Letters of Note :: My good friend Roosevelt

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Via: Letters of Note :: My good friend Roosevelt14 yr old Fidel Castro's letter to Roosevelt. The actual letter + transcript can be seen after the cut.

Although he states otherwise in this incredible document, Fidel Castro was 14 years old when he wrote the following letter to then President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. In it, the future Cuban leader speaks of his approval of Roosevelt's presidency, cheekily asks the President for $10 and then finishes the letter by offering to reveal the whereabouts of Cuba's largest iron mines.

TranscriptSantiago de CubaNov 6 1940
Mr Franklin Roosvelt, President of the United States.
My good friend Roosvelt I don't know very English, but I know as much as write to you. I like to hear the radio, and I am very happy, because I heard in it, that you will be President for a new (periodo). I am twelve years old. I am a boy but I think very much but I do not think that I am writing to the President of the United States. If you like, give me a ten dollars bill green american, in the letter, because never, I have not seen a ten dollars bill green american and I would like to have one of them.
My address is:
Sr Fidel CastroColegio de DoloresSantiago de CubaOriente Cuba
I don't know very English but I know very much Spanish and I suppose you don't know very Spanish but you know very English because you are American but I am not American.
(Thank you very much)Good by. Your friend,(Signed)Fidel Castro
If you want iron to make your sheaps ships I will show to you the bigest (minas) of iron of the land. They are in Mayari Oriente Cuba.