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- 1958 Fidel Castro & Enrique Meneses signed interview manuscript
1958 Fidel Castro & Enrique Meneses signed interview manuscript
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A historic interview with the Cuban Revolutionary while leading the resistance from the Sierra Maestra Foothills. Two pages, signed at the conclusion: "Fidel Castro" and "E. Meneses". The manuscript interview is penned in the hand of European correspondent Enrique Meneses and was conducted just a few months before Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista was ousted. In very good condition, with intersecting folds, age toning and scattered wrinkling. Full translation from Spanish:
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"9/1/58. Note for U.P. In an exclusive interview Fidel Castro with Enrique Meneses for "Le Figaro" of Paris, the Rebel leader answers the declarations of January 8. Castro: To who should we give the weapons we have stolen from the military? To the same military we have been fighting for the last year? It would have been better had we taken the weapons that we really need in the first months of the mountain fight. The weapons that we captured from the military will be given back once the possibility of the dictatorship is gone. We don't have any political aspirations because we don't represent any danger of dictatorship. When the armed forces are reorganised and the military dignitaries have them under control; When any possibility of a Military Junta are gone and Batista is no longer a threat, the Revolution of 26 July will return the arms to the armed forces. Q. What do you think of the acceptance of Manuel Urrutia as provisional president? Castro: It would make us very happy that all agree in the Urrutia is the person to preside over the Republic. We will support him whether or not Carlos Prio accepts the definite conditions from the Revolution of 26 July. Carlos Prios no longer counts for anything in Cuba. The revolution is in the hands of a new generation and not in the hands of those who want to chain their destiny to an oppressive past. Q. Do you believe that without the help of the rest of the opposition you will be able to defeat Batista? Castro: It'll take us longer but we will...The days in which the troops come to find us in the mountains will pass. The time they came to look for us is in the past...Today we have to go look for them at Liano. Here it is already more peaceful than in the rest of the Republic. Here, this is 'Free Cuba'."
Enrique Menese was a Spanish journalist best know for becoming the first outsider to spend four months in the Sierra Maestra mountains with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, taking some 2000 photos of the rebels between 1957-8. A few months before leaving the island, where he was imprisoned by the Batista police for a week, he managed to send his report on the Cuban revolution to Paris Match magazine. Meneses’ photos of the rebels in the mountains, which show them on horseback and smoking cigars when not fighting, were published on the cover of Paris Match magazine and became the images of the uprising, causing a sensation worldwide. In this exclusive interview with Meneses, Castro voices his support for Manuel Urrutia, a judge in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba's second largest city, located next to the Sierra Maestra mountains. Several rebels had been brought before him and he had ordered that they be released. He had become a hero to the revolutionaries. To quote the original source of the manuscript, who was a correspondent during the period; "I spent a great deal of time in Santiago during the revolution, covering the civil war for Time magazine. I was in continual contact with the rebel underground in that city. One day I met with a member of the underground. She showed me the sheet of paper, which had been folded a number of times and then smuggled by a courier to Santiago. The underground person told me she had orders to get the paper to 'the press'. Just possessing the paper could have resulted in a death sentence for her. Since I was well known to the rebel movement, she asked if I would take it. Of course I replied affirmatively. I believe I did include part of the document in a story filed to Time. The importance was that Castro indicated for the first time who would become president of Cuba once the rebels were victorious."
It is interesting that just months before assuming the premiership on February 16, 1959, Castro states he has no political aspirations; "We don't have any political aspirations because we don't represent any danger of dictatorship...Here, this is 'Free Cuba'." In retrospect, this historic interview offers a significant foreshadowing of the future hypocrisy and deceit to come from the revolutionary turned dictator. The timing and highly revealing content make it an important historic artefact of the Cuban revolution.
Enrique Menese was a Spanish journalist best know for becoming the first outsider to spend four months in the Sierra Maestra mountains with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, taking some 2000 photos of the rebels between 1957-8. A few months before leaving the island, where he was imprisoned by the Batista police for a week, he managed to send his report on the Cuban revolution to Paris Match magazine. Meneses’ photos of the rebels in the mountains, which show them on horseback and smoking cigars when not fighting, were published on the cover of Paris Match magazine and became the images of the uprising, causing a sensation worldwide. In this exclusive interview with Meneses, Castro voices his support for Manuel Urrutia, a judge in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba's second largest city, located next to the Sierra Maestra mountains. Several rebels had been brought before him and he had ordered that they be released. He had become a hero to the revolutionaries. To quote the original source of the manuscript, who was a correspondent during the period; "I spent a great deal of time in Santiago during the revolution, covering the civil war for Time magazine. I was in continual contact with the rebel underground in that city. One day I met with a member of the underground. She showed me the sheet of paper, which had been folded a number of times and then smuggled by a courier to Santiago. The underground person told me she had orders to get the paper to 'the press'. Just possessing the paper could have resulted in a death sentence for her. Since I was well known to the rebel movement, she asked if I would take it. Of course I replied affirmatively. I believe I did include part of the document in a story filed to Time. The importance was that Castro indicated for the first time who would become president of Cuba once the rebels were victorious."
It is interesting that just months before assuming the premiership on February 16, 1959, Castro states he has no political aspirations; "We don't have any political aspirations because we don't represent any danger of dictatorship...Here, this is 'Free Cuba'." In retrospect, this historic interview offers a significant foreshadowing of the future hypocrisy and deceit to come from the revolutionary turned dictator. The timing and highly revealing content make it an important historic artefact of the Cuban revolution.