He was the second child of Chucre Saleh and his wife Maria Estefan. Soon after his parent’s arrival to Cuba, Alfonso, named for the King of Spain was born at Victoria de las Tunas on 8 February 1925. When he was born the hospital administrators tried to make his name appear more Spanish so they added an "o" to the end of Estefan.

As a child, he played baseball with Kid Gavilan, who became a boxing world champion. He attended private a private grammar school and the Instituto Camagüey. Fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a medical doctor, his family sent him to Havana to attend Medical school. It was there through his roommate, Enrique Huertas that he became friends with Fidel Castro. Huertas was president of the Medical College while Castro was president of the Law School, two of the most powerful positions in prerevolutionary Cuba. Even at that early date, Castro was agitating, carrying a gun and occasionally being bailed out of jail by his friends. One afternoon he and Al were at the top of the stairs at the college when Castro began throwing rocks at the police below. In response they started shooting to which Castro replied to Al “Didn’t we have fun?”

Working at a maternity hospital while attending medical school he became an OBGYN before changing his specialty to psychiatry. After graduating from the Universidad de la Habana as a Doctor of Medicine 24 September 1952, he went to Knoxville, Tennessee for his internship and to see the United States. Enrolled at the East Tennessee Baptist Hospital he met a student nurse Anne Radcliffe working there who graduated in 1954. On 4 September 1954, they married at Arlington Baptist Church. They planned to stay in the United States but in 1956 after two visits, they took their son Daniel and moved to Al’s home town of Camagüey, Cuba.

During the Cuban Revolution, before it was known Castro was a Communist Al provided assistance to the revolutionaries in overthrowing the hated Batista regime. It was a dangerous time in Cuba, Al’s brother Emilio was one of the random citizens to be taken out and shot but was working in a bank in Camaguey at the time. His manager told the troops that he could not leave because there was a discrepancy with the books and he had to resolve the error. The police left and never came back. Once while Al, Anne, and Daniel were in the car one night, a makeshift checkpoint had been set up. Al didn’t see it until almost too late and the troops had their machine guns trained on the car and were ready to shoot. One day Daniel noticed that the pink family car had ben repainted pale green. When he asked why his father said it had never been painted pink. Several weeks later when Al opened the trunk pink paint could still be seen inside. At that point Al admitted that pink was the colour of the cars of the secret police. On several occasions the sound of gunfire could be heard outside the Estefano house, at that time the family would fall to the floor and hide underneath the furniture to avoid the possibility of being hit with stray bullets.

During Castro’s march to Havana which was competing with another revolutionary group to take control of the government, he and his soldiers stopped at the Estefano home to spend the nights of the 4th and 5th of January 1959. Castro remembered his friend from their university days and ironically, at that time Anne’s parents were visiting from the United States and answered the door to the tired rebel leader and his cadre. Castro had come with about thirty or forty troops and they found places to sleep in the house and out building while the Estefanos slept on blankets on the floor of the hallway. In the morning Castro had eggs and chorizos for breakfast. Their eldest son Daniel somehow managed to get locked in his nanny’s bathroom and one of the soldiers thought it would be a good idea to shoot the lock with his machine gun to let him out; luckily Al and his voice of reason kept that from happening. Soon newspaper reporters and movie news cameras descended on the home before Castro and his top men departed in a helicopter that some how managed to land among the avocado and fruit trees in the back yard. Later one of Castro’s entourage thought they could generate more publicity for the nascent government and decided that kidnapping the two American Estefano sons would provide that means. When Al found out about that it was decided the family should flee for the safety of the United States.

Anne, Daniel, and David were able to leave Cuba immediately because they were American citizens, however they were held in the Havana Airport for many hours and questioned before they could board the plane for Knoxville, Tennessee with only the clothes on their backs.

After Anne, Daniel, and David left Cuba in April 1960, Al was named the Chief of Huber Matos organization in Camagüey Province to plot against Fidel Castro and the newly installed Communist government. Al was chief for two months while awaiting his visa that Paul A. Tate the Consular Agent in Camaguey helped to secure with the American Ambassador in Havana in June. Luckily, he escaped the country two hours before he was to be arrested. After he left Cuba in 1960, he was tried in absentee and was given the death sentence. His replacement in Huber Matos was not so lucky, a young man he was killed after only a few weeks in the position.

Al died 12 July 2007 and after a service held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral was buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park.

Alfonso Sale Estefano