Fidel Castro welcomed by crowds, shunned by politicians during 1959 visit
MONTREAL — The route from the airport to his Montreal hotel was supposed to be a secret, but Fidel Castro wouldn’t stay in the car.
He kept saying “stop, stop, my people, my people,” recalled Claude Dupras, who helped to arrange Castro’s brief visit to the city in 1959.
Somehow the word had gotten out, and the newly-established Cuban leader insisted on stopping the car three times to shake hands with the crowds who lined the streets, often over the heads of the nervous police officers trying to keep him safe.
“He wanted to meet everyone, he wanted to shake their hands,” said Dupras, now a retired engineer.