It’s over half a century since the artist Waldo Díaz-Balart left Cuba. On January 1, 1959, he was seeing the New Year in at Havana’s Tropicana nightclub with the son of President Andrés Rivero Aguero, when he heard the news that the Revolution had triumphed. The 27-year-old Díaz-Balart knew he had to leave the island. His father, Rafael, had been a minister in the Batista government and had already left for the United States. His situation was also uncomfortable for social reasons: his sister, Myrta, had been married to a young man called Fidel Castro. They divorced in 1955. “On the one hand the Balart family had been in power and on the other, my sister had been married to Fidel … [Read more...] about The man who knew Fidel Castro, Warhol and Franco’s Spain
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Saramago: Iberia’s Godless conscience
“With a rapid movement, what was in sight has disappeared behind the man’s clenched fists, as if he were still trying to retain inside his mind the final image captured, a round red light at the traffic lights. I am blind, I am blind, he repeated in despair as they helped him to get out of the car, and the tears welling up made those eyes which he claimed were dead, shine even more.” (From Blindness). Given that his life was so often filled with polemic, perhaps it was fitting that José Saramago’s death should be surrounded by controversy. The late Portuguese novelist would have smiled from the afterlife –if he had believed in it– at the idea of the Vatican and his country’s president … [Read more...] about Saramago: Iberia’s Godless conscience
American breakfast and prayers for Zapatero
The decision by Spanish leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to accept Barack Obama’s invitation to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on February 4 has sparked plenty of controversy and even outrage on the political right, as critics accuse the “lay” prime minister of hypocrisy. The Prayer Breakfast is seen as a meeting place for political, economic and social figures and while it does have a clearly religious dimension, Zapatero’s decision to attend has nothing to do with prayer and everything to do with his relationship with the US president. Putting aside the Spanish political furore over the breakfast, the invitation itself looks like a significant development as Zapatero … [Read more...] about American breakfast and prayers for Zapatero
Spain, Europe and the world: Zapatero’s moment
The six-month rotating presidency of the European Union passed on 1 January 2010 from Sweden to Spain. At the formal ceremony of transition in Madrid on 8 January, the Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero outlined a bold agenda: he reaffirmed that his country’s tenure would be one of action and initiative in which financial recovery and the boosting of the EU’s place in the world would be his foremost priorities. It sounds like the expression of confident leadership that a Europe buffeted by the economic crisis, the failure of the Copenhagen summit and its shrinking global role badly needs. But what are the prospects of Zapatero fulfilling his lofty aims? The centre-left … [Read more...] about Spain, Europe and the world: Zapatero’s moment