ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

QUESTION Why is there a life-sized bronze statue of John Lennon in Havana?

When The Beatles appeared on America’s The ed Sullivan Show in 1963, they sparked a global phenomenon.

Only communist Cuba resisted Beatlemania. Believing the Fab Four were the epitome of consumerism, ‘ideological diversionism’ and decadent American influence during a time of Revolution, Fidel Castro banned their music in 1964. A black market trade in The Beatles records quickly sprang up.

Years later, Castro made a complete volte-face. The assassinated John Lennon was re-imagined as a political dissident hounded by the U.S. government and a revolutionary dedicated to emancipating the working class.

In honour of this, his statue was unveiled on December 8, 2000, the 20th anniversary of his murder, in Parque John Lennon in the Vedado district of havana.

The unveiling was celebrated with an open-air concert of The Beatles and Lennon songs by various acts.

The statue, by Jose Villa Soberon, captures Lennon in his long-haired, antiwar activism years reclining on a park bench. On a marble tile at the foot of the bench there is a inscription in Spanish, which translates as ‘You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,’ which are lyrics from Lennon’s song Imagine.

Lennon’s famous circular rimmed glasses have been stolen from the staue so often that an attendant now stands nearby holding a pair, poised to place them on the statue’s face whenever tourists want to take a photo. Hillary Dutton, Leeds.