The Real Fidel

To a sizable number of Americans (particularly those in Miami), this is the face of evil.  A tyrannical dictator, human rights abuser, communist terrorist, slavemaster-- it's all been used to describe Fidel Castro, the ex-president of Cuba and eternal symbol of the island's revolution and its broken relationship with the United States. You don't need to be a history buff to know that at some point Fidel Castro did something (or a lot of things) to piss off a lot of people and the US government. So bad were these things that you can be publicly shamed just for saying you kind of admire the guy--and yet he can  be admired...

The relationship between the United States and Cuba after the start of Fidel Castro's regime has been extremely contentious, culminating in the infamous US embargo on Cuba that continues today. But this isn't all there is to the legendary leader. Interaction between Castro and the US media has been limited, for obvious reasons, but the work of artists and journalists do provide intimate glances at his thoughts, ideologies, leadership.  Documentary filmmaker Estela Bravo has spent her career focusing on social-political issues in Cuba, Latin America and the US, and is most known for examining the intricacies and effects of the US and Cuba's long-standing beef. Her most famous movie Fidel features candid interviews with Castro and details his forty years as head of the Cuban revolution. Bravo does this work in hopes of improving Cuban-American relations, and shedding light onto one of the most interesting and complicated stories of history. TEDxWOMEN posted a recent video of her interview at the Paley Center for Media, which you can watch by clicking here. The article mentions some interesting facts Bravo was able to gain about Castro through her work, read a couple after the jump!

• Castro never speaks English in Cuba. But when Estela interviewed his translator, she said he’s always correcting her English.

• Castro can talk! During Estela’s interview with him, she asked 12 questions and he talked 6.5 hours! Estela then told of an American man who asked her, after watching Fidel speak for six hours: “Doesn’t Fidel ever have to go to the bathroom?” Estela relayed the question to Fidel, and he responded: ”That’s just to show people that I have no prostate problem.”

• Estela spoke to the “incredible” relationship between Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela. When Fidel visited Mandela in South Africa, the two men would walk holding each other by the arm, speaking in English without a translator. Estela was with Fidel when he entered Mandela’s cell. Fidel “couldn’t believe that Mandela had lived in that cell” — and lay down on the floor, trying to imagine what it must have been like for Mandela.

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