[NYTr] "Castro caps" are all the fad in Cuba

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters via Yahoo - Sep 21, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070921/wl_nm/cuba_castro_cap_dc

Castro caps all the fad in Cuba

By Esteban Israel 

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro may have dropped out of
sight, but his trademark green military cap is everywhere.

Nearly 49 years after Castro's socialist revolution, the Fidel cap is
selling like hot cakes to tourists visiting Cuba, and more and more
young Cubans are also snatching them up, in fashion statement that has
little to do with politics.

"People should be able wear these hats as a tribute to Fidel Castro.
He's a national hero. It's a tribute to a Cuban icon," said Scottish
politician Jim McGovern, a member of the British Parliament, strolling
through a Havana arts and crafts market.

The emblematic caps bought by tourists to take home as mementos of
their trip to Cuba usually have red stars on the front, a symbol of
revolutionary socialism. Others have an image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara,
the Argentine-born guerrilla who fought alongside Castro in the
revolution.

It was then that Castro first began to wear the brimmed cloth cap --
with no braid or emblems -- with his austere military fatigues. But
fashion was the last thing on his mind as he led an armed uprising
against U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

When Castro triumphantly entered Havana in January of 1959, after
Batista fled the country, he began giving out the caps as presents to
his supporters.

Guevara acquired cult status after his death at the hands of the
Bolivian army in 1967 and images of "Che" have long been used on
everything from T-shirts to Swatch watches.

But in Havana the Fidel cap is now edging out Guevara's choice
headgear, the black beret with a star.

Castro's olive-green cap was modeled on U.S. army caps of the 1950s,
which themselves were not new. German tank crews used them in the
Afrika Corps during World War II and elsewhere when fighting in hot
weather, said Canadian military historian Hal Klepak, an expert on the
Cuban armed forces.

Until emergency intestinal surgery forced Castro to hand power to his
brother Raul in July 2006, Castro appeared in public wearing the hat
for his long and frequent speeches.

Castro gave Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona one of the caps after
he led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup, and another in 2001 when the
soccer great was in Cuba recovering from a cocaine addiction. Maradona
boasts tattoos of both Castro and Che Guevara.

Havana hat-seller Ramon Alvarez said Cuban youth have set the trend and
visitors are following.

"The hats are in fashion because young people use them. And you see
many Cubans in the street with the hats and berets on -- something you
didn't see much a few years ago," he said. The headgear sells for the
equivalent of $3.50 in Cuban markets.

Some Cuban youth make a point of disassociating their green caps from
Castro's socialist politics by stitching tags of major brands like
Adidas, Puma and Tommy Hilfiger, symbols of the capitalist consumer
society criticized by Castro.

"It is the Fidel cap, but done our way. It's the fashion now. We get
hold of the caps and then decorate them ourselves. If you brought me
one of the New York Yankees, I'd be just as happy," said Yoandry, 13,
sitting on a curb in Old Havana.

His cap had a Puma logo sewn on. Others have labels from old shirts,
trousers, shoes or other imported clothes items.