“I was born in Cuba,” the old man told me. “I left there in 1960, right after the revolucion and I came to Belize when I was 21 years old.”
Señor Diaz is one of my favorite people to visit. He always has such wonderful stories but he rarely mentions his early life.
“Then you would have been there in 1959 when Castro overthrew the government,” I said. “Did you meet Castro?”
“Oh, much more than that. I captured him while I was fighting for the government forces. We were in a cane field and I was lost when I heard a horse coming through the cane. Suddenly, a big white horse stumbled and fell at my feet. When the rider got up, I found I had captured Fidel Castro.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
Señor Diaz said, “I was very angry about the war so I told him, ‘Señor Castro, you will now eat one of those big horse apples’.”
“You made Fidel Castro eat horse crap?” I asked, incredulously.
“He had to eat or die, “Señor Diaz said. “He ate and then, suddenly we were surrounded by revolucionarios and I was the prisoner.”
“What happened then?” I asked.
“Fidel Castro looked at me, he looked at the horse apples and said, ‘Eat.’ I had to eat or die so I eat. Then another group of revolucionarios call them and they leave me.”
“That’s one of the greatest stories I ever heard,” I told the old man.
“You wanted to know if I met Castro,” Señor Diaz said. “We had lunch together.”
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