most cations. The ‘leftist agitators’ they were bed, gazing up at a window fi lled with stones: the 60th anniversary of the se- outsiders are fascinated by Havana, executing were often just kids.” On one jungle foliage and mariposa fl owers cret landing of Granma, the ramshackle with its rococo mansions and retro-chic occasion, the mothers of Santiago staged FLORIDA like a lush Rousseau painting. It was boat that brought Fidel, Che, Raúl and 79 hotels funded by the American mob, the 100 MILES a protest march carrying placards that the ideal place to channel 1958—a time other barely trained guerrillas to start the cradle of revolt was at the opposite end said: Stop the Murder of Our Sons. “A lot when the revolution was still bathed revolution in 1956. Che later described of the long, slender island, in the wild, THE of everyday Cubans—students, bricklay- Gulf of BAHAMAS in romance. “The Cuban Revolution it as “less a landing than a shipwreck,” thinly populated Oriente (“East”). Mexico ers, teachers—were simply fed up.” was a dream revolution,” says Nancy and only a quarter of the men made it Cuba was the last Spanish posses- Havana One of those was the young law Stout, author of One Day in December: to the Sierra Maestra—but it began the sion in the Americas, and two vicious graduate Fidel Castro Ruiz. Born into Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolu- campaign that would, in a little over two 19th-century wars of independence CUBA Santa Clara a wealthy landowning family some tion. “It didn’t take too long. It worked. years, bring down the Cuban government began there. Victory in the second was 60 miles north of Santiago, Fidel was And it was fi lled with these extraordi- and reshape world politics. To me, the plucked from Cuban hands by the in- from his teens known for a rebellious nary, larger-than-life characters.” As it coming anniversary was an ideal excuse tervention of the United States in the Isle of Pines nature, hypnotic charisma and stag- (now Isle of Youth) was unfolding, the outside world was for a road trip to untangle a saga whose Spanish-American War in 1898. The El Uvero gering self-confi dence. At university in fascinated by the spectacle of a ragtag details I, like many who live in the United humiliating Platt Amendment, passed PLAYA LAS COLORADAS Havana he became involved in radical bunch of self-taught guerrillas, many States, know only vaguely. Within Cuba, by Congress in 1901, made it legal for SIERRA MAESTRA Santiago de Cuba student politics and at age 24 planned of them barely out of college, who the revolutionary war is very much alive: the U.S. to intervene in Cuban politics, Caribbean MOUNTAINS to run as a progressive candidate in the Sea managed to overthrow one of Latin Almost everywhere the guerrillas went a safeguard that protected a fl ood of JAMAICA 1952 election, before Batista canceled America’s most brutal dictatorships. now has a lavish memorial or a quasi-re- Yanqui investment. Although President it. Photographs of him from the time

“It was,” says Stout, “like an operetta.” ligious museum featuring artifacts like Franklin D. Roosevelt repealed the law PHOTOS / MAGNUM ANDREW SAINT-GEORGE MAP: GUILBERT GATES; show a tall, well-fed youth, often in a

30 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 October 2016 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 31 snappy suit, V-neck sweater and tie, short of true revolution would change and sporting a pencil mustache. With Cuba, he concluded, although the his chances of working within the sys- chances of his becoming personally in- tem gone, Fidel and fellow activists in volved seemed remote. Then, in 1955, 1953 decided to take direct action. Batista succumbed to popular opinion The story would seem straight out and included Fidel and his compañeros of Woody Allen’s Bananas if the con- in an amnesty of political prisoners. It sequences had not been so tragic. With was a moment of over-confi dence that about 160 inexperienced men (and two the dictator would soon regret. women) disguised as soldiers, Fidel From exile in Mexico City, Fidel con- planned to storm government sites in- cocted a plan that seemed even more cluding a Santiago barracks called La harebrained than the Moncada attack: Moncada, where he would surprise the to return to Cuba in a secret amphibious 1,000 or so troops—who were hopefully landing and begin an insurgency in the sleeping off hangovers due to the previ- mountains. He bought a secondhand ous evening’s carnival celebrations— boat, the Granma, from an American and escape with a cache of arms. This expat and gathered a band of fellow fi re- resounding victory, Fidel hoped, would brands, among them Ernesto Guevara. provoke Cubans to rise up against Ba- A quiet Argentine, quickly nicknamed tista and restore constitutional democ- “Che” (an Argentine term of aff ection), racy. From the start, it was a fi asco. As Guevara had haunting good looks and a his convoy of 15 cars approached the steely willpower born of years battling Moncada before dawn on July 26, it asthma. It was an attraction of oppo- ran into two patrolmen. Fidel stopped sites with the strapping, extroverted Fi- his car and leapt out to deal with them, del that would turn into one of history’s but this confused the other rebels, who great revolutionary partnerships. mistook a military hospital for the Moncada and began fi ring wildly. By Travel in Cuba is never straightforward. the time they had regrouped, soldiers Airport lines can take three hours, hotels were everywhere. Fidel ordered a re- demand mysterious printed “vouchers” treat, but most of his men surrendered. and the few eccentric rental car com- The reaction of the army shocked panies are booked three months in ad- Cubans. Five of the attackers had been vance. The Granma landing site and killed in the shootout, but 56 prisoners Sierra base are unusually far-flung, were summarily executed and their so an enterprising Cuban friend of a bodies scattered in the Moncada’s hall- friend off ered to drive us there in his ways to make it look as if they had been own car for a tidy sum in U.S. dollars. killed in battle. Many, in fact, had been But just before fl ying to Santiago, I re- gruesomely tortured. The eyes of one ceived a forlorn message: “Bad news, leader, Abel Santamaría, were gouged compañeros, very bad news . . . ” The out and presented to his sister in an at- driver had been given a parking fi ne in tempt to make her reveal their hide-out. Havana and lost his license. It was time afternoon I drove us south of Santiago Uvaldo Peña Mas, now 78, was a child a military operation, and was seriously ble spot on the entire Cuban coastline. Fidel was captured in the countryside to scramble for Plan B. We soon had a toward the famous Granma landing site, when his father, a local organizer, was overloaded. “Fidel had calculated the At around 5:40 a.m., the Granma hit murdered. “I still remember when they soon after, by a by-the-books offi cer dozen local insiders scouring Cuba for along one of the most spectacular and brought in his body,” he says. journey from Mexico to Cuba would a sandbank, and the 82 men groggily who refused to hand his prisoner over to any possible vehicle, with emails fl ying worst-maintained roads in the Western take fi ve days,” León marveled. “But lurched into the hostile swamp. The superiors who wanted to dispense sum- to expat acquaintances as far away as Hemisphere. On this wild shore, the to see us. We were the only visitors that with over 80 men crowded onboard, it guerrillas were basically city slickers, mary justice. It was the fi rst of count- Toronto and Brussels. At the 11th hour, ocean hits the coast with terrifying force. day, she admitted, directing us toward took seven.” As soon as they hit open and few had even seen mangroves. They less lucky breaks in the story of the I received a message from a certain Es- Much of the route has been wrecked by a sun-blasted concrete walkway that ocean, half the passengers became sea- sunk waist-deep into mud and strug- revolution. Although Fidel and his men ther Heinekamp of Cuba Travel Net- hurricanes and landslides, becoming a had been laid across the mangroves. sick. Local supporters who had planned gled over abrasive roots. When they were sentenced to 15 years in prison, work, an educational agency based in bare expanse of slippery rocks that could As dozens of tiny black crabs scuttled to meet the boat when it landed gave up fi nally staggered onto dry land, Fidel the “26th of July Movement” was born. Europe. She had tracked down a rental only be traversed at fi ve miles an hour. underfoot, León recounted the leg- when it failed to appear on time. As gov- burst into a farmer’s hut and grandly Fidel spent two years incarcerated car in Santiago—“the last rental in the The Granma landing site, still pris- endary story that every Cuban school- ernment air patrols threatened them on declared: “Have no fear, I am Fidel Cas- on the Isle of Pines, Cuba’s answer to entire country!” I’d like to say it was a tine, is part of a national park, and the child knows by heart. The Granma December 2, Fidel ordered the pilot to tro and we have come to liberate the Devil’s Island, reading Marx and be- 1955 Chevrolet, but it turned out to be a lone guide on duty, a jovial woman had turned out to be barely seaworthy, head to shore before sunrise, unaware Cuban people!” The baffl ed family gave coming ever more radical. Nothing silver MG, circa 2013. Still, on a steamy named Yadi León, seemed astonished more suited for a pleasure cruise than that he had chosen the most inhospita- the exhausted and half-starved men

32 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 October 2016 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 33 Beachgoers at the popular Playa Baracoa on the outskirts of Hava- na enjoy the fruits of an opening economy.

34 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 October 2016 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 35 pork and fried bananas. But the army ting in dirt-fl oor huts and subsisting by bor joined the guerrillas,” Peña said had already gotten wind of their arrival, growing coff ee and marijuana. Their wryly. “He was a womanizer, a drunk, a The urban intellectuals quickly realized they and three days later, on December 5, the generations of despair had already gambler. He ran away to join the guer- rebels were caught in a surprise attack been tapped by Celia Sánchez, a fear- rillas to get out of his debts.” were now dependent on the campesinos. as they rested by a sugar-cane fi eld. The less young activist for the 26th of July The Sierra has long been a refuge for rebels, offi cial fi gure is that, of the 82 guerril- Movement who was at the top of Batis- For six months, Fidel and his battered starting with the Taíno chief Hatuey, who led las, 21 were killed (2 in combat, 19 ex- ta’s most-wanted list in the Oriente. A band lay low, training for combat and an uprising against the Spanish in the 1500s. ecuted), 21 were taken prisoner and 19 brilliant organizer, Sánchez would soon scoring unusual propaganda points. The gave up the fi ght . The 21 survivors were become Fidel’s closest confi dante and fi rst came when Batista told the press lost in the Sierra. Soldiers were swarm- eff ective second in command. (The ro- that Fidel had been killed after the land- ing. As Che laconically recalled: “The mance with Fidel developed slowly over ing, a claim the rebels were quickly able situation was not good.” the following months, says biographer to disprove. (To this day, Cubans relish Today, our stroll through the man- Stout. “Fidel was so tall and handsome, photos of the 1956 newspaper headline groves was decidedly less arduous, and he had a really sweet personality.”) FIDEL CASTRO DEAD.) The next PR although the 1,300-meter path gives a Young farmhands swelled the rebel coup came in February 1957, when New vivid idea of the claustrophobia of the ranks as soldiers. Girls carried rebel York Times correspondent Herbert alien landscape. It was a relief when missives folded into tiny squares and Matthews climbed into the Sierra for the horizon opened up to the sparkling hidden (as Celia mischievously ex- the fi rst interview with Fidel. Matthews Caribbean. A concrete jetty was being plained) “in a place where nobody can was star-struck, describing Fidel with installed on the landing spot for the up- fi nd it.” Undercover teams of mules were enthusiasm as “quite a man—a power- coming 60th anniversary celebrations, organized to carry supplies across the ful six-footer, olive-skinned, full-faced.” when a replica of the Granma will arrive Sierra. A farmer even saved Che’s life by Castro had stage-managed the meeting for the faithful to admire. The gala on hiking into town for asthma medication. carefully. To give the impression that December 2 will be a more extravagant The campesinos also risked the savage his tiny “army” was larger than it was, version of the fi esta that has been held reprisals of soldiers of the Rural Guard, he ordered soldiers to walk back and there every year since the 1970s, León who beat, raped or executed peasants forth through the camp in diff erent uni- explained, complete with cultural activ- they suspected of rebel sympathies. forms, and a breathless messenger to ities, anthems and “acts of political soli- Today, the Sierra is still a frayed arrive with a missive from the “second darity.” The highlight is when 82 young cobweb of dirt roads that lead to a few front”—a complete fi ction. The story men jump out of a boat and re-enact the offi cial attractions—oddities like the was splashed across the front page of rebels’ arrival. “But we don’t force them Museum of the Heroic Campesino—but the Times, and a glowing TV interview to wade through the swamp,” she added. my accidental meetings are more vivid. with CBS followed, shot on Cuba’s On one occasion, after easing the car highest summit, Mount Turquino, with A few days after the Granma debacle, across a surging stream, I approached postcard-perfect views. If he had not be- the handful of survivors were reunited a lonely hut to ask for directions, and come a revolutionary, Fidel could have in the mountains with the aid of camp- the owner, a 78-year-old gentleman had a stellar career in advertising. proudly in a break from picking man- lished Comandancia La Plata and a the geographical center of Cuba. The esinos. One of the most beloved anec- named Uvaldo Peña Mas, invited me in A more concrete milestone came on goes. “We all thought it was the Rural network of other refuges, and even the 250-mile dash was one of the most har- dotes of the war recounts the moment for a cup of coff ee. The interior of his May 28, 1957, when the guerrillas, now Guards training. We had no idea! Then self-deluded Batista could not deny rowing episodes of the campaign, as Fidel met up with his brother Raúl. Fi- shack was wallpapered with ancient numbering 80 men, attacked a military we realized it was Fidel. From that day that the government was losing control troops slogged through fl at sugar coun- del asked how many guns he had saved. photographs of family members, and outpost in the drowsy coastal village of on, we did what we could to help him.” of the Oriente. In summer, the dictator try exposed to strafi ng aircraft. But by “Five,” Raúl answered. Fidel said he he pointed to a sepia image of a pok- El Uvero. The bloody fi refi ght was led by “This was the victory that marked ordered 10,000 troops into the Sierra late December, Che had surrounded had two, then declared: “Now we’ve er-faced, middle-aged man—his father, Che, who was showing an unexpected our coming of age,” Che later wrote of backed with air support, but after three Santa Clara and cut the island in two. won the war!” He wasn’t joking. His he said, who had been murdered early talent as a tactician and a reckless indif- El Uvero. “From this battle on, our mo- tortuous months, the army withdrew in Although 3,500 well-armed government fantastical confi dence was unbowed. in Batista’s rule. The father had been an ference to his own personal safety; his rale grew tremendously.” The embold- frustration. When the rebels revealed troops were defending the city against As they settled into the Sierra Mae- organizer for the sharecroppers in the disciplined inner circle would soon be ened guerrillas began to enjoy success how many civilians were being killed Che’s 350, the army surrendered. It was stra, the urban intellectuals quickly area, and one day an assassin walked up nicknamed “the Suicide Squad.” Today, after success, descending on the weak and mutilated by napalm bombing, a stunning victory. The news reached realized they were now dependent on and shot him in the face. “I still remem- a monument with a gilded rifl e marks points of the vastly more numerous the U.S. government stopped Cuban Batista back in Havana early on New the campesinos for their very survival. ber when they brought in his body,” he Fidel’s lookout above the battle site, Batista forces, then melting into the air force fl ights from refueling at the Year’s Eve, and the panicked president Luckily, there was a built-in reservoir said. “It was 8 in the morning. People although visitors are distracted by the Sierra. Their strategies were often im- Guantánamo naval base. Congress concluded that Cuba was lost. Soon af- of support. Many in the Sierra had been came from all around, friends, relatives, coastal views that unfold like a tropical provised. Fidel later said he fell back ended U.S. arms supplies. The CIA even ter the champagne corks popped, he was evicted from their land by the Rural supporters. Of course, we had to kill a Big Sur. Elderly residents still like to for ideas on Ernest Hemingway’s novel began feeling out contacts with Fidel. escaping with his cronies on a private Guards and were virtual refugees, squat- pig to feed them all at the funeral.” Al- recount the story of the attack in detail. of the Spanish Civil War, For Whom Sensing victory, Fidel in November plane loaded with gold bullion to the though he supported the revolution, he “It was 5:15 in the afternoon when we the Bell Tolls, which describes behind- dispatched Che and another coman- Dominican Republic. He soon moved See more João Pina photos of Cuba and its revolutionary past recalled that not everyone who joined heard the fi rst gunshots,” Roberto Sán- the-lines combat in detail. dante, Camilo Cienfuegos, to seize the to Portugal, then under a military dicta- at Smithsonian.com/cuba Fidel was a hero. “My next-door neigh- chez, who was 17 at the time, told me By mid-1958, the rebels had estab- strategic city of Santa Clara, located in torship, and died CONTINUED ON PAGE 76

36 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 October 2016 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 37 Che’s tomb is guarded by young military women in olive-drab miniskirts and aviator sunglasses. The grand monument to Che in Santa Clara houses his remains and those of 29 fellow rebels executed with him in Bolivia in 1967. SAMPLE

Cuba before cheerfully trying to sell visitors res of young military women dressed in CONTINUED FROM PAGE 37 black market Cohiba cigars. olive-drab miniskirts and aviator sun- As the site of his greatest victory, glasses, who loll about in the heat like from a heart attack in Spain in 1973. Santa Clara will always be associated Che groupies. An attached museum of- Despite its revolutionary creden- with Che. His remains are even buried fers some poignant exhibits from Che’s tials, Santa Clara today is one of the here in the country’s most grandiose childhood in Argentina, including his most decrepit provincial outposts in memorial, complete with a statue of the leather asthma inhaler and copies of Cuba. The Art Deco hotel in the plaza hero marching toward the future like schoolbooks “read by young Ernesto.” is pockmarked with bullet holes, relics Lenin at Finland Station. Still, the story They include Tom Sawyer, Treasure of when army snipers held out on the of Che’s last days is a discouraging one Island and—perhaps most appropri- tenth fl oor, and sitting by a busy road for budding radicals. In the mid-1960s, ately—Don Quixote. in the middle of town are a half-dozen he tried to apply his guerrilla tactics carriages from the Tren Blindado, an to other impoverished corners of the It was around 4:30 a.m. on New Year’s armored train loaded with weapons world with little success. In 1967, he Day, 1959, when news fi ltered though that Che’s men derailed on December was captured by the Bolivian Army in Havana of Batista’s fl ight. What hap- 29. A strikingly ugly memorial has been the Andes and executed. After the mass pened next is familiar—in broad brush- erected by the carriages, with concrete grave was rediscovered in 1997, Che’s strokes—to anyone who has seen The obelisks placed at angles to evoke an remains were interred with much fan- Godfather Part II. To many Cubans, explosion. Guards show off burn marks fare in Santa Clara by an eternal fl ame. the capital had become a symbol of from rebel bombs on the train fl oors, The mausoleum is now guarded by cad- decadence, a seedy enclave of prostitu-

76 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 October 2016 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 77 The cavalcade arrived in Havana on January 8, with Fidel riding a tank and chomping a cigar. SAMPLE tion, gambling and raunchy burlesque phantly speeding along the Malecón, still serving. My room on the 19th fl oor shows for drunken foreign tourists. Havana’s spectacular seafront avenue, had million-dollar views of Havana, al- Lured by the louche glamour, Marlon which looks just as it did when Graham though the bath taps were falling off the Brando, Errol Flynn and Frank Sinatra Greene’s novel Our Man in Havana wall and the air conditioner gave a death took raucous holidays in Havana, actor came out the month before Fidel’s vic- rattle every time I turned it on. George Raft became master of ceremo- tory. (“Waves broke over the Avenida de I made a formal request to visit the nies at the mob-owned Capri Hotel, Maceo and misted the windscreens of Presidential Suite, which had been and Hemingway moved to a leafy man- cars,” Greene wrote. “The pink, green, sealed up like a time capsule since Fi- sion on the city outskirts so he could yellow pillars of what had once been del decamped after several months. It fi sh for marlin in the Caribbean and the aristocrat’s quarter were eroded like was a voyage into the demise of the Cu- guzzle daiquiris in the bar El Floridita. rocks; an ancient coat of arms, smudged ban dream. A portly concierge named Batista’s departure let loose years of and featureless, was set over the door- Raúl casually hit me up for a propin- frustration. By dawn, crowds were tak- way of a shabby hotel, and the shutters ita as he accompanied me to the 23rd ing out their anger on symbols of Batis- of a night club were varnished in bright fl oor, and seconds after we stepped out ta’s rule, smashing parking meters with crude colors to protect them from the of the elevator, a blackout hit. While we baseball bats and sacking several of the wet and salt of the sea.”) Compared with used the light from my iPhone to fi nd American casinos. Fidel ordered Che in the countryside, the old revolutionary our way, we could hear the increas- and Camilo to rush ahead to Havana spirit has only a tenuous hold in Havana. ingly shrill cries of a woman stuck in to restore order and occupy the two Today, the city has come full circle to the the elevator a couple of fl oors down. main military barracks. The spectacle wild 1950s, with bars and restaurants When we cracked the double doors, of 20,000 soldiers submitting to a few sprouting alongside nightclubs worked Fidel’s suite exploded with sunlight. hundred rebels was “enough to make by jineteras, freelance prostitutes. With its Eisenhower-era furniture and you burst out laughing,” one guerrilla, The baroque Presidential Palace vintage ashtrays, it looked like the per- Carlos Franqui, later wrote, while the now houses the Museum of the Rev- fect holiday apartment for Don Draper. grimy Camilo met the U.S. ambassador olution, but it is a shabby aff air, its ex- Celia’s room had fl oor-to-ceiling cop- with his boots off and feet on a table, hibits fraying in cracked, dusty cases. per-toned mirrors, one of which was “looking like Christ on a spree.” A glimpse of the feisty past is provided still cracked after Fidel kicked it in a Fidel traveled the length of Cuba in by the notorious Corner of the Cretins, tantrum. But the suite’s period stylish- a weeklong “caravan of victory.” The a propaganda classic with life-size car- ness couldn’t distract from the creep- 1,000 or so guerrillas in his column, icatures of Batista and U.S. presidents ing decay . A crumbling sculpture in nicknamed Los Barbudos, “the bearded Reagan, Bush senior and junior. A new the main hallway was threatened by a ones,” were greeted as heroes at every exhibit for Castro’s 90th birthday cel- pool of brownish water accumulating stop. The cavalcade fi nally arrived in ebration was unironically titled “Gra- on the fl oor; part of the railing on the Havana on January 8, with Fidel riding cias por Todo, Fidel!” (“Thanks for Ev- wraparound veranda was missing. As a tank and chomping a cigar. “It was like erything, Fidel!”) and included the crib we left, we heard the woman trapped in the liberation of Paris,” Anderson says. in which he was born. the elevator still screaming: “Por dios, “No matter your political persuasion, Shaking the country dust from my ayúdame! Help!” I left Raúl yelling to nobody loved the police or the army. Peo- bag, I emulated Fidel and checked into her, “Cálmase, Señora! Calm yourself, ple had been terrorized. And here were the old Hilton, long ago renamed the madam!” I left, nervously, in another lift. these baseball-playing, roguish, sexy Habana Libre (Free Havana). It was per- guys who roll into town and chase them versely satisfying to fi nd that the hotel The years 1959 and 1960 were the “hon- off . By all accounts, it was an orgy.” Fidel has defi ed renovation. It’s now as frayed eymoon phase” of the revolution. Indeed, rode his tank to the doors of the brand- and gray as Fidel’s beard, towering like most of the world was fascinated by the new Havana Hilton and took the presi- a tombstone slab above the seaside romantic victory of a handful of idealistic dential suite for himself and Celia. Other suburb of Vedado. The marble-fl oored guerrillas forcing an evil dictator to fl ee. guerrillas camped out in the lobby, tread- lobby is fi lled with leftover modernist Fidel and Che basked in celebrity, ing mud over the carpets, while tourists furniture beneath Picasso-esque mu- entertaining intellectuals like Jean- going to the pool looked on in confusion. rals, and the cafe where Fidel came for Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir As for us, we too were soon trium- a chocolate milkshake every night is and a stream of third-world leaders.

78 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 At fi rst, the aff ection also extended to the United States. When Fidel ar- rived on a goodwill tour in 1959, he was thronged by admirers: He was the key- note speaker at the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington, D.C., ate a hot dog in New York City and visited Mount Vernon. Soon American college kids were fl ocking to Cuba to see the brave new world fi rsthand. Never had a revolution been so pho- togenic. The photographer Roberto Solas, a Cuban-American kid from the Bronx, was 18 when he saw the “victory caravan” roll into Havana. “The Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, their icons were statues and paintings. In Cuba, the revolution was established with photographs.” The camera loved the enigmatic Che in particular, whose every image seemed to have a mythic aura. (Away from the cameras’ eyes, ex- ecutions of the most sinister of Batis- ta’s torturers, informers and henchmen were conducted by Che in the Spanish fortress of La Cabaña, sometimes with disturbing show trials by the so-called Cleansing Commission.) Revolutionary tourism immediately took off . In January 1960, Che’s parents and siblings arrived from Buenos Aires SAMPLE to tour Santa Clara. Dozens of others beat their way on to the Comandancia La Plata in the Sierra Maestra to bask in its aura. In February, Che and Fidel personally escorted the visiting deputy premier of the Soviet Union, Anastas Mikoyan, to the aerie on a sightseeing trip, and the group spent the night chat- ting by a campfi re. Secret negotiations with the Cuban Communist Party were already being conducted. Now Che and Fidel openly declared their intention of pursuing a socialist revolution, and asked for Soviet economic aid. “At heart, Fidel was a left-of-center nationalist who wanted to break away from U.S. domination,” said Jon Lee Anderson. “You have to remember that Americans owned everything in Cuba— planes, ferries, electricity companies. How do you gain political sovereignty? You have to kick them out. Fidel knew a confrontation was coming, and he needed a new CONTINUED ON PAGE 88

80 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016 Cuba CONTINUED FROM PAGE 80

sponsor.” The overture was well re- ceived by envoys caught up in the Cu- ban romance. “The Russians were eu- phoric,” Anderson said. “They thought these young guys were like the Bolshe- viks, the men their grandfathers knew.” The argument over whether Cuba was pushed or jumped to become part of the Eastern bloc may never be fully settled. But by early 1961, the tit for-tat standoff with the U.S. was in full swing, and escalated rapidly after Fidel began nationalizing American companies. When the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs inva- sion came just after midnight on April 17, 1961, the Cuban population was al- ready armed with Soviet weapons. “Of course, none of these leftists had actually been to Russia,” Anderson said. “Travel was so much more difficult then. And when Che did visit Moscow, he was shocked—all these guys wear- ing old woolen suits from the 1940s and eating onions they carried in their pock- ets. This was not the New Socialist man he had imagined.” If only Fidel and Che had been more diligent tourists, history might have taken another course.

88 SMITHSONIAN.COM | October 2016