:00:28. > :00:35.Hello, and welcome to a special edition of Witness, coming from
:00:36. > :00:38.Cuba. I am Will Grant, and I will be taking you on a journey to meet some
:00:39. > :00:47.of the people who have helped make history here in Cuba. We will hear
:00:48. > :00:51.from the Buena Vista Social Club about the album that changed Cuba
:00:52. > :00:56.forever. The minister who broke the mould in the island, and playing
:00:57. > :01:00.baseball against the old enemy before relations with the United
:01:01. > :01:12.States began to thaw. And the woman who put Cuban ballet on the map,
:01:13. > :01:15.94-year-old Alicia Alonso. We began in 1959 as bearded revolutionaries
:01:16. > :01:19.led by Fidel Castro marched triumphant through the streets of
:01:20. > :01:24.Havana. It marked the success of the Cuban revolution. Our witness
:01:25. > :01:34.remembers where he was on the day that he saw history being made. On
:01:35. > :01:43.January eight, 1959, I was standing at this corner as hundreds of Cubans
:01:44. > :01:47.were welcoming Fidel Castro. And I was very excited, very optimistic. I
:01:48. > :01:57.thought these guys really were going to change Cuba in a positive way.
:01:58. > :02:03.But he dominated Cuban politics from 1933 to more or less 1958. He was
:02:04. > :02:08.considered the guy who really enforce the law for the benefit of
:02:09. > :02:13.American companies. He and his Cabinet received $2000 each month
:02:14. > :02:24.from the mafia to let them do whatever he wanted to do in Cuba,
:02:25. > :02:28.about casinos, prostitution. My father was a well-known politician
:02:29. > :02:32.who had opposed Batista from the beginning and I was a young high
:02:33. > :02:38.school student, influenced by my father's ideas. At that time, the
:02:39. > :02:46.Batista police could easily kill you for something as simple as
:02:47. > :02:50.participating in a strike. In 1958, I remember following the advanced of
:02:51. > :03:00.the revolutionaries forces on shortwave radio.
:03:01. > :03:08.At the end of 1958, the revolutionaries movement called for
:03:09. > :03:13.some sort of strike. So it was a very bad Christmas in Cuba. Because
:03:14. > :03:21.there were no celebrations. Nobody was going out, there were no
:03:22. > :03:27.parties. So on December 31, we went to bed early. We didn't even wait
:03:28. > :03:31.for the new year. And sometime around 3am or 4am in the morning, I
:03:32. > :03:38.heard the phone ringing. My father worked up, and he said... He spoke,
:03:39. > :03:44.obviously, and then he turned to all of us who had woken up, and said
:03:45. > :03:49.Batista has left. With Batista in flight to the Dominican Republic,
:03:50. > :03:52.the celebrating soon turns to mob action and looting. Gambling
:03:53. > :03:57.machines get the axe. Rebel fighters, fresh from the battlefield
:03:58. > :04:01.in central Cuba, pour into the capital to impose martial law and
:04:02. > :04:04.quell the rioting. Most of the military installations, facilities,
:04:05. > :04:17.in Havana were taken over without a shot. The guys surrendered. Fidel
:04:18. > :04:26.Castro took eight days to arrive in Havana. He arrived in Havana on
:04:27. > :04:30.January eight. Some of my friends started to criticise the
:04:31. > :04:38.revolution, that it was too radical. They started to criticise
:04:39. > :04:46.the presence of the communists. Between 1959 and 1961, all my
:04:47. > :04:54.friends at school, all my cousins, all my uncles and aunts, left. You
:04:55. > :05:01.know, my sense in those years, when the revolution took over, initially
:05:02. > :05:05.I expected things to go well. I didn't expect the United States to
:05:06. > :05:14.take such a hard line on Cuba. I knew there was going to be a
:05:15. > :05:17.negative reaction. What -- but I didn't expect things to turn around
:05:18. > :05:21.so badly. Although much of his family did leave Cuba, Carlos
:05:22. > :05:26.stayed. Today he lives here in Havana where he is a writer and
:05:27. > :05:31.academic. Next we are taking you back to 1996 when a group of veteran
:05:32. > :05:36.Cuban musicians recorded an album that became an overnight sensation.
:05:37. > :05:39.The musicians and their traditional Cuban songs have been virtually
:05:40. > :05:46.forgotten but the album made them unlikely global superstars. Our next
:05:47. > :09:00.witness is one of the original members of Buena Vista Social Club.
:09:01. > :09:06.And now, please welcome, from Havana, it is the Buena Vista Social
:09:07. > :09:24.Club! APPLAUSE
:09:25. > :09:36.Our third witness this month is Juan Carlo Montez. Juan Carlo Montez is
:09:37. > :09:39.something of a pioneer. In 1993 he defied the Communist authorities to
:09:40. > :09:44.open one of the first-ever privately owned restaurants in Cuba. The time
:09:45. > :09:46.massive Soviet aid to the island had dried up and Cubans were forced to
:09:47. > :13:20.find new ways to make a living. Juan Carlos Montes, speaking to us
:13:21. > :13:24.from his home in Havana, where he now rents rooms to tourists.
:13:25. > :13:29.Remember, you can watch our round-up of history every month on the BBC
:13:30. > :13:32.News Channel or scroll through outback catalogue of radio
:13:33. > :13:39.programmes at our online archive. Just go to the website. These days,
:13:40. > :13:43.relations have thawed between the old atmospherics, Cuba and the
:13:44. > :13:48.United States. And the sight of Americans on the streets of Havana
:13:49. > :13:51.doesn't attract much attention. But back in the late 1990s, a baseball
:13:52. > :13:58.game between the Cuban national side and the US major league team was a
:13:59. > :17:41.huge event. Our next witness, Enrique Diaz, played in that match.
:17:42. > :17:48.Another example of the power of soft diplomacy through sport. Bringing
:17:49. > :17:52.together old foes. And finally to the elegant world of ballet. In
:17:53. > :17:58.recent years some the most exciting dancers have come from Cuba, and
:17:59. > :18:04.that is largely down to the work of the remarkable work of Alysia
:18:05. > :18:06.Alonso. She said at the company over 60 years ago and spoke to us from
:18:07. > :18:12.her beautiful office in her 60 years ago and spoke to us from
:18:13. > :20:06.her beautiful office in -- Havana. Immediately following the revolution
:20:07. > :20:11.in 1959, Alicia Alonso and her first husband, were given the money and
:20:12. > :21:58.support to fund a national ballet company of Cuba.
:21:59. > :22:06.That magnificent prima ballerina still very much a dancer at heart.
:22:07. > :22:10.That is if this special edition of witness coming from Cuba. Remember
:22:11. > :22:15.to watch Tanya Beckett next month and she will be back in the British
:22:16. > :22:18.library in London bringing you fight for witnesses and more history
:22:19. > :22:25.through the eyes of the people who were there. From me, will grant in
:22:26. > :22:28.her -- Havana, goodbye.