Former Pitt professor describes childhood friendship with Fidel Castro

Cuban-Americans celebrated in the streets of Miami when Fidel Castro's death was announced, while many government officials condemned him.

But that's not the man Jose Moreno knew. A retired University of Pittsburgh professor, Moreno went to the same Cuban high school as Castro.

“Fidel Castro was different. When he came to power, he was doing things for all Cubans,” Moreno said.

Years before he would take control of the island nation, Moreno said “everyone” looked up to him.

“The students adored him. He was the best in all of the sports,” Moreno said.

Moreno was studying in Europe when the Cuban Revolution began.

He returned to see his country change in 1959 before permanently moving to the U.S. and eventually settling in Pittsburgh.

Castro and Moreno met again in 1978, when Moreno and several other Cuban-Americans were invited to help negotiate the release of political prisoners.

Moreno believes descriptions of Castro as a ruthless dictator are exaggerated, and the good he did for the Cuban people outweighs the bad.

“With the unemployed, with the uneducated, with the peasants in the countryside, those were the people he really tried to help,” he said.

That is clearly a view many Cuban-Americans don't share as evidenced by the celebrations in the streets of Miami when Castro died.

Moreno, however, will remember him as a good leader who did what was best for Cuba.

“I feel proud that I knew him and that I supported him," he said.

Cox Media Group