Klaus Hart Brasilientexte

A MEETING WITH FIDEL 

Frei Betto*

HAVANA.  Fidel had not made an appearance for some time. A Cuban in Havana said to me “the Comandante’s silence is glaring”.  Many imagined him to be very ill, perhaps in a hospital, his state of health considered a State secret.

Just before I left for Cuba in mid January, there was news that Fidel had died. For the hundredth time…   Journalists phoned me wanting to know if my Cuban friends had confirmed this.
I decided to do some research. Fidel actually did die on January 3 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya and his full name was Fidel Castro Odunga, the son of a Kenyan who in his youth had studied in Cuba.

My friends here in Havana wondered if Fidel had or had not welcomed the Five Cuban Heroes who were recently freed after long years in a US prison and transferred back to their homeland. And why the Comandante had not spoken out, at least in an article, when Obama admitted that the blockade “did not work”, agreeing to begin conversations with the Cuban government to re-establish diplomatic and commercial relations.

Mystery surrounded the Cuban Revolution leader’s silence.
I came here to take part in the World Pedagogy Congress. I gave a talk at the University of Havana for Cuban pedagogues and leaders of the local FEU (University Students’ Federation).

The Brazilian ambassador, Cesário Melantonio Neto, invited me to  give a talk on Paulo Freire at the Casa das Americas and at the Superior Arts Institute on Contemporary Art and the Market.

At the Pedagogy Congress I spoke on Education and Subjectivity and, the following day, on Education, Critical Conscience and Social Participation.

On Tuesday January 27 in the afternoon Fidel invited me to his home. Together with his wife Dalia, we talked for an hour and a half. He showed interest in my meeting with Pope Francis in Rome in April 2014 and deep admiration for the head of the Catholic Church.

Fidel asked me for details of the contents of the talks and spoke about subjects of astrophysics and quantum physics which he had read in my book “A obra do Artista – uma visao holistica do Universo” (The work of the Artist – a holistic vision of the Universe) (Jose Olympo), published in Cuba.

The leader of the Cuban Revolution, at 88 years of age, from his home, follows world news on TV and the internet with great interest and with the agile mind he had when I first met him in 1980.

His main concerns apart from Cuba’s future, are for world peace and for environmental degradation. He fears that the belligerent spirit of the great powers and the ambition for profits will cause the destruction of humanity long before the apocalypse.
In spite of everything, he maintains the jovial enthusiasm of one who knows that what is best is to put pessimism aside for better days.

*Frei Betto is a writer, author of “Oito vias para ser feliz”, (Eight paths to happiness) (Planeta).

Ausriß, Frei Betto und Castro 2014.

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