Fidel Castro: The Lost Interview

Blank on Blank has a simple mission: "We find lost interviews. You listen." Today, they present a doozy -- an interview with Fidel Castro recorded in 1959 by Clark Hewitt Galloway, who died two years later. Galloway recorded the interview for a story in U.S. News & World Report. Because the interview was audio-only, it has been illustrated with cartoon sketches, and translations have been added to the video. The interview is presented by Laura Galloway, Clark's granddaughter.

The interview is remarkable for several reasons. The most obvious stand-outs are Castro's suggestion that he was not a Communist (though clearly he soon would be; he led the Communist Party in Cuba starting in 1961), and a discussion of the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, which was already controversial 50+ years ago.

Viewing tip: the cartoon-style translations went by a little too fast for me to read in some cases. If you click the little "CC" button on the YouTube player, you may find those closed captions easier to read, though you miss some of the animation.

You can hear the full 35-minute interview, plus read full English and Spanish transcripts at the Blank on Blank site.