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Dr. Grau announces he will run against Batista in November
By doing this he is accused of legitimizing Batista’s likely sham elections. Communists too throw their hat in the ring and ally with Dr. Grau.
Source: Cuba by Hugh Thomas for book click here -
Lansky continues his role as gambling adviser
Benefitting from the post WW2 tourism boom, income from gambling begins to increase under the watchful eye of Lansky and his professionalization of the casinos.
Source: Havana Nocturne -
Castro's loyal lieutenants, Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria released
Castro expects his 2 loyal lieutenants to revive the movement and follow his every order. They don't, which causes frustration and makes him appear a bully.
Source: Young Castro -
Batista visits the Model Prison
Batista visits where Castro is being held, where he is mocked with singing of what would become "Marcha de el 26 de Julio." Two days later Castro is taken to solitary confinement for 134 days.
Source: Young Castro -
Naty and Fidel's letters grow more intimate
Fidel writes to her "... I don’t like hearing that your letters are short because you’re so busy. False, false! It seems like a cruel revenge against me. To my even greater mortification, you hide behind such pretexts."
Source: Havana Dreams -
Fidel writes "I love you" to Naty
In long letters mainly talking about his life, literature, Freud, Marx, Doestoevsky, Fidel tells Naty he loves her.
Source: Havana Dreams -
Naty writes back, letters become more intimate
She writes "For posterity’s sake, let me add that my “confessions” to you (What a scandal!) are the result of an exceptional situation. Under normal conditions I’m a young woman like any other, capable of modesty, and of keeping her feelings to herself."
Source: Havana Dreams -
Castro writes about kissing Naty
"After kissing all the books, I counted and saw that I had an extra kiss. With that kiss, I remember you.”
Source: Havana Dreams -
Mirta passes orders through Castro
Mirta had advised him about the good work that Hernández and Santamaría were doing. Mirta, who was serving as a messenger, would fill them in on a brochure he was preparing of “decisive importance,” a reference to the forthcoming “History Will Absolve Me.”
Source: Young Castro -
Mirta finds out about Castro's infidelity
Over the course of his imprisonment, Castro and Naty Revuelta had engaged in correspondence and confessed love for one another. Although not consummated due to imprisonment, the two spoke on all sorts of subjects. A letter meant for Naty wound up going to Mirta. Mirta accused Revuelta of “deceit and betrayal,” threatening “to take revenge, by any means,” if she continued to write him. Castro believes the letters were intentionally switched.
Source: Young Castro -
Mirta and Naty's letter switch
When Naty writes to Fidel about the mix-up, she’s concerned with the damage. She urges Fidel to be “kind and tender” to Mirta. “If you haven’t written [such a letter to her] do so now so as to erase some of her bitterness as well as the sadness that I feel inside myself. Please do this for me.”
and “I ask one thing of you: Don’t change towards her [Mirta]. Be assured that I’ll never change.”
Source: Havana Dreams -
Castro tries to patch things up with Mirta
On May 12, using the subject of Fidelito as an icebreaker, he wrote her a short note to say that he was thinking of her. He was delighted to see how “big and strong” Fidelito had become.
Written between the lines of this note, in lemon juice was another note for Mirta to pass on to Melba Hernández. The letter explained that by this identical method, he would be smuggling "History Will Absolve Me" out of prison.
Source: Young Castro -
The magazine Bohemia runs an article on the Prison and Castro
To many, this was an introduction to Castro's group, since information about Moncada had been suppressed. Two pages of the story are devoted to Castro.
Source: Young Castro -
Castro finds out that Mirta took a government job in Batista's administration
Castro said this was “ruinous, cowardly, indecent, and intolerable.” Called the minister overseeing her a "faggot in the last stage of sexual degeneration." Castro decides he will file for divorce.
Source: Young Castro -
Mirta asks Fidel for a divorce
The Ministry of the Interior had just announced that she was losing her government sinecure—a botella, an unearned wage paid to those well connected to a political regime. Fidel heard about it on the radio in his cell and couldn’t believe that his wife had been collecting money from Batista’s government. A few days later, Lidia visited him in prison to tell him that Mirta’s brother had arranged for her botella.
Source: Young Castro -
Castro receives an odd visit from 3 Batista Ministers
The 3 ministers told him that he is well known in Cuba, that they had been anti-Machado prisoners too, and that his day would come if he would calm down. Part of Batista's plan to ratchet down tensions. When Rafael Balart finds out about this he loudly protests and is forced to resign, along with a minister that visited Castro.
Source: Young Castro -
Batista steps down to run for President
Batista’s faithful secretary, Andres Domingo, took over the government.
Source: Cuba by Hugh Thomas for book click here -
"History Will Absolve Me" published in New York
Copies begin trickling down to Cuba, Castro had tried to smuggle it out of jail for some years now.
Source: Young Castro -
Batista elected president in a sham election
Batista wins the presidency unopposed, Grau protested for equal representation on electoral boards that would count votes and make decisions. Batista did not fold, Grau dropped out.
Source: Cuba by Hugh Thomas for book click here