by NINA LAKHANI
One of Che Guevara’s ‘pillars’ is in London for the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs.
Dreke Cruz was a hero of the Bay of Pigs and later went with Che to Africa. PHOTO/Teri Pengilley
The curiosity and romanticism surrounding Cuba’s revolutionary hero Che Guevara has refused to abate, even slightly, in the 43 years since his death. Victor Dreke Cruz, who served as Che’s number two in Africa, is one of the very few who can lay claim to a special personal relationship with the man. Dreke, 74, a former rebel fighter and army commander, is in London to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the disastrous attempt by CIA-backed Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro’s communist government, that severely embarrassed President Kennedy.
But Dreke is more than a Che memory bank; he is living Cuban history. His belief in the socialist system remains resolute; his disdain for the US unchanged; his pride for what he, Che, the Castro brothers and the revolution achieved intact. To some, he is a revolutionary hero in his own right.
Dreke was born in March 1937 in Sagua la Grande, a town on the northern coast of central Cuba, the youngest of nine children in a poor family descended from African slaves. His father eked out a living from several jobs – carpenter, fishmonger and musician – his mother was a housewife. Unlike most pre-revolutionary black Cubans, Dreke attended school. He grew up wanting to be a fireman until becoming politicised as a student.
“My revolutionary struggle started on my 15th birthday when we went out to protest against Batista’s coup d’état on 10 March 1952. “I didn’t know who Batista was but we’d heard that he was cruel, so many students went to the streets to protest. The police came and beat us, and one of them said: ‘Who has ever seen a black revolutionary? Black people are only chicken thieves.’ ”
If the young Dreke needed any encouragement, that casual racist remark, commonplace in pre-revolutionary Cuba, did the trick.
After that he joined and led various rebel groups and underground militia across Cuba, living a precarious life, always “looking for trouble”. He narrowly escaped capture and almost certain death at the age of 20, after one member of his group was captured, tortured and gave away his hiding place. Dreke managed to escape hidden in a wardrobe.
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