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What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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Hello and welcome to Witness the History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Mike Lanchin. Today I'm taking you back to January of 1959 when left-wing

guerrillas led by Fidel Castro marched triumphantly into the Cuban capital

ending decades of rule by the US-backed dictator Fulhensio Batista.

On January 8, 1959, I was standing at this corner as hundreds of Cubans who were welcoming

Fidel Castro.

What did you see up the road?

The main vehicle was the tank where Fidel was standing with a bunch of rebel leaders, rebel commanders.

So they were coming this way and people were clapping and say,

bibou a revolution,

bibouafiel. 60 years on, on, Carlos Al-Zugurai proudly shows me where as a 15-year-old school boy he watched the long procession of jeeps, trucks and commandeered tanks,

bringing Fidel Castro and his rebel soldiers into Havana.

I was very excited because I had followed the struggle. I had been listening to the

shortwave rebel radios. I knew the names already of some of the guys who had led the different rebel columns.

Now I was going to see them in person. I thought these guys really were going to change Cuba in a positive way.

And that's, I think that's what most of the people were here in the balconies with their Cuban

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