quote...

14:19 Feb 24, 2012 

As I see it, all versions in the internet directly related to the English version (or the Pathfinder Mural) are likely to be back translations. I don't think someone made it up, though it is certainly possible. But it's more plausible that someone adapted an original phrase that didn't have the same exact meaning, to make it sound better. Therefore, we shouldn't look for translations but for original quotes that are more or less close in meaning. I just hoped someone would be familiar with Castro's quotes but I guess I was being overoptimistic...

22:09 Feb 23, 2012 

One thing to remember is that Castro's vernacular Spanish is likely to be very "Cuban" and that may be why we've had a rough time trying to find his exact quote; I spent part of my childhood in Miami and the Cubans have their own very particular way of expressing things; just a thought.
Saludos from Acapulco,
eski :))

22:04 Feb 23, 2012 

There is something very suspicious about this quotation, and it makes you wonder whether Castro ever said it. If he did, it seems very strange that it is not quoted in Spanish anywhere else on the Internet, and indeed the only two Spanish versions we've found both look like back translations from the English. You can't help suspecting that this is a quotation someone made up in English and then attributed to Castro. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing has happened. In which case, the reason why it is so difficult to find the Spanish original would be that it doesn't exist.

22:03 Feb 23, 2012 

Thanks for your comments and thanks for your explanation.
eski :))

21:56 Feb 23, 2012 

I know it looks as though I've applied a double standard in my comments, but it just seemed to me, at first sight, that the version quoted in El Militante could be Castro's actual words, whereas the one in the Candanguero blog was very unlikely to be. I've indicated some of the reasons below. The blog page is in a mixture of English and Spanish, and the Spanish is pretty bad. It's about the Pathfinder mural in which the quotation appears in English, which makes it seem very likely that it's translated from there, particularly since it is very literal.

The "well found" comment, to be honest, was simply based on the fact that I didn't manage to find it myself! I spent some time looking, and did find the Candanguero blog, but decided not to post it, because I really don't believe the Spanish version given there is genuine.

However, I must admit, having looked at the Militante source more closely, that it is definitely a translation of an English original, so the Spanish version of the quotation given there, which Pat has posted, is almost certainly a translation too. It's just better translated, in my opinion, than the other one.