The Readers’ Corner
Readers have been asking if Fidel Castro and Che Guevara really did meet with the French in 1957/58 to obtain arms and ammunition for the push into Havana. I heard this story when in Havana in 2003 working on my first novel, Havana Passage. The story is at least part legend, but it intrigued me . . . still does. I knew I had to use it someday.
Most of us know very little of what went on those days within the revolutionary cadre led by Fidel and Che in the mountains of Eastern Cuba. We could hardly trust what Fidel and Raul tell us today, and Che is long dead. I heard the story from a couple of lesser officials who had not been born by 1958, and who thought the legend was interesting, if true, and harmless, if not.