Fidel Castro's Cuba full of his offspring after years of womanising by El Commandante

[snopes]

Fidel Castro, Cuba's long-standing dictator, has fathered at least 10 children by a string of women, according to a new book.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...mmandante.html

[Tarquin Farquart]

Is Cuba so small that 10 children would fill the country?

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Is Cuba so small that 10 children would fill the country?

Oh indeed. My stepdaughter has visited Cuba several times in the last few years* and every time she had to camp out on an inflatable boat anchored just off the shore, it is that full. **

*True.
**Not true.

[Just Jocko]

Quite honestly, I think 10 is a conservative guess. When I lived on Guantanamo (1969-70) in first grade, even I was aware of what the Cuban help said about him. It was rumored that he had a couple of kids on the side even then.

Still not enough to populate the entire side of the island, but a lot more than 10, I'd say.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Just Jocko

Still not enough to populate the entire side of the island, but a lot more than 10, I'd say.

But surely some of those children are old enough to have offspring of their own (perhaps more than one generation) by now.

[MisterGrey]

Originally Posted by snopes

But surely some of those children are old enough to have offspring of their own (perhaps more than one generation) by now.

This is what I thought the article was getting at. Castro's been in power for 50 years. Presuming he started "working on" his bloodline the same year, he could conceivably have 49-48 year old children, themselves old enough to be parents and, depending on the time they themselves had children, grandparents. This is, of course, presuming that Castro only went gigolo when he became Prime Minister. He was already 36/37 at that time, and would have had plenty of time to begin producing progeny beforehand. So, presuming he became sexually active at, say, 20 (permitting for the fact that he was born to a Catholic family in a more socially conservative time), Castro's eldest theoretical children would be in their sixties now, making them potential great-grandparents. Taking into account that each of these theoretical children/grandchildren may well have had multiple children of their own, it isn't hard to reasonably consider that Castro may have offspring in the dozens (or, if his male descendants have the same alleged penchants, maybe even 100+)

And this isn't even taking into account the nine/ten/eleven kids we know he has.

[Just Jocko]

Originally Posted by snopes

But surely some of those children are old enough to have offspring of their own (perhaps more than one generation) by now.

Oh, I suspect he's a great-granfather several times over. But at least some of the offspring do not live in Cuba (IIRC, he's got at least 2 or 3 kids who live in the US and Europe). And considering that the article only really talks about those children sired by Cuban women....