Book Fair Remembers Encounter between Fidel and Malcolm X

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 16 (acn) The presentation of the book entitled "Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of an Encounter" by US writer Rosemary Mealy was held on Monday at Havana's San Carlos de la Cabana.

The book which recalls the meeting between both leaders 56 years ago in the United States is part of the 15 th International Book Fair underway in Havana. The writer and journalist confessed the motivations that inspired her to begin over three decades ago a research on the dialog between the leader of the Cuban Revolution and the US African American revolutionary leader.

Translated into Spanish for the first time the text is a compilation of testimonies of journalists, activists and members of the two delegations that participated in the historic event on September 19th, 1960 in New York's Hotel Teresa.

Rosemary Mealy, close friend of Cuba and former member of the US Venceremos Working Brigade said that her research was part of a growing interest of a number of Cuban academics and intellectuals in the 1990's of learning about the legacy and work of Malcolm X.

After a symposium sponsored by Casa de las Americas Cultural Institution to exchange ideas and opinions of the African American civil rights leader, we, said Mealy, discovered that one of the most curious aspects was the meeting between Fidel and Malcolm.

After the conclusion of the symposium with the presence of intellectuals and academics, Fidel approached us to offer his impressions of that historic meeting that was evidence of the profound vocation and socialist tendencies of Malcolm X, she said.

Mealy said since that symposium her goal was to return to the US to do research to find people that collaborated and witnessed that dialog between two young revolutionary leaders; and this gave me the opportunity of interviewing close to 30 people of the time.

Rosemary Mealy arrived to the book fair full of emotions because her dream was to be able to translate her book to recall the moment that served as a bridge between the Cuban people and the African American movement in the US, she stressed.

Before concluding, Mealy ratified that Fidel and Malcolm X..., contributes in learning the history of both peoples and maintain it alive with the objective of preparing for a better future.