Fidel Castro's Daughter to Speak at Penn College
Published 03.02.2009
Alina Fernandez, a daughter of Fidel Castro who became a political dissident and eventually fled Cuba, will share her experiences in a program to be offered March 26 at Pennsylvania College of Technology.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium on the college's main campus.
Recounting her life as one of the Cuban elite, she will guide listeners through the turbulent political environment of the 1960s and '70s, offering snapshots of Cuban society and politics, as well as a detailed view of her father, who relinquished the presidency to his brother Raul in February 2008.
Fernandez was a toddler when Castro overthrew the Batista government during the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Castro would visit her at night and then disappear for months at a time.
Becoming rebellious over the years, Fernandez became part of the island's political dissident movement in the 1980s. Fernandez, who has been a vocal critic of her father's policies, was forced to leave Cuba in 1993 by disguising herself.
Her compelling story, "Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba," was published in 1998 by St. Martin's Press. The book is available at The College Store at Penn College.
For more information, visit online or call (570) 327-4763.