Searching for the MERCEDES (la Cubana, no la Uruguaya)

Would greatly appreciate your putting me in touch with Ani Mestre. I was the unwitting guest of her father´s apàrtment in Havana the year I was compelled to leave my job as the Latin American diplomatic correspondent of the United Press in order to take over the UP bureau in Havana. Because I was friendly with the German Ambassador in Washington I somehow got to ´rent´the apartment of a (West) German diplomat in Havana (something like Baumann) which turned out to be owned by Ani Mestre s father in the Edificio Foxa. (a.k.a. Edificio Coño).




Oddly, when I was able to rent my own apartment, I took with me (´borrowed` should be a more approrpriate term) two books in German: Rororo Tucholsky and Das Raederwerk of J.P. Sartre). When several months later, after I telephoned the first ´bulletin´of the Bay of Pigs landings to UP in New York, a ´scoop´ that led to my immediate incarcertation at the Quinta y Catorce, I stuffed both books into my jacket pockets and was able to take them with me to read in the already´óverbooked´ cell.



However, almost 50 years later I still remember what an extraordinary comfort I drew from reading and rereading these books. They allowed me to retain something of a psychic compass in an otherwise distressing situation. They underscored, in a very literary way, the surreal quality of my imprisonment: a German boy who had been forced to emigrate his country for being a Jew and who becomes a UP foreign correspondent in Washington where he is widely identified with democratic movements in Latin America, and even accused by some far right dictaros of being in league with the Communists, is suddenly accused of being a CIA agent.



The experienced underscored once more Gabo´s insight: Latin America is clearly the land of Realismo Magico. Of course, so is the U.S. That is why we live in Washington, D.C. Anyhow, I would very much appreciate your sending this message to Ms. Mestre and to put me in touch directly with her. Many thanks,



Henry Raymont