THE
MYSTERY OF CASTRO'S WIFE
Mirta Diaz Balart de
Nunez
[REFERENCE:
Untold Story: Fidel Castro, Vol 1 No. 2, September 1960,
pages 42-43]
MEMO FROM THE PUBLISHER
[Untold Story]
The Editors of this
magazine have
tried to present all sides of Castro, the man, the rebel,
the
conqueror. We were impressed with his philosophy of
reform, not so
impressed with his carrying-out of justice. We have
grave misgivings
concerning his reputed alliances with Russia. But we
feel that each
reader must get the whole picture for himself before
making any
personal judgment. And here it is, for the first
time, the whole
UNTOLD STORY of Cuba's Fidel Castro.
Update
on whereabouts of Mirta Diaz Balart de Nunez
page 42
THE MYSTERY OF
CASTRO'S WIFE
On October 12, 1948, Fidel Castro married Mirtha [Mirta]
Diaz Balart de
Nunez, a student in the Faculty of Philosophy at Havana
University. Castro was then in the last stages
of law
school; Mirtha was a native of Banes, the daughter of a
general, and
her brother was to become one of Batista's officers.
They were
married in a Roman Catholic Church in Orient Province, not
far from
Castro's birthplace. On their honeymoon in Miami,
Florida, Fidel
was forced to pawn his watch and other valuables. His
financial
difficulties were relieved, however, when he obtained money
from his
family in Cuba. He retrieved his property and
prolonged the
honeymoon.
On the morning of Castro's release from the Isla de Pinos
Prison after
the amnesty for Moncada, his wife was nowhere to be
seen. She
later divorced him while he was in exile in Mexico in 1955.
Her brother
Raphael
[Rafael] Diaz Balart;
an ardent Batistiano, who was undersecretary to Ramon
Hermida, a
minister of the interior to Batista. His resignation
was forced
after the publication of a letter he wrote to Hermida in
which he
censured him for a talk he had with Castro in the Isla de
Pinos Prison.
Fidel and Mirtha Castro had one child, a son, Fidel
[Fidelito] Castro
Jr., who was born September 1, 1949. The picture at
the right,
(one of the few extant shots of Mirtha)
[page 43 PHOTO of Mirtha and
Fidelito (photo
credit to George Robert Little, Jr. 1956)] shows mother and
son embracing during a reunion in Mexico City.
Mirtha had claimed the boy had been taken from her by
Castro's sister
who, in turn, claimed the boy had been kidnaped to bring
pressure on
Castro to end the revolution. Mirtha denied this and
the Mexican
authorities dropped their investigation when they were
satisfied this
was a private not a political matter. The boy is now
with Castro
in accordance with Cuban law which states that children of
divorced
parents stay with their father.
Mirtha is remarried and living in the United States. Exactly
where she
is, if she sees her son, whether she has any more children
is a mystery
to everyone but intimate friends.
[An
update
on Mirta or Mirtha was provided by the Miami Herald on
October
8, 2000 in an article headlined CASTRO'S
FAMILY by Juan O.
Tamayo.
"... his 1948 marriage to
Mirta
Diaz-Balart, and their son, Fidel ``Fidelito'' Castro
Diaz-Balart. They
divorced two years later."
"... It is Raul,
according to two friends of Mirta Diaz-Balart, now
living in Spain, who arranges
her occasional
visits to Cuba to see Fidelito."]
End of Page
Copyright
1998-2014 Cuban Information Archives. All Rights
Reserved.
![Raphael [Rafael] Diaz Balart](../photo/namesDM/diaz-balart_rafael.jpg){kind=link}
