Juanita Castro, ‘counterrevolutionary’ sister of Fidel and Raul, dies in Miami

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Toxic Family gathers for Emma Castro’s wedding (Juanita seated, lower right)

From our Bureau of Toxic Royal Families with some assistance from our Bureau of Troublesome Little Sisters

Castrogonia’s toxic royal family has lost one of its most contentious members: Juanita, younger sister of King Fidel and King Raul. An early supporter of her brothers, Juanita eventually came to despise their so-called “Revolution” and fled to exile.

After her mother’s death in 1963 and Fidel’s decision to expropriate the family lands, Juanita was denounced as a “counterrevolutionary worm” by her own brother Fidel.

In 1964, she fled to Mexico, where she called a press conference at which she said “My brothers Fidel and Raúl have turned Cuba into a huge prison surrounded by water.” A few months later, she moved to Miami, where in 1973 she opened a pharmacy called Mini Price and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In a 2016 interview she said Fidel “sowed too much hate” and that she also abhorred Che Guevara and tried to save as many prisoners as possible from his firing squads

In 2009, Juanita published a family memoir offering a unique perspective on one of the most influential and controversial families in contemporary Cuban history.

Loosely translated from CubaNet

This Monday, Juanita Castro, younger sister of Fidel and Raúl Castro, and critic of the regime established in Cuba since January 1959, died in Miami at the age of 90. The news was announced on Instagram by the Mexican presenter María Antonieta Collins, co-author of the book Fidel y Raúl mis hermanos, la historia secreta, (Fidel and Raúl, my brothers: The secret history) .

“This is the news that I never wanted to break, but that, as her spokesperson for the last three decades of her life, I have to communicate,” Collins wrote. “Today, Juanita Castro, an exceptional woman, a tireless fighter for the cause of the Cuba that I love so much, went ahead of us on the path of life and death.”

Collins also specified that the family asked for “privacy at this very painful time,” that no interviews would be granted and that a private funeral would be held, according to Juanita Castro’s own wishes.

Whole story HERE in Spanish

5 thoughts on “Juanita Castro, ‘counterrevolutionary’ sister of Fidel and Raul, dies in Miami”

  1. There’s a story behind that photo. For some reason, Fidel didn’t want the wedding to take place at the Cathedral of Havana, but the bride insisted, so he showed up late, in the middle of the ceremony–and since his arrival would hardly pass unnoticed, it was disruptive. In addition, as the photo shows, he and Raúl came wearing their ridiculous military costumes, which was totally inappropriate, tacky and vulgar, albeit perfectly in character. As I’ve said before, we’re talking glorified white trash with money.

  2. A few things:

    A] I heard it said that Juanita had an illegitimate son who was a counterrevolutionary and that fidel had him executed despite Juanita and fidel’s mother begging fidel not to. As the rumor goes, fidel didn’t listen to either and executed the young man who was 18. This led to Lina’s premature death. She was in her early sixties when she died. Some people say she committed suicide. This led to Juanita’s enmity.

    B] Towards the end of her life, Juanita screwed up. She sued her niece, Alina, for her book. She didn’t like the way that Alna described her parents and then wrote a crappy book, a hagiography, where she described them as saints and raul as kind-hearted.

    C] She trashed el exilio when fidel’s intestine’s burst and we thought he died. She didn’t like that we were celebrating his death. She spoke of us as if we were ghouls for wanting someone’s death. Sorry, but fidel is not just someone and her family owe’s us big time.

    • The story about the supposed son doesn’t add up and is bound to be a false rumor. For it to be true, she would have had to have him when she was around 12. As for the books mentioned, I haven’t read either one, but both should be taken with significant reservations. Her on-the-record comments about Cuban exiles celebrating what they prematurely believed was the end of Fidel Castro were clearly ill-judged and inappropriate–she was entitled to her opinion, but nobody in that family has any right whatsoever to say anything offensive to or about Fidel Castro’s victims.

  3. Juanita apparently always had an entrepreneurial bent, which would naturally go with a free enterprise system. If she had been more inclined to vivir del cuento like, say, Mariela Castro, she could have stayed in Cuba playing the “revolution” game. However, of all Castro’s siblings, only the utterly submissive and totally reliable Raúl was chosen for prominence. The others were probably considered insufficiently useful and thus ignored (that includes Fidel’s older brother, “Mongo,” who showed up in Havana in early 1959 calling himself a “comandante” and was promptly sent back to the Castro family homestead in Oriente).

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