Once a year, the United Nations General Assembly brings the world’s leaders to New York City to take part in a special program that allows them to address the world’s most pressing issues. But when Cuba’s leader, Fidel Castro, and his government’s delegation came to take part in the U.N. General Assembly in September 1960, they faced slights and humiliations from local establishments.
Castro’s government had overthrown the dictator Fulgencio Batista in January 1959 and was in a tense relationship with the U.S. administration. In line with the U.S., some New York City businesses treated the Cubans with contempt: Midtown Manhattan’s Hotel Shelburne wanted the 50-member delegation to put down a $20,000 cash deposit to cover any potential damages they might cause during their stay. When Castro refused to do so, the activist Malcolm X helped arrange for the Cubans to stay at Harlem’s African American-owned Theresa Hotel.
This year marks the 63rd anniversary of the Cuban delegations’ Sept. 19 through Sept. 28, 1960 stay at the Hotel Theresa and local activists held a special event to honor the occasion.
The Harlem-Cuba Welcome Committee invited this year’s Cuban delegation and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez to take part in an “Homage to Malcolm X”-themed event to remember when Castro came to Harlem.
“Your presence here today powerfully affirms the ties between our nations and peoples,” said Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz during the Sept. 18 event at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Center, which is named in honor of her parents. “Let this moment inspire us to carry forward their courageous unfinished work with renewed purpose and moral clarity. On behalf of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Center, I would like to express our profound appreciation for your visit.”
Díaz-Canel said he appreciated the event and spoke about how Malcolm X had been a powerful inspiration for him when he was a high school student in Cuba. Many young kids took it as an honor to read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” Díaz-Canel said.
Yuri Gala López, Cuba’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, also told the AmNews that Cuban youth read “The Autobiographyof Malcolm X” and tend to view Malcolm X as an important symbol of Third World activism.
“Harlem is a community with which Cubans have developed sentimental ties,” López asserted, because it is known as the place where Malcolm X was active. “Several generations of Cubans learn from an early age to admire Malcom X from his biography. We come to know the firm, strong commitment Malcolm X had [to] social justice and his solidarity with peoples of Africa. That is something that we value very much.”
“It is all about the solidarity and friendship and the brotherhood that first started developing between Fidel and Malcolm 63 years ago,” Díaz-Canel said as he spoke a the gathering. “We are all for receiving solidarity from the American people. And once we defeat the blockade––and we are certain we will defeat it––that will be our best tribute to their friendship and solidarity.”
Among the many politicians and activists in attendance for the “Homage to Malcolm X” were Roger Wareham, Esperanza Martell, Councilmember Charles Barron, Professor James Small, Gail Walker, Omowale Clay, Sam Anderson, Zayid Muhammad, former Rep. Charles Rangel, and the current leader of the New York County Democrats, Keith L.T. Wright.
In 1960, when Castro left Midtown Manhattan and came to Harlem, he continued to conduct governmental business. Amsterdam News articles from that period report that the Cuban delegation rented out over 40 of the hotel’s rooms, with Castro residing on the ninth floor. Although security was tight, the delegates were friendly. Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser and India’s Jawaharlal Nehru traveled to Harlem to have talks with the Cubans. And at one point, the then-Soviet Union’s Nikita Khrushchev came up to the Theresa: “The big little premier sought to extend his hand to those who tried to greet him in the police-jammed hallway,” a September 24, 1960 AmNews article said, “but was hurried along by security men to the Castro quarters where the two huddled in secret for about 20 minutes.”
Castro had told the Amsterdam News that he was excited he could stay in Harlem. “I had always wanted to come to Harlem, but I was not sure what kind of welcome I would get,” he was quoted as saying. “When I got news that I would be welcomed in Harlem, I was happy.”
A 35-year-old Malcolm X met with Castro and assured him that the slurs the Cubans faced downtown would not occur in Harlem. The newspaper reported that Malcolm X told the Cuban leader: “We in Harlem are not addicted to all the propaganda the U.S. government puts out.”
Dr. Rosemari Mealy, one of the organizers of this year’s “Homage to Malcolm X” event, explained to those in attendance that the bonds Fidel and Malcolm forged have to be honored. “It is a legacy that we have all inherited: [It’s] when both leaders taught that humanity’s destiny is not locked into a perpetual state of submission and oppression,” said Mealy, the author of the book “Fidel & Malcolm X: Memories of a Meeting” (Black Classic Press, 2013).
“We know that despite the hegemony of global capitalism, racism, poverty, wars, the proxy wars, and the acceleration of environmental degradation, we must never accept defeat. It’s not an option for us.”