The 30-minute ``brotherly'' address to the Mexican people, read by visiting Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina, followed tensions between the two countries that emerged after Castro blasted what he called ``the cultural invasion of Mexico.''

``I myself learned the value of spinach with Popeye,'' Castro said in an unusual apology for his Dec. 2 remarks, in which he deplored what he said was Mexican children's better knowledge of Disney characters than of their own national figures.

``I myself watched Tarzan movies and the numerous films in which Mexicans are gardeners, submissive and compliant,'' he conceded in the statement Robaina read to journalists.

Castro said that if after his Dec. 2 remarks, any Mexican ``feels offended, I have no objections to presenting my apologies and if any child feels offended, I humbly ask for forgiveness.''

The offending remarks were made at a meeting in Havana, in which Castro said Mexico had turned its back on its Latin American neighbors by entering a trade pact with the United States. He went on to describe U.S. influence by saying that Mexican children were more familiar with Mickey Mouse than with Mexico's own heroes.

When Mexicans reacted with outrage, the Cuban government tried to dismiss the controversy by saying that Castro's remarks had been taken out of context and were not intended to be offensive. Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green declared that the statement was unsatisfactory and demanded a ``personal explanation'' of Castro's comments.

Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald