“The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.”
Talk about blockbuster quotes. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, 84, has gone from “History will absolve me” to nullifying his own legacy near the end of his revolutionary life. Wow.
Chances are, Castro wasn’t misquoted by Jeffrey Goldberg, a well-regarded national correspondent for the Atlantic magazine. He wouldn’t have gotten the Castro interview otherwise.
But anyone who’s been around journalism knows how these things can happen. Here’s a scenario.
If you want straightforward, detailed information out of an interview, do it in an office, where note-taking is easy. If you want a more informal atmosphere, one more conducive to impression and rapport and ambience–as well as irony, candor, humor and hyperbole–go to lunch. Wine always adds to the food for thought. Goldberg and Castro did lunch.
And while nuance is always a challenge, much more so if you’re using a translator.
Context is key. No less so because it’s a stop-the-presses quote. Castro subsequently claimed that while he was not misquoted, per se, he was certainly misinterpreted. As it turns out, he meant the “opposite” of how it came out, he claimed. He emphasized that the “capitalist system no longer works”–for anybody. He then asked: “How could such a system work for a socialist country like Cuba.”
Perhaps after too much reminiscing, too much speculating, too much rhetorical flourishing and too much imbibing, Castro really was conveying this: “Look, Jeff, I’m a major historical figure. I led a revolution that all but the most hard-core Batistianos knew was necessary. In the name of Marx and Lenin, I created Fidelisimo, a monument to myself. Not even Che or Camilo could handle it. It kept me in power and the U.S.–dear Uncle Scapegoat–played along. I played the Soviet card, and wanted those missiles. The world came to the nuclear brink. I would have pushed it over, if I had my way.
But that was then, and this is now. We need subsidies from Venezuela. We’re second only to North Korea for having the most ideologically incompatible economic model in the world. But, no, I’m not about to disavow my legacy over lunch.
The last two years have reminded the world that unfettered capitalism is self-destructive. But, yes, I do have a problem with investment concessions we have to make to stay afloat. We’ll be the only country in the world with ration cards and luxury, golf course condos! From rampant corruption under Batista to hypocritical apartheid under Raul. How’s that for a model?”
In which case, Goldberg did him a favor.