Cult of Castro casts long shadow in Cuba as former guerrilla turns 90
Communist leader objected to any ‘cult of personality’ but his image is ever present in island nation
It was just what the fiery communist leader Fidel Castro told them not to do. His admirers say he freed Cuba from tyranny, but the revolution wasn’t about just one guy. Would they please not plaster his face everywhere?
Yet as he marks his 90th birthday on Saturday, such popular reverence for the former guerrilla and his former comrades-in-arms is strong. So strong, it is drawing thousands of tourists to Cuba – including more and more from its old enemy, the United States.
Castro made it a point of pride not to be worshipped in effigy like certain other communist world leaders.
He has become like an icon, a symbol. He is no longer just a person. He represents something more
“I am hostile to anything that resembles a personality cult,” he said in an interview published in 2006 in a book by Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet. “There is not a single school, factory, hospital or building that bears my name. There are no statues of me. There are practically no portraits.”
That year Castro retired from the public eye due to poor health. He officially handed over the presidency to his brother Raul in 2008. But though formal portraits may be few, the bearded, cigar-chomping revolutionary smiles out from countless billboards across the island.
Local sociology student Juan Carlos Cabezas, 25, says he is struck by how many images of Castro’s face he sees around Havana.
“He has become like an icon, a symbol,” Cabezas said. “He is no longer just a person. He represents something more.”
In the central town of Sancti Spiritus, a poster bears three photographs of Fidel: as a young rebel, a middle-aged statesman and a gray-haired elder.