Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro was born on August 13, 1926 on a sugar plantation in Birán, today’s Cuban province of Holguín, to parents Angel Castro y Argiz and Lina Ruz González. When Fidel was fifteen, his father left his wife to marry Fidel’s mother and Fidel got his last name changed from Rúz to Castro. Fidel Also took the opportunity to change his middle name to “Alejandro” after the Macedonian Warrior. He graduated from Belen, a Jesuit high school in Havana in 1945. Soon after Fidel entered the University of Havana to study Law, where he often participated in violent political confrontations. In 1947 Fidel made relations with Eduardo Chibás and considered him his mentor, who was running for presidency, but did not succeed. Later he shot him himself in the stomach and was Fidel who led him to the hospital, where he died. In 1950 Fidel graduated from Law School soon after he married Mirta Diaz Balart whom, from a wealthy family, opened Fidel’s doors to the Cuban elite. He became well know by his nationalistic conduct. When Fulgencio Batista established himself as the facto leader, Castro’s chances of pursuing a legitimate political career failed. This led to Castro’s arguments on the Constitution of 1940 to charge Batista for violating it, but he wasn’t even allowed a hearing. All this motivated Castro to rebel. So he armed the Attack on Moncada Barracks along with his brother Raúl and a group of discontents over Batista, in which more than sixty militants were killed. Even though Castro escaped after the attack he and his brother got caught and sent to 15 years of prison. This were Fidel’s words at the trial: “I warn you, I am just beginning! If there is in your hearts a vestige of love for your country, love for humanity, love for justice, listen carefully... I know that the regime will try to suppress the truth by all possible means; I know that there will be a conspiracy to bury me in oblivion. But my voice will not be stifled - it will rise from my breast even when I feel most alone, and my heart will give it all the fire that callous cowards deny it... Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me. He was released two years later due to a general amnesty and went to train in Mexico. In Mexico Fidel soon began a movement along with all the other Cuban exiles, named the 26th of July Movement, in honor to the first failed attack. Later, Ernesto “Che “ Guevara, who was a theoretician of guerrilla warfare convinced that the only solution to Latin America’s poverty laid on violent revolution, joined the movement. They got weapons from Cubans in the US and training from Spanish Civil War Veteran, Cuban born Alberto Bayo. The 82 men retuned to Cuba on the now famous yacht Granma. The reentered by Los Cayuelos and were soon attacked by Batista’s men. No more than twenty men survived. Anyway, Raul Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos did and regrouped in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Soon the group gained over eight hundred men. After many other battles: Operation Verano and the Battle of Yaguajay finally defeating the American-backed Batista government on January 1, 1959. On February 16, 1959 Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba. He soon joined forces with the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. In 1961 United States attempted to invade Cuba. This action along with the Cuban Missile Crisis (a confrontation during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, regarding the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba) marked the anti- Cuban US actions. U.S. and Cuba’s relation became antagonist in contrast with Cuban and the Soviet bloc who were very close until the latter collapsed in 1991. Cuba has been on Fidel Castro’s hand until today. In that time thousands of political opponents have been killed. On the other hand Fidel has improved the implementation of the economy: land reform, collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of leading Cuban industries; as well as the improvement of health care and education. Castro and his first wife Mirta had a son “Fidelito” Castro Días-Balart. They divorced in 1955 and Fidel remarried with Dalia Soto del Valle with whom he had five other sons: Alexis, Alexander, Alejandro, Antonio y Angel. He has had affairs with many other women resulting in a daughter Alina Fernandez- Revuelta.

 Related Images
 Related Polls
 Related Trivia
 Celebrity Gossip

Fidel Castro, Cuba, Fidel Alejandro Castro,