Alfism
Fidel's Alpha?
28 NOVEMBER, 2016

No judgment of historical-political merit, but we certainly cannot leave in silence the death of Fidel Castro, who in this photo we see sitting in an Alfa Romeo 1750 (we do not know if it was his, but we like to think so).

Cuba has been described by Quattroruote magazine as "an open-air car museum" and indeed memory runs fast to a 1950s atmosphere, with many American cars symbolizing a licentious Cuba she had known under Batista's dictatorship, a period of exasperated fun. Fidel Castro's entry into Havana in a Jeep in January '59 was an emblematic declaration of intent.

Another important act of demonstration was the kidnapping of the driver Juan Manuel Fangio who won the Formula One World Championship in 1951 with Alfa Romeo. A year which, however, marked Alfa Romeo's retirement from racing, after the splendid results of the post-war period, he passed the baton to Ferrari not before having given the go-ahead to the Alfa Romeo 159, following an error in the choice of tyres. Fangio also won a second place at the Mille Miglia with an Alfa Romeo 6C, even though only one of the front wheels responded to the steering controls in the final part of the race.

The Alfetta with which Fangio will win the world championship in 1970.

The rapimentation of Fangio by the "barbudos", that is, Fidel's guerrillas, was a symbolic act, a declaration of a clear break with the times of pomp and circumstance where motor racing had great social and economic importance. The 50's were unquestionably outdated, leaving room for Castro's revolution.

In 1970, 50 Alfa Romeo cars were also imported into Cuba, who knows if one of them is not a Lider Maximo.