Fidel Castro wore clothes made in Contramaestre

Cuban leader Fidel Castro wore clothes made in Contramaestre, during his trip in the Freedom Caravan to Havana, days after the revolutionary triumph on January 1, 1959. The garments were made in a humble tailoring shop in this municipality in the East of Cuba, known as ” Creaciones Pantoja”.

The tailor’s shop located on the left side of Hotel Pérez, in Contramaestre, in front of the Carretera Central de Cuba, from east to west of the island. It was specialized in the making of gentlemen’s wear. It had a recognized logo and very well appreciated for its production quality.

The owner was Mr. Osmán Pantoja Jiménez, a man who supported the insurgents of the 26 de Julio Movement with resources and who went up to the Sierra Maestra three times to take Fidel Castro’s sizes, to sew his clothes, have him try them on and deliver them to him, according to the orders. The author of this chronicle spoke with one of Osmán’s daughters, Rosa María Pantoja, about the whole issue of clothing for Fidel.

The green olive for Fidel was sewn in the early hours of the morning; Osmán was accompanied on the job by one of the seven employees whom he completely trusted. During the day, the cloth was buried in the yard of the tailor’s shop to avoid surprises that endangered the lives of the workers, the family and especially Osman.

One of his daughters, Rosa María, told me: “if you look for the land behind the house next to the shop on the ground floor of the Hotel Pérez, you may find traces of threads and pieces of cloth”.

Osmán’s house was one of the underground places where “large boxes of medicine were received every Tuesday and taken to “la Sierra” every Wednesday morning, every week. Rosa tells me that “one Sunday there came from Havana, 5 or 6 Batista agents, at 5 a.m., and they made the four of us sit down (daddy, with me in his lap; mommy, with my sister in hers), and they didn’t let us move until they finished, at night. They were looking for the medicines.

They just had the wrong day. When they left, having the house completely turned upside down, my mother looked for a photograph of Fidel hidden in the bottom of a drawer; “they didn’t find it, otherwise they would have killed us”.

Emotionally Rosa María tells me: “My life is entangled in that revolution and my family fought tooth and nail. My aunts went to Santiago with bullet carriers around their hips and wide skirts on top. Then Batista banned the wearing of those skirts and they could only be worn tight.

The fervor for Fidel Castro was part of the daily life of the families, Osmán’s did not escape that magnetization; according to Rosa María “the Cuban who did not fight for Fidel was a Batista man. Fidel stood for the hope of a just government that would not steal; the hope of a people longing for justice.

In July 1961 the Revolutionary Government intervened ” Creaciones Pantoja” and froze the family’s bank accounts; nevertheless they remained on the island for six years, until they understood that they could no longer live in their native land; they did not accept the new changes; and decided to emigrate.

At the end of our conversation, Rosa told me with emotion: “Very few people know that the clothes worn by Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra and with which he entered Havana dressed, as part of the Victory Caravan, were sewn by my father Osmán Pantoja Jiménez, a man from Maffo, main promoter of “Creaciones Pantoja” in Contramaestre, a tailoring shop of national fame”.