Once a Liar.....(UPDATED)

There seems to be no question about the parents or the circumtances surrounding the birth of Fidel Castro Ruz, the bastard son of Ángel Castro y Argiz and Lina Ruz.

The exact date, however, is another story.

My childhood friend, Mario, called me today and reminded me that today is really Fidel's 80th birthday and not his 81st as is reported everywhere.

Mario, now a Miami psychologist, directed me to the Latell report where Brian Latell details all the biographical evidence that points to the fact that Castro has always lied about his actual birth date.

None among the few of us who knew better were inclined to spoil all the fun. Fidel had not in fact turned eighty last year. On August 13, 2006 he marked his seventy-ninth birthday. His actual eightieth is now upon him.

That he has been lying about his age through most of his adult life has been known outside of Cuba to some of his biographers and other astute students of his life. Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence that he was born on August 13, 1927 in Biran, Oriente province, he has clung to the birth date, exactly one year earlier in 1926, that is inscribed in his birth certificate.

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But why would Castro add a year to his age?

According to Mario via Latell here's the reason:

Recently I have been persuaded by Mario L. Beira, a Miami psychologist and astute student of Fidel Castro, that the date change occurred in January, 1935 when the seven and a half year old Fidel was first baptized. He was a student at LaSalle, the Christian Brothers school in Santiago he attended before moving on to the Jesuit Dolores school. Dr. Beira concludes, I believe accurately, that this baptismal certificate, with the 1926 date, is the first official document that records Fidel’s age. It may have simply been a clerical error, or more likely orchestrated to make it possible for Fidel to skip a grade at La Salle. It was not long after the baptism that he advanced from the third to the fifth grade, which required that he be ten years of age.

So in a few days, Fidel Castro finally and truly will become on octogenarian. Perhaps this is the time for him --in one of his reflections?-- to finally admit the truth.

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Don't hold your breath, Mr. Latell. Castro is a pathological liar , you know, the type that believes his own delusional lies.

Dr. Beira is writing a book in English that attempts to psycho-analyse Castro. "Fidel Castro Ruz: Hacia una interpretacion psicoanalitica" , is a detailed summary in Spanish which will appear as a 114 page introduction to a diary written by Julia Miranda entitled "Diario para Uchiram".

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The Summary which I was priviledged enough to have read last fall in manuscript form reads like a mystery novel and its unlike any psychology book I've ever read.

More on Dr. Beira's book soon ...

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UPDATE:

More on the Castro birthday lie in today's Miami Herald