CUBA: Good Will

Flying a stripped-down P-51, Pilot Woodrow (“Woody”) Edmondson had rushed the gift from Washington to Havana in a record-breaking 3½ hours. A palace photographer was on hand to snap the presentation — of a fine 15-lb. ham from Virginia’s Governor William Tuck to Cuba’s President Ramón Grau San Martín. Unwittingly, Virginia’s Tuck had given Habaneros their joke of the month.

When Cubans want to say a politician has been grafting, they say esta en el jamón—he’s in the ham. That was why last week’s picture of Grau receiving the Virginia ham was good for Page One of Prensa Libre. Other papers and the radio joined the fun. So did Grau himself. Said he to his friend Congressman Primitivo Rodriguez: “Primitivo, I’ll give you a good slice.”