Revolutionary Spectacle: Fidel Castro in Allende’s Chile, November 10–December 4, 1971

In November 1971, Fidel Castro began a month-long tour of Chile in the midst of the South American country’s experiment with socialism under Salvador Allende.  The two leaders were close friends, and soon after taking office, Allende had restored diplomatic relations with the island nation. When Fidel left for Chile, however, the Cuban Revolution was at a crossroads. The radical experimental phase had ended and a pragmatic phase marked by growing dependency on the Soviet Union had not fully consolidated. Chile offered the world an alternative model that departed from the Cuban Revolution’s narrative of armed struggle. Extant historiography portrays the trip as a success for Castro, particularly as a show of support for Allende’s electoral socialism sent a message of compliance to Moscow. Meanwhile, the visit produced more mixed results for Salvador Allende, who faced a reinvigorated domestic opposition in the years ahead.

Drawing on this year’s AHA theme of scales of history, my paper examines how Fidel Castro’s position at home was mediated through his international celebrity. In an examination of the domestic implications of foreign state visits, I analyze the state-controlled press coverage of the 1971 trip. The Cuban press effectively downplayed the novelty of Chile’s socialist experiment by portraying the visit as an unqualified Cuban triumph against U.S. imperialism and as evidence of the Cuban Revolution’s continuing vanguard status for Latin American revolutionary struggles. Through a close reading of the discursive and visual narrative created for domestic audiences, I argue that the spectacle of Chilean crowds served to stand in for the mass support Cuban crowds had once given freely. In sum, the trip served to bolster Fidel’s power at home at a pivotal moment in the Cuban Revolution and transformed Allende’s Chile into Fidel’s.