Word: fidelity
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Bone-thin after four years of declining rations, Mario Caballero, a 52-year- old school administrator in Santiago de Cuba, is one of the older generation whose faith in Fidel is well-nigh religious. If his rhetoric recalls communist dogma of the '50s, it still reflects sentiments deeply etched in the Cuban soul. "Before, our best land was Yankee. The sugar was Yankee. The electric system was Yankee. The phones were Yankee." Never mind that the sugar crop is failing for the second year, that electricity and phones rarely work. "We may be living through a special period," he says...
...friend Albert Memo, a retired electronics technician, remains content to entrust the future to Fidel. "We have a government we like," he says. Cubans know capitalism, "and we don't want it." But if Castro says Cubans have to do things differently, Memo will go along. He leans back and reminisces: "I am exactly the same age as Fidel, 67. When you meet him, he is so impressive. When he talks, you really trust him, you would follow whatever he decides to do. I love him. Everyone loves...
Those who do not love Fidel have few options: wait until he dies, or flee. Ricardo and Raul are scheming to escape by sea, when they are not drunk on bootleg rum. Quaffing cocktails and beer at Ernest Hemingway's old haunt, La Bodeguita del Medio in Old Havana, they rail against the system, unconcerned that they might be overheard. At 21, Ricardo is just out of prison after serving a nine-month term: he got drunk and spat on a statue of independence hero Jose Marti. Now he is officially a nonperson and unable to find...
Cuba's socialist dream is turning into a nightmare. Can Fidel control Cuba's mutation, or will freeing the economy steal the country out from under...
...what a story. Fidel Castro's efforts to restrict press coverage have long made Cuba "one of the big, black holes of journalism," says McGeary. But times are changing. To her surprise, McGeary faced little interference from the government officials assigned to monitor her activities. "The authorities now seem sophisticated enough to gamble that if Americans see Cuba for themselves, they won't see the country just in black or white." Accompanied by Miami bureau chief Cathy Booth, McGeary logged hundreds of miles driving around the island. They interviewed hitchhikers, housewives, mine workers and bureaucrats. "The people were more willing...