Madam, – J.S. Tennant's review of the book Fidel and Che: A Revolutionary Friendshipwas erudite and balanced (Weekend Review, February 7th). But I was a little dismayed that that the accompanying photograph was captioned: "A Cuban home with paintings of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara".
I know the revolutionary soldiers who arrived triumphantly in Havana on January 7th, 1959 were known as “the bearded ones”, but that doesn’t mean that one can be substituted for the other, as I’m sure your readers would agree.
Four men could be said to embody the spirit of the revolution to the Cuban population. Camilo Cienfuegos was one of those men. The others were Fidel and Raul Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. In the photograph accompanying your revies it is Cienfuegos, not Fidel Castro, whose picture appears together with Guevara’s.
Cienfuegos became immensely popular among Cubans. He commanded a 700-man force of the Rebel Army, furiously attacking government troops in Camagüey and Las Villas. Less than a year after the rebels’ victory, on October 28th 1959, his Cesna-310 aeroplane mysteriously disappeared over the ocean during a night flight from Camagüey to Havana.
Every year on the anniversary of his disappearance Cuban children throw flowers into the sea in his memory. – Yours, etc,