I never thought I would cry for you, Carlos Alberto!
I am sitting in my room, at a seaside village in Bretagne in the West of France, not that far away from where you died, just a few days ago, in the city where you lived for 40 years, Madrid
But we had something else in common, Carlos Alberto, it was the city where you were born in 1942, son of that illustrious journalist Ernesto M who was exiled and died in Miami in 1990.
I never met him.
I do not know where and how I met your younger brother, Alex. Vaguely I remember entering Versailles Restaurant in Calle Ocho and being introduced to him and following him and his partner to your mothers house.
It was a great honour to meet your mother.
On another occasion, I was visiting your mother and Alex and you were in the house and i was so touched when you asked me: how are things in my Havana? as if you had just left that city on the malecon, it had already been more than thirty years.
you gave me one of your books and i remember how you dedicated it to me
to you, who has the luxury of walking on both sides of the line
I carried that book on my next trip to Baracoa and no sooner the state security arrived at my house wanting to know about the book (as is common, someone visiting my house had been an informant)
Will you come to the local offices of the Ministry of the Interior, asked the official, who was later jailed for sexual molestation. When I arrived at the office, a fat official with two young junior officials were waiting.
Without much introduction, he asked, are you a friend of Carlos Alberto?
No, i said vehemently, but i have the pleasure of knowing his mother. In the days before the triumph of the revolution when the fascist peons of the tyrant Batista were looking for Fidel, it was this elegant lady, who hid him in their spacious mansion (in one of the bathrooms). Fidel was grateful for this gesture and when the newly revolutionary government were purging journalists, Fidel made sure that his erstwhile friends were not in danger. At a hotel, when Ernesto and Fidel entered the lift, Fidel turned around to Ernesto and said, you are the best we have, please leave with your family within the next forty eight hours so that no harm would come to you.
So Carlos Alberto, his older brother, his younger brother , mother and father left for Miami.. Ernesto died in 1990 and his wife in 2000, Alex of Covid in 2020 and Carlos Alberto has left us in 2023.
I never thought i would shed a tear for you, Carlos Alberto, I am genuinely sad. Tears are flowing copiously.
We did share the history of our glorious island ..
