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
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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.