Alina Fernández

Alina Fernández Revuelta (born 19 March 1956) is a Cuban anti-communist activist. She is the daughter of Fidel Castro and Natalia Revuelta Clews.[1] She is one of the best known Cuban critics of the government of Cuba and her father's and uncle's rule, where she lived until 1993.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Fernández and the second or maternal family name is Revuelta.

Alina Fernández
Alina Fernández taken February 8, 2008
Born (1956-03-19) 19 March 1956
Havana, Cuba
Children1
Parent(s)Fidel Castro
Natalia Revuelta Clews
Fernández speaks at Ohio University (2009)

Biography

Fernández lived with her mother, Natalia "Naty" Revuelta Clews, who was born in Havana in 1925 and stepfather, Orlando Fernández. In Cuba, she worked as a model and public relations director of a Cuban fashion company, according to the University Program Board. In 1993, at age 37, she left Cuba for Spain using false papers and a wig. Elena Díaz-Verson Amos, a Cuban immigrant, and wife to John Amos (an Aflac, Inc. founder) helped Fernández leave Cuba. Fernández lived in Columbus, Georgia, with Díaz-Verson for several years.

Fernández has one daughter. In an interview in 2008 with Foreign Policy magazine,[2] she said she had been closer to her uncle, Raúl Castro, than she was to her father. She said Raúl Castro, who succeeded her father as the Cuban president, had helped her on several occasions. "He was the person to whom you could go to and ask for help every time you had a practical problem. I personally asked for his help a couple of times, and he always helped me immediately. In the family he was the only help you could find. On these kinds of issues, Fidel was totally unhelpful."

Lawsuit

Fernández's aunt, Juanita Castro, sued Alina Fernández for libel and defamation over passages in her autobiography about Juanita and Fidel's parents, Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz. In 2005, a Spanish court ordered Fernández and Plaza & Janes, the Barcelona Random House publisher, to pay US$45,000 to Juanita Castro, who said the book defamed her family: "People who were eating off Fidel's plate yesterday come here and want money and power, so they say whatever they want, even if it's not true... Part of my family was responsible for a lot of suffering in Cuba — you can't change that," she said. "But nobody has the right to offend Fidel's family. Insult Fidel — there's plenty to say." An English version, published under the title Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba, omits the offending passages.[3]

References
  1. "Castro's Family: Fidel's private life with his wife and sons is so secret that even the CIA is left to wonder" by Juan O. Tamayo. The Miami Herald, 8 October 2000.
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20080310205359/https://foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4222 "Seven Questions: Castro's Daughter Speaks Out". Foreign Policy, 5 March 2008.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Book and autobiography
  • Havana Dreams, a Story of Cuba by Wendy Gimbel (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998) ISBN 0-679-43053-9
  • Castro's Daughter, An Exile's Memoir of Cuba by Alina Fernández (St. Martin's Press, 1997) ISBN 0-312-19308-4
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