Castro's Daughter

"Mommy, mommy, call him. Tell him to come here right away. I have so many things to tell him!"

I had a ton of things to tell him. I wanted him to find a solution to all the shortages of clothes; of meat, so it would again be distributed through the ration books.

I also wanted to ask him to give our Christmas back. And to come live with us. I wanted to let him know how much we really needed him...

Fidel didn't answer my letter. I kept writing him letters from a sweet and well-behaved child, a brave but sad girl. Letters resembling those of a secret, spurned lover...

As a girl growing up in Cuba, Alina Fernandez found nothing abnormal in the fact that Fidel Castro would occasionally visit her house bearing gifts just for her. At the age of ten, her mother finally told her the truth: she was Castro's Daughter.