The Evolution Of Cuba Pt 3:The Revolution

The Evolution of Cuba Pt 3:The Revolution

Welcome back TMI seekers to The Evolution of Cuba Pt 3: Return of the Jedi The Revolution. Today we continue our historical journey with a look at the man himself, Fidel Castro. A name I just seemed to know, but honestly, didn’t know much about. ‘Who was Castro?’ was just one of the questions that lead me to select Cuba for TMi! I thought I was in for a light-hearted, explorative post about Cuban food, or music or something. But once I started on Castro, I was too enthralled to step away, regardless of the intensity & conflictions. So here goes. Strap in for Pt 3: The Revolution.

Pre Revolution

Little Baby Fidel Castro…

We can’t just jump straight into the revolution. It wouldn’t do the story justice. So please humour me whilst we learn about Little Fidel – a baby who would grow up to have over 600 assassination attempts on his life. His father was a successful farm owner who left his wife for one of his maids. He had 7 children with her, one of whom was Fidel. There were many labourers working on his father’s farm and Fidel grew up playing with their children. So, whilst being relatively well off, he had many friends from much poorer backgrounds. A fact that I think plays a big part in shaping Big Fidel.

He was educated well but struggled with attention. There was no questioning his intellect and after moving from school to school, he eventually settled at a good one. Where he excelled at Baseball of all things, Merica’s Sport! (Which let’s be honest is just rounders but longer).

YA Fidel Castro…

Perhaps one of my favourite Fidel discoveries, is the letter Awkward Teen Fidel wrote to the then US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for ‘ten dollars bill green American’ because he’d never seen one. It’s kind of cute and funny & you can even see the original letter. Check it out here, please!

It was during his time at The University of Havana, whilst studying law, that Fidel made his move into politics. He joined activist groups and began to better understand why so many Cubans were impoverished. Whilst corruption was at the heart of the issue, Fidel placed a large amount of blame on capitalism & the US. On returning from his honeymoon, Fidel visited the poorest areas of Cuba and was heartbroken by the vast number of sick & illiterate Cubans. How were people supposed to know who to vote for if they couldn’t even read the newspaper?

Enter Stage Left: Castro

OK, now we can jump back to our former timeline. Where were we… Batista had staged a second coup and took the presidency for himself in 1952. He has given the US practically all of Cuba’s land to pocket from their investments. The rich are rolling around in dirty money & the poor are starving & sick. He doesn’t think he’s a DICKtator, he calls his ruling ‘disciplined democracy’. Yes, you just read coup & democracy in the same paragraph.

Big Fidel decides he doesn’t want to be a part of the large corrupt law firms, so he opens his own practice: BIG FIDELS LAW FIRM. No, I am kidding. I don’t know what it was called. He wants to help poor people with their lawsuits because no one else will give them help. Awwww.

Not wanting to resort to violence (doesn’t last long) he starts trying to take Batista down with lawsuits. He is all riled up and angry at what’s happening to his country & people. He wants equality, he wants the rich to stop exploiting the poor, he just wants a fairer Cuba. But here’s the thing about corruption, it runs deep. No one wants to touch Batista with a barge pole. Are you kidding me, snitch on that guy with all his secret police hit men? No thank you very much.

Batista vs Castro: The Revolution Begins

Realising nothing else will work, Big Fidel & his group of over 150 men launch a super unsuccessful attack on some barracks. It fails, many are brutally tortured & killed (caught & executed – not in battle) and eventually Fidel & a few others are found hiding in the mountains & put to trial. The trial is publicised. And, in an attempt to rattle him, Fidel has his documents taken away from him. But it doesn’t matter. Because he goes on to deliver his most famous speech – ‘But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me’.

If you want, you can read the full history will absolve me speech here, to you I say good luck. It was a 4-hour long speech to the nation – all done from memory. I do, however, recommend watching Ramsay Bolton do the closing 10 minutes, it’s pretty special.

Unsurprisingly, in 1953, Fidel is sent to prison for 15 years. In 1954, Batista wins his shifty unopposed election and remains President. But his shiftiness drives the Cuban people to speak out & request amnesty for Fidel and his men. So, after serving just 2 years, Fidel is released in 1955. He puts it about a little bit (heyo) & runs off to Mexico with his brother Raul. (BTW Raul has basically been by his side this whole time, including in prison).

Enter Stage Left: Ernesto Guevara

Or Che, as you’ve probably heard him called. Che means ‘man’ and Che basically said ‘hey man’ so much that people just started calling him Che. Seems legit. Anywho, Che Guevara, a young Argentinian Doctor, meets Fidel & co in Mexico. He has seen the hardships of many in South America and similarly to Fidel, attributes all of this suffering to capitalism & US imperialism. It’s a match made in heaven. The men put together a plan and in 1956, they sail back to Cuba on a rickety old boat called Granma. Granma somehow makes it to Cuba & the men flee to hide in the mountains.

Guerrilla Warfare

One of the student groups arrange to assassinate Batista (can you imagine being a uni student & planning anything other than your next trip to the pub). It was a tragic attempt now known as the Presidential Palace Attack. Half of the guys would take over Cuba’s main radio station and announce Batista’s death. At the same time, the other half would rock up to the Presidential Palace to kill Batista himself. Pretty ballsy. The radio announcement goes out to the nation, ‘Batista is dead’. But unfortunately for the attackers, Batista had just popped upstairs for something & remained very much alive… And very much pissed off. The shoot-out was brutal with at least 30 deaths. Read the NY Times short coverage here.

Since that first failed attempt to invade the barracks back in 53, the revolution has been gathering momentum. These things don’t just happen overnight you see. Fidel’s guys aren’t the only ones actively trying to overthrow Batista now either. But since his return, groups start to merge in opposition to the corrupt president. Their numbers are still embarrassingly low compared to their enemy, but that doesn’t stop them from kicking ass.

So, for about 2 years, the fighting continues with Big Fidel’s little band of rebels beating the army over and over again. Until eventually, a victorious battle lead by Argentinian Che, pushes Batista over the edge. On New Years Eve 1958, he disappears. He grabs his family & scarpers to the Dominican, never to be seen in Cuba again.

The Revolution Ends: Victory for Fidel

By February 1959, Fidel is sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba (he wouldn’t become president until the 70’s). He finally had his country & on that New Year’s Day the people rejoiced & danced in the streets. No one had any idea what the change in ruling would really mean for Cuba. Whilst he had all the best intentions, the ideologies that Fidel clung to were not all beneficial. Tune in for the fourth & final part of our Cuban evolution – Fidel’s Cuba.

Until then, take care & remember… No Info is Too Much Info

xoxo

A note about Che

Having led the rebels in the winning battle, Che was made a Cuban national. Which by the way, I really love. You can just picture these guys, high from their win, full of brotherly love & presenting Che with their ‘one of us’ gift. Cute. Anyway, he hangs around for a while, but he’s wild by nature. He’s got that revolutionary thirst. He basically wonders around looking for revolutions to start & on October 9^th 1967, the CIA caught Che & his new band of brothers in Bolivia. They killed him & dumped his body in an unmarked grave. Years later, his body was recovered & Fidel had him reburied in Cuba.

TL ; DR: Fidel grows up seeing the poor. Once his education kicks in, he assigns the blame to corruption but also US imperialism & capitalism. He’s imprisoned for trying to take Batista down, gets free, runs away, comes back with an army (& Che) to overthrow the government. They succeed. Batista does a runner. Fidel become Prime Minister of Cuba.

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