Alina Fernández fled Havana in 1993 at the age of 37 and settled in Miami, becoming one of the most outspoken critics of her father’s communist rule.
Alina Fernández Revuelta, daughter of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has strongly criticized the communist regime her father launched in 1959, stating that Cuba is overdue for a new government.
She fled Havana in 1993 at the age of 37 and settled in Miami, living a modest life much like that of other Cuban exiles.
Born in 1956, Fernández grew up in post‑revolution Havana, as part of the privileged revolutionary elite. Yet from a young age, she became aware of the realities of communism and later emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of her father’s rule, which she described as oppressive.
“For me, it’s been time for a regime change since the late ‘80s,” Fernández said in an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times.
“At the time Fidel Castro died, we were all thinking [his regime] had come to an end, because it was a very personalized and paternalist … narcissistic government. … But it survived.”
Fernández is the daughter of Castro and Havana socialite Natalia Revuelta, who had an affair in the mid-1950s while both were married to others. She grew up with her mother and stepfather, and did not learn that Castro was her biological father until age 10.
She said she still feels haunted by memories from her past. She refers to Castro by name rather than as her father.
“I became a dissident, I mean, publicly … in the late ‘80s. So I was scared. I was afraid for my daughter, that something might happen to her,” Fernández said.
“I was on the dissident side, so it’s kind of a double burden on her. She was a teenager, and we had what we call at that time, the Special Period.”
For decades, Cuba depended on foreign assistance, primarily from the Soviet Union, which provided substantial subsidies until its collapse in 1991. The end of Soviet support led to a prolonged economic crisis in Cuba known as the “Special Period.”
For Fernández, that period meant “years of total misery” without electricity, food, or public transportation, and schools were closed.
“Some people say that now is worse, but back in the ‘90s, it was terrible, terrible,” she said.
When Fernández had the opportunity to escape, she chose to leave first, leaving her daughter behind because she had no other option. She escaped using the passport of a Spanish tourist who agreed to assist her.
She first traveled to Spain and was then granted political asylum in the United States by the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. On Dec. 21, 1993, she arrived in Atlanta.
A few days later, Rev. Jesse Jackson visited Cuba and got Castro’s approval for his granddaughter’s release, which Fernández described as “divine intervention.” Shortly after, she and her daughter were reunited in the United States.
By Emel Akan
