Fidel Castro and the Deli

November 11, 2004

As I was sit­ting in the deli café the other day, wait­ing for my order to arrive, I casu­ally glanced at my sur­round­ings, breath­ing in the details. To my right a cou­ple sat qui­etly munch­ing on their Buf­falo turkey wraps car­ry­ing on a con­ver­sa­tion in whis­per. The wait­ress, a patient young woman who looked to be in her mid-20s silently wiped the front counter clean, and then she smiled faintly and retreated to the kitchen.

Towards the front of the store my eyes care­fully scanned each cus­tomer as they entered the deli. It’s in this moment that I reflect about the appear­ances of human beings. It’s true that as humans we all come in dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes, much like any­thing – like fruit for instance. Today I saw all sorts of apples, oranges, bananas and toma­toes – those peo­ple who pass as both a fruit and a vegetable.

For a moment I looked away for cer­tain that my food was on its way and nat­u­rally this being a casual ser­vice deli it wasn’t. When I looked towards the front of the store again I noticed that unbe­knownst to me Fidel Cas­tro had entered the build­ing and was pay­ing for his Dr. Pep­per. In that moment I thought, “Would Fidel actu­ally drink Dr. Pep­per or would he pre­fer Coca-Cola or a Pepsi?” (Mike thinks he’d drink Iron­beer). Despite my pon­der­ings, there he was, Fidel Cas­tro, at the Big Mini Mart in Rochester, New York. 

15 comments

Fidel would drink Iron­beer, Cuba’s finest non­al­co­holic beverage.

The can reads, “On a sum­mers after­noon, in 1917 a mule-drawn, wooden wagon arrived at a pop­u­lar cafe­te­ria in Havana, Cuba. It deliv­ered the first four cases of a new soft drink that would soon be called ‘The National Bev­er­age’. Now more than 80 years later, Iron­beer is still enjoyed for its refresh­ing fla­vor with just a hint of island spices. A lot can change over the years — but not the orig­i­nal fla­vor of Ironbeer!”

by Mike on November 11, 2004 at 1:06 pm. Reply #

Was he limping?

by Charlie on November 11, 2004 at 1:16 pm. Reply #

Was he on crutches?

by beto on November 11, 2004 at 4:53 pm. Reply #

I actu­ally just hap­pen to have a 2 liter of Iron­beer sit­ting on my desk, go figure.

Yes, I drink the stuff. This bot­tle just hap­pens to remain unopened. I have been drink­ing it, once and a while, since my youth. The taste is unique, but not really off the wall weird. If you find some in the Latin gro­cery store, try it.

by Mike on November 11, 2004 at 5:09 pm. Reply #

You’ve been drink­ing from that same bot­tle since your youth? ;) Of course, I’m jok­ing, but I wouldn’t put it past any­one. Espe­cially after see­ing the Totally Obessed episode on the Mr. T mer­chan­dise col­lec­tors and show­ing them both eat­ing from a 20 year old box of Mr. T cereal.

The next time I’m brows­ing through a Latin gro­cery store, which will inci­den­tally be my first time, I’ll be sure to pick it up.

Great Flickr photo, by the way!

by kartooner on November 11, 2004 at 5:18 pm. Reply #

Char­lie and Beto: No, but I think he might have been wear­ing a Stussy shirt.

by kartooner on November 11, 2004 at 5:21 pm. Reply #

You’ve been drink­ing from that same bot­tle since your youth?

Yeah! :-D I use an eye­drop­per. Fewer calo­ries that way.

You hon­estly had me crack­ing up with that smart remark.

by Mike on November 11, 2004 at 5:26 pm. Reply #

Deli? .…man, you’ve gone N.Y. son! Good funny arti­cle, I liked it. So maybe one of these days you can give me a call, or bet­ter yet sent me the pic­tures of ‘Z’ that you promised, her in the Hol­loween outfit?

We love you, call us when you fin­ish you sandwhich.…Banana Boy.

by Dad on November 11, 2004 at 10:41 pm. Reply #

Did he have a big lump on his head? :P

by Matt Burris on November 12, 2004 at 11:53 pm. Reply #

Man, ol’ Cas­tro will NEVER live that one down, will he? Some­one told me that he was in New York try­ing to get on TRL…

by Chris on November 16, 2004 at 11:35 am. Reply #

great!!!!

by Cousteau on November 17, 2004 at 2:57 pm. Reply #

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/reporters.htm

See pic­ture, top-right.

by Rory on September 19, 2005 at 8:20 pm. Reply #

I am beside myself after see­ing this dis­play. I have worked for Iron­beer Soft Drink, Inc. for the past 10 years. I am a Cuban-American and can assure you that by the time Fidel reached his power in Cuba there was absolutely no Iron­beer left to drink in that coun­try. Our com­pany sig­ni­fies what the Amer­i­can dream really is, only proven bet­ter done by a Cuban. It is a dis­grace to see this communist’s face on our main item.

by tery on December 8, 2005 at 3:02 pm. Reply #

tery: I’ll remove the image after rethink­ing the fact that this might (and has) offended peo­ple. Sorry for the con­fu­sion, but regard­less, I do appre­ci­ate your opin­ion on the mat­ter and respect it wholeheartedly.

by kartooner on December 8, 2005 at 5:18 pm. Reply #

Kar­tooner:

Thank you so much for your con­sid­er­a­tion. It is the best best Christ­mas gift I could have received. A friend brought this to my atten­tion & I am very pleased.

Teresa Tru­jillo
VP Oper­a­tions
Iron­beer Soft Drink, Inc.

by tery on December 25, 2005 at 3:39 pm. Reply #

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