Betrayal thy name is fidel

The older generation of Cuban exiles are constantly being criticized for their staunch anti-castro hard line stance. Rigid, intransingent, extreme…they are called all those things and more. Yet not many people discuss why the older generation feels the way it does. Sure, there’s the understanding that they had to leave their beloved Cuba behind, leave their homes, leave their families and start here in this new world from scratch with sometimes nothing but determination and the shirts on their back.

What probably fomented this abhorrence, the disdain that the older generation of Cuban exiles feel for fidel castro is that they were betrayed. Many of these people supported fidel castro. Many of them wanted an end to Batista’s tyranical rule. Many believed that fidel castro would surely restore some kind of democracy to the island. To their chagrin, that was not to be so.

The New York Time noted the passing of one of fidel castro’s original supporters, Mario Llerena, who died in exile this past Sunday at the age of 93:

Mario Llerena, 93, Dies; Castro Ally, Then Critic

Mario Llerena, a Cuban intellectual who was an early representative of Fidel Castro in the United States but who broke with him before he took power because of Mr. Castro’s shift toward Communism, died Sunday in Miami. He was 93.

His daughter, Stella Portada, said yesterday that he had died of natural causes at an assisted living center in Miami after recovering from a bout of pneumonia.

Mr. Llerena met Mr. Castro in Mexico in the mid-1950s as Mr. Castro was preparing for an invasion of Cuba to overthrow the military dictator Fulgencio Batista. At Mr. Castro’s request, Mr. Llerena put into writing the democratic ideals that underpinned the Castro movement in the early days of the uprising. The document, “Nuestra Razón” (“Our Reason”), was published in Mexico.

Read the whole thing.

*Link fixed, thanks Caltechgirl.