For months, Francisca Pupo lived quietly and anonymously in a gated condo complex, harboring a secret she preferred to keep: Fidel Castro, the most hated man in Miami, is her father.
On Wednesday, the secret was out. Juanita Castro, the Cuban dictator’s estranged sister, confirmed that Pupo is Castro’s daughter and she and her husband joined Miami’s large exile community about two years ago, after winning a U.S. visa.
But Juanita Castro, a pharmacist who moved to Miami in 1964, was reluctant to say more about her niece, Castro’s second known daughter.
“It is true that she is his daughter,” Juanita Castro said. “She has been here. She is a very private person, the kind that doesn’t want publicity. She doesn’t want to tell anything against her father. That’s it.”
Castro’s other known daughter, Alina Fernandez, said she understands why Pupo, a day-care worker, has chosen to keep mum. She suspects her half-sister shares her opinion about the man Fernandez condemned as a torturer and terrorist after escaping Cuba in disguise eight years ago.
“What the hell are you doing in Miami if you like the regime?” Fernandez said. “Everybody is afraid about saying the truth about the regime. She has all the right to be afraid.”
Fernandez, who moved to Miami from Spain on Tuesday, said she was surprised to learn about Pupo. She knows she has seven brothers but thought she was the only female among Castro’s offspring.
“I never heard about her, not even a rumor, which is amazing,” Fernandez said. “I’d like to meet her. If it’s true, I have a half-sister.”
Pupo’s existence was first revealed in the current issue of Talk magazine by contributing editor Ann Louise Bardach, who has written extensively about Cuba and interviewed Castro. Her source was Lazaro Asencio, 75, a former Castro confidant now living in Miami.
Asencio told Bardach that Pupo was conceived in the backseat of his car, which Castro borrowed while visiting him in Santa Clara in 1952.
“I learned that later he put [his brother] Raul in charge to take care of the little girl; he organized parties for her. He gave her a good home in Santa Clara. … Now she’s here in Miami,” Asencio told Bardach.
Just how many other children, and for that matter, love interests, Castro has had has long been a subject of intense speculation. His private life is a well-guarded secret. In fact, Tuesday marked the first time that Cuba-watchers in Miami can remember Cuba’s tightly controlled state TV filming Castro with the woman with whom he is widely thought to have fathered five sons.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said the camera followed Dalia Soto del Valle as she walked into a conference for Pioneers, Cuba’s communist youth organization, in Havana and kissed EliM-an GonzM-alez.
“The camera wasn’t on EliM-an,” Garcia said. “It followed Dalia as if Castro was introducing her as his wife. Why? There are two theories. One, that he is dying and wants to legitimize his family. Or two, she is playing a greater role.”
Garcia said Castro’s extended family is ever-growing in Miami. He said Soto del Valle’s sister lives here, as does a daughter of one of Castro and Soto del Valle’s five sons. She would be Castro’s granddaughter.
Staff Writer Madeline BarM-s Diaz contributed to this report.
Maya Bell can be reached at or 305-810-5003.
