Life under Castro

Life under Castro
Fidel Castro's daughter says the change in Cuba's government that exiles
have been waiting for will happen.
BY ANGELA FOREST
247-7863
September 22, 2006
NEWPORT NEWS -- Alina Fernandez says she's no revolutionary. But being
the daughter of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and publicly expressing
opposition to his regime while living in the country gives her plenty of
points for courage.

"I'm a low-profile person. I'm lazy," she said before a full audience at
Christopher Newport University's Ferguson Center for the Arts concert
hall Thursday.

Petite, with a quiet, unassuming presence, Fernandez spoke about growing
up as the illegitimate daughter of the man who, until recently, was one
of the world's longest-running heads of state. In July, the 80-year-old
Castro temporarily gave up control of Cuba to his brother Raul after
undergoing surgery.

Fernandez told reporters before her speech that her father may be ill,
but "he never lost control" of what was going on in the country. She
doubts he will fully return to power.

Raul Castro lacks Fidel's charisma, she said. However, as someone who
has overseen the army and the country's tourism, "he's not a person to
be underestimated." Cuba may see some economic improvements under his
leadership, she said to reporters before her presentation.

Now in her 50s, Fernandez grew up watching Castro and Cuba in the early
years of communism after he gained power in 1959. She witnessed an
execution at the age of 3, as Castro began killing his political
enemies. The country became militarized. Profits from private businesses
and land were given to the government. Religion was abolished. Freedom
of speech and of the press were eliminated and artists were sent to
"camps." Since then, more than a million Cubans have fled to the United
States.

"For me, life went from white to black and turned gray for a long time,"
Fernandez said. "Since the very moment those executions took place, fear
embraced the people and the entire country."

Fernandez said she struggled under the social control. When presented
with the opportunity to be recognized as Castro's daughter, she said she
refused. As her own daughter grew up under the regime, Fernandez ended
up joining Castro's dissidents in 1989. Then the Soviet Union collapsed.

"Schools were closed. Food was impossible to find," she said. In 1993,
she disguised herself as a Spanish tourist and escaped the country. Her
autobiography, "Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba," was
published five years later. Today, Fernandez hosts a radio program out
of Miami. And in August, CNN hired her to provide commentary on Cuban
issues.

The university's Campus Activities Board sponsored her Thursday night
speech in Newport News.

Fernandez's story in many ways echoed that of audience member Ana
Gutiérrez Hevia. She and her family also fled Cuba, leaving behind an
imprisoned aunt. In America, her family told her "that you can be
whatever you want to be in a free country," she said.

Attending the speech with her 6-year-old daughter, Greta Galvez Harrison
said she respects Fernandez for speaking out about Cuba. Many of
Harrison's relatives also fled the country. Her mother has joined other
Cuban-Americans in planning to return to Cuba and help rebuild it after
Castro takes his last breath, she said.

"People think they (Cuban people) have this great medical care and this
great educational system, but they don't," Harrison said. "Communism
doesn't work."

The "perfect formula for democracy" can be created in Cuba, Fernandez
said. It's only a matter of time.

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