Esther Batista Curiel, granddaughter of Fulgencio Batista and a Spanish citizen with Cuban roots, revealed in an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba why she is the only member of her family willing to speak publicly: the rest, she says, have been worn down by decades of attacks on their grandfather and have succumbed to fear.
"The only one who has spoken since my father died is me. No one wants to. No one," Esther stated emphatically in the excerpt of the interview recorded on May 20, 2026, Cuban Independence Day.
The explanation provided is as simple as it is painful: "They are tired of all the horrors that have been said about my grandfather, they are exhausted, they have also lived in fear, and I believe they have already thrown in the towel. They now think: well, why should I keep trying to tell the historical truths when we have been trying for all these years and it is impossible?"
Esther acknowledges that her family has always been "in second place," outside of media attention, and that now it is her turn to assume that role: "Now it's my turn, and I'm doing my best to carry on my father's legacy."
The emotional core of his words is the trauma experienced by his father, Roberto «Bobby» Batista Fernández, who arrived in New York on December 30, 1958 at just 11 years old, believing he was going for a Christmas vacation, along with his brother Fulgencio and his mother.
Esther describes that moment with an image that feels particularly close to her: "Just imagine: I have an 11-year-old son now, and I picture that child on a plane arriving in New York and people insulting him, while the poor kid is looking around as if to say, 'But I came here to see the Christmas trees.' They’re just children, after all."
That initial blow marked Bobby for life, something Esther fully understood when she read the memoir her father published in 2021, titled Hijo de Batista: “Once I read the book, I understood all the trauma and everything my father had told me about exile.”
According to what he recounted in the interview, Bobby Batista would shudder upon hearing a Cuban accent and would get nervous when his last name was pronounced during a medical consultation.
Bobby passed away in Madrid on January 12, 2022 at the age of 74 due to cancer, leaving Esther as the only public voice willing to advocate for the legacy of Fulgencio Batista against the narrative imposed by the Castro regime for over six decades.
Despite being born and raised in Spain, Esther asserts her Cuban identity with ease: "I clearly feel Cuban as well, since I am the daughter of Cubans."
Describe how in his home Cuban food was cooked by his great-grandmother, how he tries to pass it on to his 11-year-old son, and how that dual identity—Spanish by birth, Cuban by heritage—defines who he is.
The interview took place on the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice formally charged Raúl Castro with four murders related to the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes on February 24, 1996, in which Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales lost their lives.
Regarding that accusation, Esther was straightforward: "It was a great day. Moreover, yesterday was Cuban Independence Day, making it an even more significant date, and I believe it is time, it is time for Raúl Castro and the Castro family to face justice."
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