Juan Almeida Bosque

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Cuban vice-president who fought alongside Castro and Guevara

When Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and a ragtag band of revolutionaries trundled victoriously into Havana on 8 January 1959, Juan Almeida's was the only black face at the head of their convoy. To the majority of the Cuban capital's residents - poor, black or mulatto (mixed race) - the sight of a black man in one of the leading jeeps was a comforting signal that the revolution would finally give them a voice.

Almeida was one of 80 revolutionaries who had sailed from Mexico to Cuba with Castro and Guevara in December 1956 on board a rickety motor boat, the Granma, to launch the revolution. He was one of …