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CNN Live At Daybreak

Cuban Exile Radio Show in Miami Catching a Lot of Attention

Aired April 26, 2002 - 05:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A Cuban exile radio show in Miami is catching a lot of attention. It feeds the audience's desire to bash Cuban leader Fidel Castro. But that's not the only draw.

As CNN's Mark Potter reports, the host of the show has a connection to the Cuban president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is after midnight and Cuban exile radio is still going strong in Miami. This show, simply Alina, with host Alina Fernandez, features music, history and, of course, in Miami, Cuban politics and Fidel Castro, all in Spanish. As can be expected, most of the discussion is critical of the Cuban leader. What makes it unusual is that Alina Fernandez is Fidel Castro's daughter, living in exile.

ALINA FERNANDEZ, FIDEL CASTRO'S DAUGHTER: I try not to refer to him as a father.

POTTER: Because?

FERNANDEZ: He is a chief of state. He is still the Cuban capo and that's the way I see him.

POTTER (on camera): You don't see him at all really as your father?

FERNANDEZ: I try not to.

POTTER (voice-over): Alina is the product of an adulteress relationship between Castro and a Cuban socialite. Alina was age 10 when she was told their frequent visitor was actually her father.

FERNANDEZ: At the beginning of the revolution he went to visit the house. He gave me a little this guy as himself, with a beard and, you know, the stars.

POTTER (on camera): The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on his shoulders, yes?

FERNANDEZ: Yes.

POTTER: He gave you a doll of himself?

FERNANDEZ: Yes. I didn't know what to do with a baby doll with a beard so.

POTTER: So what did you do?

FERNANDEZ: I began to pull the hairs out.

POTTER (voice-over): As she got older, Alina worked as a model, rejected the Cuban revolution and became a dissident. She hasn't spoken to Castro in nearly 20 years, saying he is no longer a dictator, but a tyrant.

FERNANDEZ: I think that deeply on him what happens is that he despises the Cuban country and the Cuban people.

POTTER (on camera): He despises them?

FERNANDEZ: That's what I think.

POTTER (voice-over): In 1993, Alina came to the U.S. after fleeing Cuba disguised as a Spanish tourist. She wrote a book, spoke at protest rallies and testified before the Senate against sending Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba. Now, she is on the air in the middle of the night.

(on camera): What if a call came in and it was Fidel Castro? What would you say to him?

FERNANDEZ: Jesus, I don't know. That would surprise me enough.

POTTER: But if it were to happen, I know it's unlikely, what would you say?

FERNANDEZ: I don't know.

POTTER (voice-over): What Alina does know is that Miami and its rhythms are home now. She wishes her father would bring democracy to Cuba, but for that she has little hope.

Mark Potter, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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