Aaron McGruder Quotes

Fidel is really a special case. He's a personality of history.

We should look to (Castro) as one of the Earth's wisest people, one of the people we should consult.

I like Fidel Castro and his beard.

Fidel Castro for me is like a father.

Che came in 1963, shortly after I had come to power.

I first interviewed Fidel Castro 39 years ago. He was charming and fiercely guarded about his private life. He called our interviews 'fiery debates.' During our times together, he made clear to me that he was an absolute dictator and that he was a staunch opponent of democracy.

Comandante Fidel Castro is the greatest revolutionary of the 20th Century, bar none.

[Fidel Castro] has a very good [human rights] record.

Fidel Castro is loved down into the children. The Revolution won't die!

I think that I've tried many times to get Cuba in my writings, especially Havana, which was once a great and fascinating city.

I lived in Cuba - I was there for one year in the 1950s. We built the famous nightclub, which is still there, Tropicana, and a restaurant, Montecatini, that I opened is still there. I was there when the U.S. ambassador said everyone must leave because Castro was arriving the next morning.

My parents were founders of the Cuban Communist Party, and I grew up extremely poor.

History will absolve me.

There are only two groups I recognize in Cuba: those who wholly support the revolution and those who are joining the reactionaries.

Havana.- If 1959 was the Year of Liberation, 1960 was the Year of the Agrarian Reform. The nation lived days of intense transformations, not only political but, also, in every aspect of social and individual activity of its citizens.

There were people in Cuba who truly had substantial things to gain from revolution. There were people who had things to lose in the revolution. I think they're all allowed to have their memories of what happened.

I always wanted to go to Cuba growing up. It was this fascinating, forbidden country that seemed to have a lot of politics and folklore and history behind it.

For the last 60 years, dictator Fidel Castro was America's most persistent adversary. Although Castro formally handed off to his brother, Raul, eight years ago, the communist leader was a symbolic force in Cuba and around the world.

The death of Fidel Castro, of course, is not as significant when you first look at it, because Raul Castro, his brother, has been in power for years. But, in fact, he's been a looming figure even during his illness that I think has made a difference in holding us back in trying to open up more negotiations and move ahead with opening up relations between America and Cuba.

It wasn't until Castro marched triumphantly into Cuba that you might say the whole thing grew into a Marxist revolution.

Fidel Castro claimed that history would absolve him, but it can also condemn him.

Fidel Castro was a charismatic revolutionary and a ruthless leader who allowed no dissent.

In history as in life it is success that counts. Start a political upheaval and let yourself be caught, and you will hang as a traitor. But place yourself at the head of a rebellion and gain your point, and all future generations will worship you as the Father of their Country.

I was born in Cuba. At the age of 14 years of age I was involved in a revolution. We were suffering from a very cruel, oppressive dictatorship, and the revolution started in the high schools and the universities. So when I was 14, I was involved in the revolution. I was in the revolution four years. During that time, a young, charismatic leader rose up in Cuba, talking about hope and change. His name was Fidel Castro.

I think Joe Leiberman has been one of the leaders of the country... people have such a broad respect for him as a moral force.