Miguel Barnet (born January 27, 1940) is a Cuban writer, novelist and ethnographer. He studied sociology at the University of Havana, under Fernando Ortiz , the pioneer of Cuban anthropology. Fernando Ortíz's studies of Afro-Cuban cultures influenced many of the themes, both literary and scholarly, of Barnet.^[1]

Early life[link]

Miguel Barnet was born on January 27, 1940 in Havana, Cuba. Though Barnet underwent his early education in the U.S., he maintained a high degree of interest and awareness of Cuban culture. In fact, in his early years he was a regular contributor of poetry and other writings to such Cuban publications as Lunes de Revolución and Hoy. This literary background can be seen as a precursor to the imaginative element Barnet introduced to anthropological writing.^[2]

In college, Barnet went to study anthropology and sociology at the University of Havana. Here, against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution, Miguel developed a strong relationship with Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortíz, who would introduce Barnet to an ethnographic model centered on indigenous religion, language and the oral tradition. In rural areas of the island, religious practices of African and Taino influence such as santería persevered within the Catholic framework. Ortiz’s view of ethnographic research focusing primarily on indigenous culture mirrored the Cuban political ideology of the time in its rejection of European modes of learning, and emphasis on the socially and economically marginalized class.

He is on a UNESCO committee.^[3]

[edit] Biografía de un cimarrón

In 1963, Barnet was intrigued by two newspaper articles reporting on Cuban citizens who had lived for more than a century. One article described an ex-slave and santera. The other pertained to Esteban Montejo, a 103-year-old Cuban man of African descent who had lived as a slave in captivity, a fugitive slave in the Las Villas wilderness (el monte), and a soldier in the Cuban War for Independence. A series of interviews with Montejo at the Veteran’s Home followed, during which Barnet’s anthropological methods of inquiry and analysis were of utmost importance. For example, his use of an electronic voice recorder allowed him to more accurately portray the nuances and tones of Montejo’s language as he recorded it in writing. In 1966, Montejo’s story was published in Biografía de un cimarrón.

As either anthropological study or literature, the testimonial narrative tradition established by Barnet’s Biografía de un cimarrón draws its authority from the perceived authenticity of the eyewitness account. Indeed, the protagonist of Barnet’s work, Esteban Montejo, comes to represent not only the collective psychology of Cuba’s former slave class, but also the collective historical conscious of the entire Cuban population. Such authenticity becomes complicated, however, when the bias and motive of the translator—in this case Barnet—is taken into consideration. A staunch supporter of the Revolution, Barnet’s work clearly has political prerogatives in its focus on and recognition of the former slave class.

In the prologue to the work, Barnet explains that "nuestro trabajo no es histórico. La historia aparece porque es la vida de un hombre que pasa por ella," (our work here is not history. History appears in it because it is the life of a man who passes through history) and “sabemos que poner a hablar a un informante es, en cierta medida, hacer literatura. Pero no intentamos creer un documento literario.” (we know that referring to testimonial is, to a certain degree, creating literature. But our intentions are not to create a literary account). In reality, Barnet’s work is a synthesis of history and literature, producing a unique and perhaps more precise representation of Cuban history and culture.

The composer Hans Werner Henze wrote a work (El Cimarrón) based on Barnet's work. Henze also set a poem, 'Patria' for his 1973 song-cycle, Voices.

Works[link]

Novels[link]

• Biografía de un cimarrón (1966)
• Canción de Rachel (1969)
• Gallego (1983)
• La vida real (1986)
• Oficio de ángel (1989)

Poetry[link]

• La piedrafina y el pavorreal (1963)
• Isla de güijes (1964)
• La sagrada familia (1967)
• Orikis y otros poemas (1980)
• Carta de noche (1982)
• Viendo mi vida pasar (anthology, 1987)
• Mapa del tiempo (1989)
• Poemas chinos (1993)
• Con pies de gato (anthology, 1993)
• Actas del final (2000)

Essays and Ethnographies[link]

• Akeké y la Jutía. Fábulas cubanas
• Cultos Afrocubanos. La Regla de Ocha. La Regla de Palo Monte (1995)
• La fuente viva (1998)

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2010)

Coordinates: 51°38′40″N 0°11′59″W / 51.6444°N 0.1997°W / 51.6444; -0.1997

Barnet
High Street
Barnet  Barnet shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ245955
- Charing Cross	10 mi (16 km)  SSE
London borough	Barnet
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BARNET
Postcode district	EN5
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Chipping Barnet
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
List of places: UK • England • London

High Barnet or Chipping Barnet is a place in the London Borough of Barnet, North London, England. It is a suburban development built around a twelfth-century settlement and is located 10 miles (16 km) north north-west of Charing Cross. Its name is often abbreviated to Barnet, which is also the name of the London borough of which it forms a part. Chipping Barnet is the name of the Parliamentary constituency covering the local area - the word "Chipping" denotes the presence of a market (one was established here in the thirteenth century and persists to this day).

History[link]

The town's name derives from an ancient settlement, recorded as Barneto c.1070, Barnet 1197, La Barnette 1248, that is 'the land cleared by burning', from Old English bærnet, referring to the clearing of this once densely forested area in early times.

This was the site of the Battle of Barnet in 1471 (more accurately, Hadley), where Yorkist troops led by King Edward IV killed the rebellious "Kingmaker" Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and Warwick's brother, John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu. Barnet Hill is said to be the hill mentioned in the nursery rhyme "The Grand Old Duke of York".

It is also the site of an ancient and well-known horse fair, whence comes the rhyming slang of Barnet Fair or barnet for 'hair'. The fair dates back to 1588 when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the Lord of the Manor of Barnet to hold a twice yearly fair. Famous Barnet Market is now over 810 years old. On 23 August 1199 King John issued a Charter for a Market at Barnet to the Lord of the Manor, the Abbot of St. Albans, John de Cella.

Chipping Barnet was historically a civil parish of Hertfordshire and formed part of the Barnet Urban District from 1894. The parish was abolished in 1965 and the Chipping Barnet section of its former area was transferred from Hertfordshire to Greater London and the newly-created London Borough of Barnet.^[1] In 1801 the parish had a population of 1,258 and covered an area of 1,440 acres (6 km²). By 1901 the parish was reduced to 380 acres (1.5 km²) and had a population of 2,893. In 1951 the population was 7,062.^[2]

In Saxon times the site was part of an extensive wood called Southaw, belonging to the Abbey of St Albans. The name of the town appears in early deeds as 'Bergnet' - the Saxon word 'Bergnet'^[3] meant a little hill (monticulus). Barnet's elevated position is also indicated in one of its alternative names ('High Barnet'), which appears in many old books and maps, and which the railway company restored. According to local belief, though not verified, "Barnet stands on the highest ground betwixt London and York." The area was historically a common resting point on the traditional Great North Road between the City of London and York and Edinburgh.

At the beginning of the 21st century, a tongue-in-cheek movement calling for the name Barnet to be changed to "Barnét" began to gain the attention of the public and the national media, with many public road signs in the area regularly being altered to contain the accented character.^[4][5][6] Barnet Council has been treating any such alterations to public road signs as vandalism.

Geography[link]

The tower of Barnet parish church — St John the Baptist — at the top of Barnet Hill claims to be the highest point between itself and the Ural Mountains 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to the east.^[7] However, the same has been said of numerous other points. Since the opening of the railway, development has increased considerably, especially in the west of the area near Arkley.

Neighbouring areas

	South Mimms	Monken Hadley	Hadley Wood
	Arkley		Oakwood
		Barnet    East
	Totteridge	Whetstone	Southgate

Transport[link]

Barnet Hill is a major hill on the historic Great North Road. In coaching days, 150 stage coaches passed through Barnet daily. The modern Great North Road replacement the A1 avoids the town along Barnet Bypass.

Buses[link]

A Transport for London map of the routes through High Barnet: map.

Daily Bus Routes[link]

Route Number	Route	Via	Operation	Operator
34	Barnet Church to Walthamstow Central	Whetstone, Brunswick Park, Arnos Grove , Palmers Green, Edmonton Sliver Street	Daily. London Buses service	Arriva London
84	New Barnet to St Albans St Peters Street	Barnet , Monken Hadley, Potters Bar , South Mimms, London Colney	Daily. Hertfordshire service.	Metroline
107	New Barnet to Edgware	Barnet , Arkley, Borehamwood , Elstree, Stanmore	Daily. London Buses service	Metroline
184	Barnet Chesterfield Road to Turnpike Lane	New Barnet , East Barnet, Osidge, Arnos Grove , Bounds Green , Alexandra Palace , Wood Green	Daily. London Buses service	Arriva London
234	Barnet The Spires to Highgate Wood	Whetstone, Friern Barnet, Muswell Hill, East Finchley	Daily. London Buses service	Metroline
263	Barnet Hospital to Holloway Nags Head	Whetstone, North Finchley, East Finchley , Highgate , Archway , Upper Holloway	Daily. London Buses service	Metroline
307	Barnet Arkley Hotel to Brimsdown	New Barnet , East Barnet, Oakwood , Enfield Chase , Enfield Town	Daily. London Buses service	Arriva London
326	Barnet The Spires to Brent Cross	New Barnet , East Barnet, Whetstone, Totteridge , West Finchley, Finchley Central , Hendon	Daily. London Buses service	Metroline
384	Barnet Quinta Drive to Cockfosters	New Barnet , East Barnet	Daily. London Buses service	Metroline

Non-Daily Bus Routes[link]

Route Number	Route	Via	Operation	Operator
383	Barnet The Spires to Woodside Park	New Barnet , Oakleigh Park , Whetstone, Friern Barnet, North Finchley	Mon-Sat except evenings. London Buses service	Metroline
389	Barnet The Spires to Barnet Western Way	N/A	Mon-Sat 10am – 2pm. London Buses service	First London
399	Barnet The Spires to Hadley Wood	Monken Hadley	Mon-Sat 10am – 2pm. London Buses service	First London
614	Hatfield Business Park to Queensbury	Barnet, Arkley, Edgware , Burnt Oak	Mon-Sat. Hertfordshire service	Uno
606	Barnet Ravenscroft School to Queensbury	Barnet , Arkley, Edgware , Burnt Oak	Mon-Fri. London Buses school service	Metroline
626	Potters Bar Dame Alice Owen’s School to Finchley Central	Monken Hadley, Barnet , New Barnet , East Barnet, Whetstone, North Finchley	Mon-Fri. London Buses school service	Metroline
634	Barnet Hospital to Muswell Hill	Whetstone, Friern Barnet	Mon-Fri. London Buses school service	Metroline
N20	Barnet Church to Trafalgar Square	Whetstone, North Finchley, Finchley Central , East Finchley , Highgate , Archway , Tufnell Park , Kentish Town , Camden Town , Mornington Crescent , Euston[disambiguation needed ] , Leicester Square , Charing Cross	Nightly. London Buses service	Metroline

Tube stations[link]

Victorian Architecture of High Barnet Tube Station

High Barnet tube station is the terminus of the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line and is the northernmost station on the line.. (Trains run every 3–9 minutes to Morden via Bank, or to Kennington via Charing Cross, from three southbound platforms). The next station south is Totteridge and Whetstone.

Railway stations[link]

There are no overground railway stations in High Barnet itself, but these stations are nearby, and can be accessed from High Barnet by bus:

• New Barnet — First Capital Connect (84, 107, 184, 307, 326, 383, 384 buses)
• Oakleigh Park — First Capital Connect (383 bus)
• Hadley Wood — First Capital Connect (399 bus)

Religious sites[link]

St John the Baptist Church

St John the Baptist Church (built 1560), which stands in what was the centre of the town, was erected by John de la Moote, abbot of St Albans, about 1400, the architect being Beauchamp. Playing on its antiquity, it continues to call itself "Barnet Church", although this is not an official title. It is in fact the parish church of Chipping Barnet only, whilst Christ Church is the parish church of High Barnet, St Mark's is the parish church of Barnet Vale, St James's is the parish church of New Barnet, and St Mary's is the parish church of East Barnet. The parish church of St Mary the Virgin Monken Hadley (rebuilt 1494) also has parish boundaries which include a significant part of High Barnet, including much of Barnet High Street. The parish of Chipping Barnet, served by St John's Church, was provided with a chapel-of-ease in Victorian times; subsequently Chipping Barnet parish was split in two, and the chapel-of ease (on Bells Hill, Barnet) raised to the status of a parish church, dedicated to St Stephen.

St John the Baptist, the ancient parish church, consists of a nave and aisles separated by clustered columns which support four pointed arches; a chancel with an east window of good Perpendicular tracery; a vestry, built in the reign of James I by Thomas Ravenscroft; and at the west end, a low, square embattled tower. The living of Barnet is a curacy, held with the rectory of East Barnet till the death of the late incumbent in 1866, when the livings were separated.

Public services[link]

Barnet is served by Barnet General Hospital which is run by Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Hospitals Trust as part of the English National Health Service. There is also a National Health Service clinic in Vale Drive (near Barnet Hill and High Barnet tube station). London Ambulance Service responds to medical emergencies in Barnet. Home Office policing is provided by the Metropolitan Police Service. Statutory emergency fire service is provided by the London Fire Brigade, which has a station on Station Road, built in 1992.

Sport and recreation[link]

Barnet FC^[8] are the local football team, currently in Football League Two - the lowest professional league in English football. They play at the Underhill Stadium. They first reached the Football League in 1991 as champions of the GM Vauxhall Conference but lost their status 10 years later with relegation, only to return four years later - again as Conference champions. Barnet also has a Non-League football team London Lions F.C..

Barnet Cricket club and Old Elizabethans CC have merged to form one club in Barnet and currently play their games at Gypsy Corner. Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers is a local athletics club. Chipping Barnet has a King George's Field in memorial to King George V. Old Court House Recreation Ground is a park in High Barnet.

High Barnet is home to an Odeon cinema, the Barnet Museum, the All Saints Art Centre, the traditional annual Barnet Fair, which was chartered in Medieval times, the Ravenscroft local park and Barnet recreational park, a now disused well that was frequented by, among others, Samuel Pepys, and many restaurants and public houses.

Cuisines on offer include Italian, French, Indian, Chinese and south east Asian. Amongst the most popular restaurants are branches of Pizza Express, Brasserie Gerard Prezzo, and Emchai (south east Asian cuisine). High Barnet also has a number of coffee/snack outlets, both independent ones such as The Coffee Bean and Oasis, as well as branches of Starbucks and Costa Coffee.

A small nightclub operated for a few years in the 1980s in the premises now occupied by The Misty Moon pub. The public houses and bars in High Barnet include: The Misty Moon, Toby Carvery, The Kings Head, The Monken Holt, The Black Horse, Ye Olde Mitre Inn, The Hadley Oak, The Nelson, The Sebright Arms, and The White Lion.^[9] The large number of inns in Barnet was a matter of note in Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist; it was here that Oliver met the Artful Dodger.

Local papers[link]

The local newspapers are as of 2011-

The town used to be part of Hertfordshire until 1965.

See also[link]

• List of people from Barnet
• List of schools in Barnet

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Barnet.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barnet Town

• The Barnet Society
• Barnet Symphony Orchestra
• Barnet YHA local group
• Barnet (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)

v t e London Borough of Barnet Districts Arkley Barnet (also referred to as High Barnet or Chipping Barnet) Barnet Gate Brent Cross Brunswick Park Burnt Oak Childs Hill Church End Cockfosters Colney Hatch Colindale Cricklewood East Barnet East Finchley Edgware Finchley Friern Barnet Golders Green Grahame Park The Hale Hampstead Garden Suburb Hendon The Hyde Mill Hill (including Mill Hill East) Monken Hadley New Barnet New Southgate North Finchley Oakleigh Park Osidge Temple Fortune Totteridge West Hendon Whetstone Woodside Park Attractions artsdepot Avenue House Barnet Gate Mill Barnet Museum Church Farmhouse Museum Finchley Youth Theatre Little Hands Theatre RAF Museum Parks and open spaces Arrandene Open Space Basing Hill Park Bittacy Hill Park Brent Park Brent Reservoir Cherry Tree Wood Childs Hill Park Clitterhouse Recreation Ground Coppetts Wood Edgwarebury Park Friary Park Golders Hill Park Greenhill Gardens Hendon Park King George's Fields Lyttelton Playing Fields Mill Hill Park Moat Mount Princes Park Monken Hadley Common Oak Hill Park Old Court House Recreation Ground Rowley Green Common Scratchwood Stoneyfields Park Sunny Hill Park Swan Lane Open Space Totteridge Fields Tudor Sports Ground Victoria Park Victoria Recreation Ground Watling Park West Hendon Playing Fields Whitings Hill Open Space Constituencies Chipping Barnet Hendon Finchley and Golders Green Tubes and railways stations Brent Cross Burnt Oak Colindale Cricklewood railway station East Finchley Edgware Finchley Central Golders Green Hendon railway station Hendon High Barnet Mill Hill Broadway railway station Mill Hill East New Barnet railway station New Southgate railway station Oakleigh Park railway station Totteridge and Whetstone West Finchley Woodside Park Other topics Brent Cross Cricklewood People Public art Schools Nature reserves Category Commons

Fidel Castro
Castro in 2003
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
In office October 3, 1965 – April 19, 2011
Deputy	Raúl Castro
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Raúl Castro
15th President of Cuba
In office December 2, 1976 – February 24, 2008*
Prime Minister	Himself
Vice President	Raúl Castro
Preceded by	Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
Succeeded by	Raúl Castro
16th Prime Minister of Cuba
In office February 16, 1959 – February 24, 2008
President	Manuel Urrutia Lleó Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado Himself
Preceded by	José Miró Cardona
Succeeded by	Raúl Castro
7th and 23rd Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement
In office September 16, 2006 – February 24, 2008
Preceded by	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Succeeded by	Raúl Castro
In office September 10, 1979 – March 6, 1983
Preceded by	Junius Richard Jayawardene
Succeeded by	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
Personal details
Born	Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (1926-08-13) August 13, 1926 (age 85) Birán, Cuba
Political party	Communist Party of Cuba
Spouse(s)	Mirta Diaz-Balart (1948–1955) Dalia Soto del Valle (1980–present)
Relations	(siblings) Raúl Castro Enma Castro Agustina Castro Ramon Castro Ruz Angelita Castro
Children	Fidel Ángel Castro Diaz-Balart Alina Fernández-Revuelta Alexis Castro-Soto Alejandro Castro-Soto Antonio Castro-Soto Angel Castro-Soto Alex Castro-Soto Jorge Angel Castro Francisca Pupo
Alma mater	University of Havana
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Deist[1]
Signature
*Acting presidential powers were transferred to Raúl Castro from July 31, 2006.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Spanish: [fiˈðel ˈkastro]; born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011. Politically a Marxist-Leninist, under his administration the Republic of Cuba was converted into a one-party socialist state, with industry and business being nationalized under state ownership and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. On the international stage, he also served as the Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and 2006 to 2008.

Born the illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro became involved in leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. Involving himself in armed rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he concluded that the U.S.-backed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, who was widely seen as a dictator, had to be overthrown; to this end he led a failed armed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. Imprisoned for a year, he traveled to Mexico, and with the aid of his brother Raúl Castro and friend Che Guevara, assembled a group of revolutionaries, the July 26 Movement. Returning with them to Cuba, he took a key role in the Cuban Revolution, leading a successful guerrilla war against Batista's forces, overthrowing him in 1959. Castro subsequently became Commander in Chief of the armed forces and shortly thereafter became Prime Minister. The United States was alarmed by his involvement in the overthrow of Batista and relationship with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, implementing an economic blockade of the island. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower also ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to overthrow him, which they unsuccessfully tried through multiple assassination attempts and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. To counter this threat, Castro forged an economic and military alliance with the Soviet Union and allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island, leading to the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Adopting Marxism-Leninism as his guiding ideology, in 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban revolution, and in 1965 became First Secretary of the newly founded Communist Party, with all other parties being abolished. He then led the transformation of Cuba into a socialist republic, nationalizing industry, introducing free healthcare and education, and suppressing internal opposition. A keen internationalist, Castro introduced Cuban medical brigades who worked throughout the developing world, and aided foreign revolutionary socialist groups in the hope of toppling world capitalism, thereby involving Cuba in the Angolan Civil War and the Ogaden War between Ethiopia and Somalia. In 1976 he stepped down as Prime Minister to become President of both the Council of State and Council of Ministers. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its economic "Special Period", before taking the country into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in 2006 and forging alliances with other nations in the Latin American "Pink Tide". Amidst failing health, in 2006 Castro transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who was then elected President when Fidel stepped down in 2008.

Castro is a controversial and highly divisive world figure, being lauded as a champion of anti-imperialism, humanitarianism, socialism and environmentalism by his supporters, but his critics have accused him of being a dictator whose authoritarian administration has overseen multiple human rights abuses both at home and abroad. A prolific author on various topics, he has had a significant influence on the politics of various individuals and groups across the world, including senior leaders like Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales.

Early life[link]

Childhood and education: 1926–1945[link]

A letter written by the 14-year-old Castro, learning English, to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt — "My good friend Roosevelt." In the letter Castro expresses his joy at Roosevelt's re-election, states his age as "twelve years old" and writes, "If you like, give me a ten dollar bill green American, because never, I have not seen a ten dollar bill", signing the letter, "Thank you very much. Good by [sic]. Your friend, Fidel Castro."^[2]

Fidel's father, Ángel Castro y Argiz (1875–1956) was a Spaniard born to a poor peasant family in rural Galicia, Northwest Spain. Working as a manual laborer on local farms, in 1895 he was conscripted into the Spanish Army to fight in the Cuban War of Independence against the Cuban revolutionaries who wished to secede from the Spanish Empire. Wishing to gain greater influence in the Caribbean, the United States subsequently declared war on Spain, leading to the Spanish-American War of 1898, in which the U.S. seized control of Cuba, setting up their own government on the island. In 1902, the Republic of Cuba was proclaimed, however it remained only partially independent of the U.S., which retained economic and political dominance over it. For a time, Cuba enjoyed economic growth, and Ángel Castro decided to migrate there permanently in search of employment.^[3][4][5] Doing so, he undertook various jobs, eventually earning enough money to set up his own business growing sugar cane on a farm in Birán, near Mayarí in Oriente Province.^[4][5][6]

Ángel took a wife, María Luisa Argota, with whom he had two daughters, but they separated after several years and he began a relationship with a household servant who was thirty years his junior.^[7][8] This woman, Lina Ruz González (September 23, 1903 – August 6, 1963),^[9] came from an impoverished Cuban family of Canarian descent, but became Ángel's domestic partner, bearing him three sons and four daughters.^[7][10][11]

Fidel was Lina's third child, being born at his father's farm on August 13, 1926,^[7][12][13] and was given his mother's surname of Ruz rather than his father's because he had been born out of wedlock, something that carried a particular social stigma at the time.^[14][15] Although he was from a prosperous background, with his father's business proving ever more profitable, his father ensured that he grew up alongside the children of the farm's workforce, many of whom were Haitian economic migrants of African descent,^[8][16] something that Fidel would later relate prevented him from absorbing "bourgeois culture" at an early age.^[17] Aged six, Fidel, along with his elder siblings Ramón and Angela, was sent to live with their teacher in Santiago de Cuba, and it was here that the children dwelt in cramped conditions and in relative poverty, often failing to have enough to eat because of their tutor's poor economic situation.^[18][19] Aged eight, Fidel was then baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, although later gave up his faith in Christianity, becoming an atheist.^[18][20][21] Being baptized enabled Fidel to begin attending the La Salle boarding school in Santiago, but here he often got into trouble with the school authorities for misbehavior, and so he was instead sent to the privately-funded, Jesuit-run Dolores School in Santiago.^[22][23]

In 1945 he transferred to the more prestigious Jesuit-run El Colegio de Belén in Havana.^[24] Although Fidel took an interest in history and debating at Belén, he did not excel academically, instead devoting much of his time to playing sport, including swimming, mountain climbing, table tennis, athletics, basketball and baseball.^[25][26] Meanwhile, Ángel Castro finally dissolved his first marriage when Fidel was fifteen, allowing him to marry Fidel's mother; Fidel was formally recognized by his father when he was seventeen, when his surname was legally changed from Ruz to Castro.^[14][15]

University and early political activism: 1945–1947[link]

Grau and Prío, two Cuban presidents whose administrations were marked by corruption, political repression and obedience to U.S. interests. Castro protested against both of them whilst a student.

In late 1945, Castro began studying law at the University of Havana.^[27][28][29] Here he became immediately embroiled in the student protest movement, which in Cuba at that time was particularly volatile: under the regimes of center-left Cuban Presidents Gerardo Machado (1925–1933), Fulgencio Batista (1933–1944) and Ramón Grau (1944–1948) there had been a government crackdown on student protesters, with student leaders being killed or terrorized by violent gangs.^[30][31][32] This led to a form of gangsterismo culture within the university that was dominated by a variety of violent and often armed student groups who spent much of their time fighting one another and running criminal enterprises rather than opposing the government.^[33][34] Becoming surrounded by this gang culture, Castro focused on political objectives, unsuccessfully campaigning for the position of President of the Federation of University Students (FEU). To do so he put forward a platform of "honesty, decency and justice" and emphasized his opposition to political corruption, something that he increasingly associated with the involvement of the U.S. government in Cuban politics.^[35][36] He became passionate about anti-imperialism and opposing U.S. intervention in the Caribbean, joining the University Committee for the Independence of Puerto Rico and the Committee for Democracy in the Dominican Republic.^[37]

He was in contact with members of several student leftist groups at the time, including the Popular Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Popular – PSP), the Socialist Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Socialista Revolucionaria – MSR) and the Insurrectional Revolutionary Union (Unión Insurrecional Revolucionaria – UIR), although did not adopt the Marxist ideas of the former and mistrusted some of MSR's connections to the Grau government. Castro had become critical of the corruption and violence of Grau's regime, delivering a public speech on the subject in November 1946 that earned him a place on the front page of several newspapers. Instead, it was to the UIR that he grew closest to, although whether he ever became a member or not has remained unknown.^[38][39] In 1947, Castro joined a newly founded socialist group, the Party of the Cuban People (Partido Ortodoxo), which had been formed by veteran politician Eduardo Chibás (1907–1951). A charismatic figure, Chibás attracted many Cubans with his message of social justice, honest government, and political freedom. The Partido Ortodoxo publicly exposed corruption and demanded governmental and social reform. Though Chibás lost the election, Castro, considering Chibás his mentor, remained committed to his cause, working fervently on his behalf.^{[40][41][42][43]}

Meanwhile, the student gang violence had escalated after Grau employed several prominent gang leaders, including members of the MSR, as officers in the police force, and Castro soon received a threat urging him to either leave the university and its political arena or be killed. He did not give in to the threat, instead carrying a gun and surrounding himself with friends who were similarly armed.^[44][45] Various accusations would arise in later years alleging that Castro carried out gang-related assassination attempts at this time, including of prominent UIR member Lionel Gómez, MSR leader Manolo Castro and university policeman Oscar Fernandez, but these are supported by "scant evidence" and remain unproven.^[46][47][48]

Latin American rebellions: 1947–1948[link]

In June 1947, Castro learned of a planned international expedition to invade the Dominican Republic and overthrow its right-wing president, Rafael Trujillo, a military general widely seen as a dictator who had overseen a system of "repressive brutality" through the use of a violent secret police which routinely murdered and tortured opponents.^[49] An ally of the United States, Trujillo angered many across the world when he ordered the Parsley Massacre that killed 20,000–30,000 impoverished Haitian migrants.^[50] Castro had become a heavy critic of Trujillo's regime, rising to the presidency of the University Committee for Democracy in the Dominican Republic, and decided to join the military expedition, which was led by General Juan Rodríguez, a Dominican exile, and supported by Grau's Cuban government which feared Trujillo's militaristic behavior.^[46][51][52] The invasion was carried out on July 29, 1947, by around 1,200 men, most of whom were exiled Dominicans or Cubans, although other volunteers came from across Latin America. However, both Dominican and U.S. intelligence had gained foreknowledge of the event, and it was soon quashed by the Dominican army and the Cuban government, who had been pressured by the U.S. to cease their support for it. Whilst Grau's government immediately arrested many of those involved, Castro managed to escape the police by jumping off of the naval frigate he was aboard and swimming to shore in the dark of night.^[53][54]

The botched mission only served to further Castro's opposition to the Grau administration, and returning to Havana, he took a leading role in the student protests that were centered against the killing of a high school pupil by government bodyguards.^[56][57] The protests, accompanied by a U.S.-imposed crackdown on those considered to be communists, led to violent clashes between protesters and police in February 1948, in which Castro was badly beaten.^[58] It was at this point that his public speeches took on a distinctively leftist slant, condemning the social and economic inequalities of Cuba under the Grau government, something that was in contrast to his former public criticisms, which had centered around condemning corruption and U.S. imperialism. Castro's biographer Leycester Coltman would later remark that "Castro was not yet expressing a Marxist viewpoint, but he was moving in that direction."^[59]

After a quick visit to Venezuela and Panama, in April 1948 Castro traveled to the city of Bogotá in Colombia with a number of other Cuban students on a trip sponsored by the government of Argentine President Juan Perón, whose anti-imperialist politics impressed Castro. Once there, the assassination of popular leftist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala led to widespread rioting that came to be known as the Bogotazo. Leaving three thousand dead, the riots revolved around clashes between rightist Conservatives, who then controlled the country's government and who were backed by the army, and leftist Liberals who were supported by a number of Colombian socialist groups. Castro, along with his fellow Cuban visitors, joined in in support of the Liberal cause by stealing guns from a police station, but subsequent police investigations came to the conclusion that neither Castro nor any of the other Cubans had been involved in the killings.^{[60][61][62][63]}

Marriage and Marxism: 1948–1950[link]

Returning to Cuba, Castro became a prominent figure in the widespread protests against the government's attempts to raise bus fares, with buses being the only form of transport available to most students and workers.^[64][65] It was also in 1948 that Castro married Mirta Díaz Balart, a student from a wealthy Cuban family through whom he was exposed to the lifestyle of the Cuban elite. The relationship was a love match and was disapproved of by both of their families. Mirta's father gave them tens of thousands of dollars to spend in a three-month honeymoon in New York City, and the couple also received a U.S. $1,000 wedding gift from the military general and former president Fulgencio Batista, a friend of Mirta's family.^[66][67][68] That same year, Grau decided not to stand for re-election, and his party instead nominated Carlos Prío Socarrás as their presidential candidate. Prío would go on to win the election, becoming President of Cuba.^[69][70] However, he faced widespread protests when members of the MSR, which by this time was allied to the police force, assassinated Justo Fuentes, a "self-taught black man" and prominent member of the UIR who was a friend and ally of Castro's. In response, Prío agreed to try to quell the gangs, but found them to be too powerful to control.^[71]

Castro had begun to move further to the left in his political views, being influenced by the writings of prominent Marxists like Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin. He came to interpret the problems facing Cuba as being an integral part of capitalist society, or the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie", rather than the failings of corrupt politicians. Coming to believe the Marxist idea that meaningful political change could only be brought about by a revolution led by the working class, Castro set about visiting Havana's poorest neighborhoods, witnessing the nation's huge social and racial inequalities, and became active in the University Committee for the Struggle against Racial Discrimination.^[73][74]

In September 1949, Mirta gave birth to a son, Fidelito, and so the couple moved to a larger flat in Havana.^[73] Despite the need to care for his family, Castro continued to put himself at risk, staying active in the city's political arena and joining a new organization, the September 30 Movement, which contained within it both communists and members of the Partido Ortodoxo. The group's purpose was to oppose the influence of the violent gangs within the university; despite his promises, President Prío had failed to control the situation, instead offering many of their senior members jobs in government ministries.^[75][76] Castro volunteered to deliver a speech for the Movement on November 13, in which he exposed the government's secret deals with the gangs and identified many of their key members. Attracting the attention of the national press, the speech angered the gangs, and Castro was forced to go into hiding, first in various rural areas and then in the U.S.^[75] Returning to Havana several weeks later, Castro lay low and focused on his university studies, graduating from university as a Doctor of Law in September 1950.^[74][75][77]

Career in law and politics: 1950–1952[link]

Now a Doctor of Law, Castro became a professional lawyer, founding his own legal partnership with two fellow leftist students, Jorge Azpiazu and Rafael Resende, whose intention was to focus on helping poor Cubans in asserting their rights. It was a financial failure, with its main client being a timber merchant who paid them in timber to furnish their office.^[78][79] Castro cared little for money or material goods, something his wife found difficult, particularly when their furniture was reposessed and their electricity cut off, in both instances because Castro had failed to pay his bills.^[80]

General Fulgencio Batista seized power in a military coup, postponed elections indefinitely and implemented right wing policies; he would widely be labelled a dictator and Castro would believe it necessary to oust him.

Castro remained active in politics, taking part in a high-school protest in Cienfuegos in November 1950 that involved students fighting a four-hour battle with police in protest at the Education Ministry's ban on the founding of student associations in schools. He was arrested and charged with using violence against police officers, but the magistrate later dismissed the charges.^[81] He also became an active member of the Cuban Peace Committee, a part of the international campaign led by British intellectual Betrand Russell to oppose western involvement in the Korean War.^[81] His hopes for Cuba still largely centered around Eduardo Chibás and his left wing Partido Ortodoxo; however Chibás had made a mistake when he accused Education Minister Aureliano Sánchez of purchasing a Guatemalan ranch with misappropriated funds, but was unable to substantiate his allegations. The government used this as an opportunity to go on the offensive against Chibás, accusing him of being a liar and a troublemaker. In 1951, while running for president again, Chibás shot himself in the stomach during a radio broadcast in an attempt to issue a "last wake-up call" to the Cuban people. Castro was present and accompanied him to the hospital where he died of his injuries.^{[82][83][84][85]}

Although his political views were further left than the Partido Ortodoxo, Castro believed that those parties on the far left, namely the PSP, were too unpopular to achieve a revolutionary leftist movement in Cuba, and for this reason remained in the Ortodoxo. Seeing himself as the heir to Chibás, Castro wanted to run for Congress in the June 1952 elections, but senior party members feared his radical reputation and refused to nominate him. Instead he gained the support of enough Ortodoxo members in Havana's poorest districts to be nominated as a candidate for the House of Representatives, and put all his energies into campaigning.^[86][87] It was at the time that Castro held a meeting with General Fulgencio Batista, the former president who had recently returned to politics by winning a seat in the Senate and founding the Unitary Action Party; although they both opposed the Prío administration, their meeting never got beyond "polite generalities" with no indication that they would later become bitter enemies.^[86]

The Ortodoxo had gained a considerable level of support, and there was a "fair chance that the Ortodoxos and Castro would both have succeeded in the election."^[88] However, this was quashed in March 1952 when General Batista seized power in a military coup, removing the widely discredited President Prío from office, who then fled to Mexico. Subsequently declaring himself president, Batista cancelled the planned presidential elections, describing his new system as "disciplined democracy": Castro, like many others, instead saw it as the establishment of a one-man dictatorship with no benefit to the Cuban populace.^[82][89][90] Although in his earlier democratic terms as president Batista had taken a center-left stance, he now moved to the right and went on to solidify his ties with the United States, severing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, suppressing trade unions and persecuting socialist groups in Cuba.^[82][91] Intent on opposing the Batista administration, Castro brought several legal cases against them, arguing that Batista had committed sufficient criminal acts to warrant at least 100 years imprisonment and accusing various ministers of breaching labor laws. These came to nothing, leading Castro to begin thinking of alternative ways to oust the new government.^[92]

Cuban Revolution[link]

The Movement and the Moncada Barracks attack: 1952–1953[link]

Dissatisfied with the Ortodoxo's policy of non-violent opposition to Batista's regime, Castro formed a group known simply as "The Movement". Consisting of both a civil and a military committee, the former conducted political agitation through an underground newspaper, El Acusador (The Accuser), while the latter armed and trained recruits to take violent action against Batista. With Castro as the Movement's head, the organization was based upon a clandestine cell system, with each cell containing ten members, none of whom knew the whereabouts or activities of the other cells.^[94][95] A dozen individuals formed the nucleus of the movement, many of whom were also dissatisfied Ortodoxo members, although from July 1952 the Movement went on a recruitment drive, and within a year it had around 1,200 members, organized into over a hundred cells, with the majority of members coming from the poorer districts of Havana.^[96][97][98] Although Castro's political ideology was that of revolutionary socialism, he avoided an alliance with the communist PSP, fearing that this would frighten away the political moderates who were members of the Movement,^[99] but did keep in contact with some of the PSP's members, who included his brother and fellow conspirator Raúl.^[100] He would later relate that the members of the Movement were on the whole simply anti-Batista, and few had strong socialist or anti-imperialist views, something which Castro attributed to "the overwhelming weight of the Yankees' ideological and advertising machinery" which he felt had suppressed class consciousness amongst Cuba's working class.^[98]

Castro's Movement was not the only militant group that wanted to oust Batista. One of the Orthodoxo's founding members, the Professor of Philosophy Rafael García Bárcena, had founded the National Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Nacional Revolucionaria – MNR). Consisting largely of middle-class members, it contrasted with Castro's predominantly working class support base. In March 1953, the MNR had planned to attack and seize control of the barracks at Camp Colombia, but police had been alerted to the plot, with the conspirators being rounded up and tortured. In all, fourteen people were sentenced to imprisonment for the attack.^{[101][102][103]} Meanwhile, Castro had been having similar ideas, stockpiling weapons in order to lead the armed wing of the Movement in an attack on the Moncada Barracks, a military garrison just outside Santiago de Cuba in Oriente. The plan was for Castro's members to dress in army uniforms and arrive at the base in cars on July 25, the festival of St James, when many of the officers would be on leave or celebrating in the nearby town. The rebels would then seize control of the barracks before the alarm could be raised, raid the armory and then escape before the army could bring in reinforcements.^[104] Supplied with a wealth of new weaponry, Castro believed that the Movement could arm local supporters and spark a revolution in Oriente, which was dominated by a population of impoverished cane-cutters. The plan was to then seize control of a radio station in Santiago, from which the Movement could broadcast their manifesto and promote widespread uprisings against Batista.^[105] In doing so, Castro's plan was directly emulating those of the 19th century Cuban independence fighters who had raided Spanish barracks, and in keeping with this Castro saw himself as the heir to independence leader and national hero José Martí, both leading national liberation struggles against foreign dominance.^[106][107]

Fidel Castro under arrest in July 1953 after the Moncada attack.

Castro had gathered together 165 members of the Movement to take part in the mission, 138 of which were stationed in Santiago, with the other 27 instead positioned in Bayamo. The majority of them were young men from Havana and Pinar del Río, and Castro ensured that, with the exception of himself, none of the volunteers had children.^[108] The plan had been carefully orchestrated, and Castro ordered his troops not to cause bloodshed unless they met armed resistance.^[109] The attack took place on July 26, 1953, but before it had even begun it ran into trouble; of the sixteen cars that had set out from Santiago, one broke down on the way and two others got separated from the main convoy. When they eventually reached the barracks, further problems arose and soon the alarm was raised by the guards, with most of the rebels being pinned down outside of the base by machine gun fire. Those that managed to get inside faced heavy resistance, and four of them were killed by gunfire before Castro, realizing that he was heavily outnumbered, ordered his men to retreat.^[110][111] In the attack, the rebels had suffered 6 fatalities and 15 other casualties, whilst the government forces had faced a heavier toll, with 19 dead and 27 wounded.^[112] Meanwhile, some of the other rebels had taken over a civilian hospital, but as the main attack on the barracks failed, government soldiers stormed the hospital, rounding up the rebels, before torturing them for information and finally summarily executing 22 of them without trial.^[112] Those rebels that had been able to escape, and who included both Fidel and his brother Raúl, had assembled at their base, the Siboney Farm, where some debated surrender, while others wished to flee to Havana. Accompanied by 19 comrades, Castro however decided to set out for the rugged Gran Piedra mountains several miles to the north, where they could establish a guerrilla base and continue their revolutionary activities.^{[113][114][115]}

In response to the Moncada attack, Batista's government ordered a violent crackdown on all dissent (orchestrated by both the army and the SIM police), declaring martial law and imposing strict censorship on the media. Government propaganda began broadcasting misinformation about the event, claiming that the rebels had murdered patients in the civilian hospital and asserting that the Movement was a communist group financed by the exiled President Prío (ignoring the fact that the latter was a fierce anti-communist). Despite this censorship, news and photographs soon spread of the army's use of torture and summary executions in Oriente, causing widespread public and even some governmental disapproval.^[116][117]

Arrest and trial: 1953[link]

Over the next few days all of the rebels hiding in the mountains were rounded up by government forces and transported to a prison north of Santiago, although Castro was not executed on the spot as many of his comrades had been.^[119][120] Believing that Castro had been incapable of planning the attack by himself, the government accused politicians from the Ortodoxo and communist PSP of being involved in masterminding the attack, and in all 122 defendants, amongst them Castro, were put on trial on September 21 at the Palace of Justice in Santiago.^[121][122] Although censored from reporting on it, journalists were permitted to attend the proceedings, which proved an embarrassment for the Batista administration. Acting as his own defense council, Castro convinced the three presiding judges to overrule the army's decision to keep all defendants handcuffed in court, before proceeding to argue that the charge with which they were all accused – of 'organizing an uprising of armed persons against the Constitutional Powers of the State' – was incorrect, for they had risen up not against the Constitutional Powers of the State but against Batista, who had seized power in an unconstitutional manner. When asked who was the intellectual author of the attack, Castro claimed that it was the long deceased national icon José Martí, before quoting some of Martí's works that justified uprisings against tyrannical regimes.^[123][124]

As the trial went on, knowledge of the torture that army officers inflicted on their captives emerged. These included castration using a razor and the gouging out of eyes with bayonets; the judges agreed that full investigations into these crimes would have to be undertaken. These revelations proved to be a great embarrassment to the army, who tried unsuccessfully to prevent Castro from testifying any further by claiming that he was too ill to leave his cell.^[125] The trial came to an end on October 5, with all of the politicians and many of the rebels being acquitted, although 55 were sentenced to prison terms of between 7 months and 13 years. Castro was sentenced separately, on October 16, during which he proceeded to deliver a speech that would later be printed under the title of History Will Absolve Me.^[126][127] Although the maximum penalty for leading an uprising was a 20 year prison sentence, Castro was sentenced to 15 years, being imprisoned in the hospital wing of the Model Prison (Presidio Modelo) on the Isla de Pinos, sixty miles off of Cuba's southwest coast.^[127][128]

Imprisonment and the July 26 Movement: 1953–1955[link]

Imprisoned in the Presidio Modelo with 25 of his fellow conspirators, Castro devoted himself to politics once more, changing the name of "The Movement" to the "July 26 Movement", in memory of the date of the failed Moncada attack. Forming a school for prisoners, the Abel Santamaría Ideological Academy, Castro organized five hours a day of teaching, with himself and other Movement members lecturing on such subjects as ancient and modern history, philosophy and the English language.^[131][132] Making use of the prison library and gifts from friends outside of prison, he continued reading widely, enjoying the works of Marx, Lenin, and Martí but also reading books by Sigmund Freud, Immanuel Kant, William Shakespeare, Axel Munthe, Somerset Maugham and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, analyzing most of them within a Marxist framework.^[133][134] He corresponded with those outside of prison, trying to maintain control over his Movement without giving too much away to the prison censors, who read all of his letters, and also organized the publication of his History Will Absolve Me speech.^[135][136] Although at first having a fair amount of freedom within the prison, this came to an end after prison inmates embarrassed the guards by singing anti-Batista songs on a visit by the President in February 1954. In retaliation, the prison authorities removed most of the privileges that Castro and other prisoners were allowed, locking Castro up in solitary confinement indefinitely.^[137][138]

Meanwhile, Castro's wife Mirta, who did not share his obsession with political activism, had gained employment in the Ministry of the Interior, thereby working for Batista's government. She had been encouraged to do by her brother, who had been a friend and ally of Batista for many years. This was kept a secret from Castro, who eventually found out through a radio announcement. Appalled, he raged that he would rather die "a thousand times" than "suffer impotently from such an insult". Both Fidel and Mirta initiated divorce proceedings, with Mirta taking custody of their son Fidelito; this angered Castro, who did not want his son growing up in a bourgeois environment.^[139][140]

In 1954, Batista's government went ahead with their earlier promises and held presidential elections, but no politician had risked standing against Batista lest they face violent reprisals. Batista won comfortably, but the election was widely recognized as fraudulent. It had however allowed some political opposition to be openly voiced, and supporters of Castro and his Movement had begun agitating for an amnesty for all those imprisoned over the Moncada incident. Some government politicians suggested that such an amnesty would provide good publicity, and the Congress and Batista eventually agreed. Backed by the U.S. government and major corporations, Batista believed that Castro would be no political threat to his regime, and on May 15, 1955 the prisoners were released.^[141][142]

Returning to Havana, Castro was met by his supporters, being carried along on the shoulders of students, and set about giving various radio interviews and press conferences.^[143][144] Now divorced, Castro had sexual affairs with two of his female supporters, Naty Revuelta and Maria Laborde, who each conceived him a child.^[143][145] He also set about to strengthen his anti-Batista revolutionary Movement, welcoming members of the now defunct MNR into it, and establishing an eleven-person National Directorate of the 26 July Revolutionary Movement (or MR-26-7). Despite these structural changes, there was still dissent within the group, with some members questioning Castro's autocratic leadership. Castro dismissed their proposals for the leadership to be transferred to a democratic board, arguing that a successful revolution could not be run by a committee. Some of them subsequently abandoned the MR-26-7, labeling Castro a caudillo (dictator), although the majority accepted his reasoning and remained loyal.^[146][147]

Mexico and guerrilla training: 1955–1956[link]

Fidel's brother Raúl Castro (left) and Argentine friend Che Guevara (right), both of whom were devout and vocal Marxist-Leninists. As Castro would later relate: "[Che] distinguished himself in so many ways, through so many fine qualities... As a man, as an extraordinary human being. He was also a person of great culture, a person of great intelligence. And with military qualities as well. Che was a doctor who became a soldier without ceasing for a single minute to be a doctor."^[148]

In 1955, a series of bomb attacks and violent demonstrations against Batista's administration led to a crackdown on dissent in Cuba, with Castro being placed under armed guard by his supporters as protection from possible assassination attempts. His brother Raúl was accused of one bomb attack and fled the county, with Fidel deciding to follow on July 7. Those members of the MR-26-7 that remained in Cuba were left with orders to prepare cells for revolutionary action in all of the country's main towns and cities, and await Castro's return, when he would bring with him an army to topple Batista.^[149][150] He sent a letter to the country's political leaders and the press, declaring that he was "leaving Cuba because all doors of peaceful struggle have been closed to me. Six weeks after being released from prison I am convinced more than ever of the dictatorship's intention, masked in many ways, to remain in power for twenty years, ruling as now by the use of terror and crime and ignoring the patience of the Cuban people, which has its limits. As a follower of Martí, I believe the hour has come to take our rights and not beg for them, to fight instead of pleading for them."^[151]

The Castro brothers and a number of other MR-26-7 members traveled to Mexico, a country with a long history of offering asylum to left-wing exiles.^[152][153] Raúl had befriended one such exile, an Argentine doctor and Marxist-Leninist named Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928–1967), who was a proponent of guerrilla warfare and who was keen to join the Cuban Revolution as a part of his deeply held belief in overthrowing U.S. imperialism in Latin America. Upon meeting Guevara, Fidel took a liking to him, later describing him as being "a more advanced revolutionary than I was."^{[154][155][156]} Another socialist revolutionary whom Castro began associating with was the Cuban-born Spaniard Colonel Alberto Bayo (1892–1967), who had fought for the leftist Republican side in the Spanish Civil War during the 1930s, before being exiled upon the victory of the fascist General Francisco Franco and his Falange. Bayo agreed to teach Fidel's rebels the skills in guerrilla warfare that they would need if they were to return to Cuba to battle Batista, clandestinely meeting them at various premises.^{[157][158][159]}

In desperate need of money to finance his activities, Castro went on a tour of the United States in search of wealthy sympathizers, including the exiled former President Prío (who contributed the considerable sum of $100,000), during which time he was monitored by agents of Batista's government who at one point allegedly orchestrated a failed plot to kill him. These agents also bribed Mexican police to arrest Castro and other MR-26-7 members in the country, but ultimately the revolutionaries were all released, particularly as several members of the Mexican government sympathized with their cause.^[160][161] Castro had also kept in contact with the MR-26-7 agents who had remained in Cuba, where they had succeeded in getting a large clandestine support base in several towns in Oriente.^[157][162] Other militant groups had also sprung up to oppose Batista within the country, primarily from the ranks of the student movement; most notable of these was the Revolutionary Directorate (DR), which had been founded by the Federation of University Students (FEU) President José Antonio Echevarría. Antonio traveled to Mexico City to meet with Castro, but the two disagreed widely on tactics, with Castro opposing with the young student's policy of supporting indiscriminate assassinations of anyone in the government.^[163][164]

Purchasing a decrepit old yacht, the Granma, it was on the 25 November 1956 that Castro set sail from Tuxpan in Veracruz, Mexico with a group of 81 revolutionaries, armed with 90 rifles, 3 machine guns, around 40 pistols and 2 hand-held anti-tank guns.^{[165][166][167]} The 1,200 mile crossing to Cuba was harsh, and in the overcrowded conditions of the ship (which was designed to hold around 20 passengers), many of the men suffered from seasickness, and food supplies began to run low. At some points they had to bail water caused by a leak, and at another a man fell overboard, delaying their journey.^[168][169] The plan had been for the journey to take five days, and on the Granma's scheduled day of arrival, 30 November, members of the MR-26-7 in Cuba under the leadership of Frank Pais led an armed uprising against government buildings in Santiago, Manzanillo and several other towns.^[168][170] However, the crossing in the Granma ultimately lasted for seven days, and with Castro and his men unable to provide immediate back-up, Pais and those MR-26-7 members under his leadership dispersed to their homes after two days of intermittent attacks, having "suffered very few casualties and arrests".^[168]

Guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra: 1956–1958[link]

The Granma landed in Cuba on 2 December 1956, crashing in a mangrove swamp at Playa Las Coloradas, close to Los Cayuelos. Batista's forces had been expecting them, and within several hours of their arrival they were bombarded from a naval vessel. Fleeing inland, they headed for the Sierra Maestra in Oriente, a large forested mountain range from where they could lead a guerrilla war against Batista.^[171][172] At daybreak on 5 December they were unexpectedly attacked by a detachment of Batista's Rural Guard; in the confusion, the rebels scattering into different groups which continued making their journey to the Sierra Maestra independently.^[173][174] With only two comrades, Castro made it to the mountains, along the way meeting up with others who had survived the attack; ultimately it was discovered that of the 82 rebels who had arrived on the Granma, only 19 had made it to the Sierra Maestra, the rest being killed or captured by Batista's forces.^[175][176]

Setting up an encampment in the thick jungle of the Sierra Maestra, the survivors, who included Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raúl Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos,^[177] began launching attacks on small army posts in the region in order to steal weaponry. In January 1957 they attacked the outpost near to the beach at La Plata, defeating the soldiers stationed there. Being a doctor, Guevara treated the soldiers for any injuries, but the revolutionaries executed the local mayoral (land company overseer) Chicho Osorio, who was despised by the local peasants and who had boasted of killing one of the MR-26-7 rebels several weeks previously.^[178] The execution of Osorio aided the rebels in gaining the trust of local people, who typically hated the mayorals as enforcers of the much-despised wealthy landowners. Nonetheless, the locals were initially unenthusiastic in their support for the guerrillas, viewing them with suspicion as outsiders.^[179][180] As trust grew between the two communities, some locals joined the rebels, although the majority of new recruits came from urban areas, traveling to the Sierra Maestra in order to aid the revolutionary effort.^[181][182] With rising levels of support and increasing number of volunteers joining the rebel army, which now numbered over 200, in July 1957 Castro eventually divided his men into three columns, keeping charge of one and giving control of the others to his brother and Che Guevara.^[183] The MR-26-7 members operating in urban areas continued agitating against the government, sending supplies to the Sierra Maestra rebels and on 16 February 1957 Castro met with other leading members of the group to discuss tactics; it was here that he met Celia Sánchez, who would become a close friend.^[181][184]

The Cuban Revolution was not contained to the MR-26-7, and across Cuba militant groups were beginning to rise up against Batista. Most notably, Antonio and his DR had been carrying out bombings and acts of sabotage, leading the police to respond with mass arrests, the torture of suspects and extra-judicial killings. In March 1957 the DR launched an attack on the presidential palace, with Batista himself narrowly surviving. The rebels were eventually defeated, and Antonio was shot dead by police in the street as he attempted to issue a radio broadcast. His death would prove beneficial for Castro, removing a charismatic rival to his leadership of the anti-Batista movement.^[186][187] Although already a Marxist-Leninist, Castro kept his beliefs a secret from many of the MR-26-7, something in contrast to Guevara and Raúl, whose beliefs were well known. In this way he hoped to gain a wider support base amongst those of other political persuasions, and in 1957 he met with leading members of the Partido Ortodoxo. Castro and the Ortodoxo leaders Raúl Chibás and Felipe Pazos drafted and signed a document called the Sierra Maestra Manifesto in which they laid out their plans for a post-Batista Cuba. Rejecting the idea that Cuba should be run by a provisional military junta following Batista's demise, it demanded that a provisional civilian government be set up that was "supported by all" and which would implement moderate agrarian reform, industrialization and a campaign to wipe out illiteracy before introducing "truly fair, democratic, impartial, elections". It also insisted on both press freedom and free elections within Cuba's trade unions.^{[188][189][190]}

Batista's government censored the Cuban media, and so Castro felt it would be beneficial to reach out and contact foreign media sources in order to spread his message. A U.S. journalist from the The New York Times named Herbert Matthews came to interview Castro, attracting international interest to the rebel's cause and turning him into a celebrity. The New York Times front page story presented Castro as a romantic and appealing revolutionary, and exaggerated the number of troops and resources that he had at his command, with Matthews declaring that "Batista cannot possibly hope to suppress the Castro revolt".^{[191][192][193][194]} Soon, other reporters followed in Matthews' footsteps by traveling to the Sierra Maestra to interview Castro, sent by such news agencies as CBS,^[195] while a reporter from Paris Match stayed with the rebels for around 4 months, documenting their daily routine.^[196] The number of attacks that Castro's guerrilla's undertook against military outposts in and around the mountains increased, forcing the government to withdraw from all its posts in the region.^[183][197] By the spring of 1958 the rebels controlled all of the mountainous areas in Oriente province, controlling a hospital, schools, a printing press, slaughterhouse, land-mine factory and a cigar-making factory.^[198]

Countering Operation Verano: 1958[link]

President Batista was coming under increasing pressure by 1958. His army's military failures in Oriente, coupled with his censorship of the media and the repressive techniques of torture and extra-judicial killings employed by the police and armed forces were being increasingly criticized both at home and abroad. Influenced by a wave of anti-Batista sentiment amongst their citizens, the U.S. government made the decision to stop supplying him with weaponry, which he had been using against the rebels, leading him to instead begin buying arms from the United Kingdom.^[199] The opposition used this as an opportunity to rise up across the country, proposing a general strike which would be accompanied by armed attacks from the MR-26-7. The strike began on 9 April, and while receiving strong support in the center and east of Cuba, in Havana and other urbanized western parts of the country most workers continued working as usual.^[200][201]

Batista's response was to launch an all-out-attack on Castro's guerrilla forces, known as Operation Verano. The army began aerial bombardment of forested areas and villages that were suspected of aiding and hiding the militants, whilst 10,000 soldiers under the command of General Eulogio Cantillo surrounded the Sierra Maestra, driving north to the areas where the rebels were camped. Despite their massive superiority of numbers and weaponry, the army were at a disadvantage, having no experience with guerrilla warfare or the mountainous region. Castro, who by this time had around 300 men at his command, avoided open confrontation, instead using land mines and ambushes to halt the enemy offensive.^[204] The army suffered heavy losses and a number of embarrassments; in June 1958 a battalion was trapped in a valley by the rebels and forced to surrender. Their weapons were confiscated, and they were handed over to the Red Cross.^[205] Many of Batista's soldiers, appalled at the human rights abuses that they were being ordered to carry out, defected to Castro's rebel force, who also benefited from "overwhelming" popular support in those areas that they captured.^[206]

In the summer, the MR-26-7 went on the offensive, pushing the government forces back, out of the mountain range and into the lowlands, with Castro using his columns in a pincer movement to surround the main army concentration in Santiago. By November, Castro's forces had most of Oriente and Las Villas under his control, and although the capitals of Santiago and Santa Clara remained in government hands, their grip on them was slipping. Through control of Las Villas, the rebels had been able to divide the country in two by closing the major roads and rail lines, severely disadvantaging Batista's forces.^[207][208]

Batista's fall and Cantillo's military junta: 1958–1959[link]

Castro (right) with fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos entering Havana on January 8, 1959. Castro would later describe Cienfuegos as having "distinguished himself" amongst his men, relating that "He wasn't as intellectual as Che, but he was very, very brave, an eminent leader, very daring, very humane."^[209]

The U.S. government had come to realize that Batista would probably lose the war, and fearing that Castro, under the influence of known Marxist-Leninists like Che Guevara, would displace U.S. interests with socialist reforms, they decided to support Batista's removal in support of a military junta led by centrist or right wing officers, believing that General Cantillo, who then commanded most of the country's armed forces, would be best placed to lead it. After being approached with this proposal, Cantillo decided to secretly meet with Castro to see if they could bring an end to the fighting, and ultimately it was agreed that the two would call a ceasefire, following which Batista would be apprehended and tried as a war criminal.^[210][211] Double crossing Castro, Cantillo warned Batista of the revolutionary's intentions. Wishing to avoid a war crimes tribunal, Batista resigned on 31 December 1958, informing the armed forces that they were now under Cantillo's control. With his family and closest advisers, Batista then fled into exile, taking with him an amassed fortune of more than US$ 300,000,000.^[212][211] The following morning Cantillo entered the Presidential Palace in Havana, proclaimed the Supreme Court judge Carlos Piedra to be the new President, and began appointing new members of the government.^[212]

Still in Oriente, Castro was furious at Cantillo's actions, recognizing it as the establishment of a military junta. He told his troops to end the ceasefire and continue on the offensive against government forces.^[212][213] The MR-26-7 put together a plan to oust the Cantillo-Piedra junta, freeing the high ranking military officer Colonel Barquin from the Isle of Pines prison (where he had been held captive for plotting to overthrow Batista), and commanding him to fly to Havana to place Cantillo under house arrest.^[212][213] While there was widespread celebrations as news of Batista's downfall spread across Cuba on 1 January 1959, Castro gave an order to MR-26-7 members to take on the responsibility of policing the country, in order to prevent the widespread looting and vandalism that he had witnessed in the Bogotazo.^[214][215]

Whilst Cienfuegos and Guevara led their columns of soldiers into Havana onto 2 January, Castro entered Santiago, where he accepted the surrender of the Moncada Barracks, before giving a speech to the assembled crowds in which he invoked the 19th century wars of independence against the Spanish Empire. He proceeded to speak out against the Cantillo-Piedra junta but highlighted that the majority of soldiers in the armed forces were honorable, and that only the few who had committed human rights abuses would be brought to justice. He also praised the role that women had played in the MR-26-7, and proclaimed that they would have equal rights in the new Cuba.^[216] Along the way he also met with the mother of the dead revolutionary, José Antonio Echevarría.^[217] Castro immediately became a heroic figure to the Cuban people, striking a "Christ-like figure" and wearing a medallion of the Virgin Mary, with cheering crowds meeting him at every town on his way to Havana. Along the way he gave speeches, press conferences and interviews, with U.S. and other foreign reporters noting that the public adulation of Castro was on an unprecedented scale.^{[218][219][220]}

Provisional government: 1959[link]

In the Sierra Maestra, Castro had made his opinion clear that the lawyer Manuel Urrutia Lleó (1901–1981) should become the new Cuban president and leader of a provisional civilian government following Batista's fall. A political moderate, Urrutia had defended several MR-26-7 revolutionaries in court during the Batista administration, and had argued that the attack on the Moncada Barracks was legal according to the Cuban constitution. For this reason Castro believed that Urrutia would make a good leader, being both established yet sympathetic to the revolutionary cause. Following the house arrest of Cantillo and the ensuing collapse of the junta, Urrutia was proclaimed to be Cuba's provisional president, with Castro erroneously announcing that he had been selected for the position by "popular election".^[221][222] On January 8, 1959, Castro's army rolled victoriously into Havana, and he would shortly thereafter declare that "power does not interest me, and I will not take it."^[223] Proclaiming himself to be the Representative of the Rebel Armed Forces of the Presidency,^[224] Castro, along with a number of close aides and family members, set up both home and office in the penthouse of the Havana Hilton Hotel, there meeting with journalists, foreign visitors and government ministers.^[225][224]

While he officially had no role within the provisional civilian government, in reality Castro exercised a great deal of political control, largely because of his overwhelming popularity with the Cuban populace and his control of the rebel armed forces. He ensured that the government implemented a number of policies designed to cut corruption and fight illiteracy, but did not initially force through any radical proposals. Attempting to rid Cuba's government of Batistanos and their corruption, the Congress that had been elected under Batista was abolished, and all those elected in the rigged elections of 1954 and 1958 were banned from political life. With the government now ruling by decree, Castro ordered a temporary ban on all political parties, but repeatedly claimed that the government would get around to organizing multiparty elections, which ultimately it never did.^[226][227] He began secretly meeting with leading members of the banned communist Popular Socialist Party, believing that they had the intellectual capacity to form a socialist government where the MR-26-7 did not.^[228][229] He nonetheless kept his true political persuasions a secret from the public eye, and repeatedly denied being a communist.^[230]

In trying to suppress the revolution, Batista's government had orchestrated mass human rights abuses, with estimates putting the death toll in the region of 20,000, and now popular uproar across Cuba demanded that those figures who had been complicit in the widespread torture and killing of civilians be brought to justice. Although he remained a moderating force and tried to prevent the mass reprisal killings of Batistanos advocated by many Cubans, Castro helped to set-up trials of many figures involved in the old regime across the country, resulting in hundreds of executions. Critics, in particular from the U.S. press, argued that many of these did not meet the standards of a fair trial, and condemned Cuba's new government as being more interested in vengeance than justice. Castro retaliated strongly against such accusations, proclaiming that "revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction". In a show of support for this "revolutionary justice", he organized the first Havana trial to take place before a mass audience of 17,000 at the Sports Palace stadium; when a group of aviators accused of bombing a village were found not guilty, he ordered a retrial in which they were instead found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.^[233][234]

Widely acclaimed as a hero across Latin America, he soon traveled to Venezuela to attend the first anniversary celebrations of the overthrow of the former right wing president, Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Meeting President-elect Rómulo Betancourt, Castro proposed greater relations between the two nations, unsuccessfully requesting a loan of $300,000,000 and a new deal to obtain Venezuelan oil.^[235] Returning home, an argument between Castro and senior government figures broke out when the government banned the National Lottery and closed down the casinos and brothels that had flourished under Batista's regime. While agreeing that gambling and prostitution should be eradicated, Castro was furious with the manner in which this law had been passed, leaving thousands of Cuban waiters, croupiers and prostitutes unemployed, usually with no other skills to fall back on. As a result of the argument, Prime Minister José Miró Cardona resigned, going into exile in the U.S. and eventually involving himself in the militant anti-Castro movement.^[236][237]

Premiership[link]

Consolidating leadership: 1959[link]

		Castro in Washington, D.C., arriving at the MATS Terminal (left) and visiting the Lincoln Memorial (right).
Castro in Washington, D.C., arriving at the MATS Terminal (left) and visiting the Lincoln Memorial (right).

On February 16, 1959, Castro took the vacancy left by Miró, being sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba. Initially proclaiming his reluctance in taking the role, he agreed to accept it on the condition that the Prime Minister's powers be increased, in part to the detriment of the President.^[238][239] One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to travel to the United States between 15 and 26 April, accompanied by a delegation of industrial and diplomatic representatives. Castro hired one of the country's best public relations firms for a charm offensive, appearing as a "man of the people" by answering impertinent questions jokingly and eating hot dogs and hamburgers. The U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower of the Republican Party, avoided meeting with Castro, who instead met with Vice President Richard Nixon, a man Castro took an instant dislike to.^{[240][241][242]} Rather than returning straight to Cuba, Castro traveled to Canada, Trinidad, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, attending an economic conference in Buenos Aires, where he unsuccessfully proposed that the U.S. fund a "Marshall Plan" for Latin America.^[243][244]

Castro took a great interest in rural life, and appointed himself to the presidency of the newly created National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA). On 17 May 1959, Castro signed into law the First Agrarian Reform, which limited landholdings to 993 acres (4.02 km²) per owner and forbade further foreign land ownership. As a result, all of the large land-holdings were broken up, and the land redistributed to the peasants who worked it; an estimated 200,000 peasants received title deeds as a result of its implementation. To Castro, this was an important progressive step, breaking the control of the wealthy landowning class over Cuba's agriculture; it proved popular among the working class, but also alienated many in the middle classes who had previously supported Castro.^{[245][246][247]} In March 1959, Castro ordered that rents for those who paid less than $100 a month should be cut in half, with measures implemented to increase the Cuban people's purchasing powers, although productivity decreased and the country's financial reserves were drained within two years.^[248]

Although at the time he refused to categorize his regime as socialist, Castro appointed known Marxists to senior positions throughout Cuban society. He controversially appointed Che Guevara, an Argentinian with no training in economics, to the position of Governor of the Central Bank and then Minister of Industries, while Marxists took control of most of the country's trade unions. Castro appointed Marxists to senior positions in the armed forces, leading to a backlash from various high ranking anti-communist officers; the commander of the Air Force, Díaz Lanz, soon defected to the United States, calling for the U.S. government to do something before a Marxist regime took over in Cuba.^[249][250] These defections were denounced by President Manuel Urrutia Lleó, but he too publicly expressed concern with the rising influence of Marxism. This angered Castro, who publicly announced that he was resigning from his position as Prime Minister because Urrutia "complicated" government, arguing that the president's "fevered anti-Communism" was having a detrimental effect. Castro's sentiments received widespread support as organized crowds of over half a million Castro-supporters surrounded the Presidential Palace demanding Urrutia's resignation, which was duly received. On July 23, Castro resumed his position as Prime Minister and appointed the Marxist Osvaldo Dorticós to be the new President.^[251][252]

Castro made use of radio and the newly developed technology of television to communicate with the Cuban populace, developing what he called a "dialogue with the people", during which he would pose questions and make intentionally provocative statements.^[254] Such tactics proved successful, and Castro's regime remained highly popular with workers, peasants and students, all of whom had benefited from its policies.^[255] Nonetheless, opposition continued to grow, particularly within the Cuban middle classes, with thousands of educated doctors, engineers and other professionals emigrating to Florida in the U.S., causing a brain drain on the island's economy.^[256][257] Militant anti-Castro groups sprung up, undertaking armed attacks against government forces, with some setting up guerrilla bases in Cuba's mountainous regions. They were funded and armed by various foreign sources, including the exiled Cuban community, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Dominican government of General Rafael Trujillo.^[256] Castro's government began a crackdown on this opposition movement, labeling it counter-revolutionary, and arresting hundreds of dissidents.^{[255][258][259]} Although it rejected the methods of physical torture which had been employed by Batista's regime, Castro's government sanctioned the use of psychological torture, subjecting some prisoners to solitary confinement, rough treatment, hunger and threatening behavior.^[260] After conservative editors and journalists began expressing hostility towards the government following its leftward turn, the pro-Castro printers' trade union began to harass and disrupt editorial staff. In January 1960 the government proclaimed that each newspaper would be obliged to publish a "clarification" written by the printers' union to the end of any articles which were critical of the government. This would prove to be the start of press censorship in Castro's Cuba.^[261][262]

Soviet support and U.S. opposition: 1960[link]

Castro (far left) with other leading politicians, marching through the street in memory of the Le Coubre disaster, 5 March 1960.

At the start of the 1960s, the Cold War was raging between the Earth's two great superpowers, the United States, a liberal democracy with a capitalist economy, and the Soviet Union, a Marxist-Leninist one-party state with a socialist economy. Castro had long expressed contempt for the U.S. government and their support of Batista's regime, as well as their imperialist and exploitative attitude towards Cuba, while he shared the ideological views of the Soviet government. Castro subsequently met with a Soviet KGB agent operating in Havana, and discussed the possibility of initiating a trading relationship with the Soviet Union (USSR). Meeting with Soviet First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan, Castro agreed to provide the USSR with sugar in return for crude oil, fertilizers and industrial goods.^[263][264] Relations were also established with other Marxist-Leninist governments, such as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the People's Republic of Poland and the People's Republic of China.^[265]

The Cuban government ordered the country's refineries (then controlled by the U.S. corporations Shell, Esso and Standard Oil) to process this Soviet oil, but under pressure from the U.S. government, they refused. Castro responded by expropriating the refineries and nationalizing them under state control. In retaliation, the U.S. cancelled its import of Cuban sugar, provoking Castro to nationalize most U.S.-owned assets on the island, including banks and sugar mills.^[266][267] Relations between Cuba and the U.S. were further strained following the explosion and sinking of a French vessel, the Le Coubre, in Havana harbor in March 1960. Carrying weapons purchased from Belgium, the cause of the explosion was never determined, but Castro publicly accused the U.S. government of sabotage.^[268][269] Secretly, on 17 March 1960, President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to covertly overthrow Castro's government, permitting them to ally with the Mafia criminal organization in doing so; the Mafia despised Castro for closing down their casinos and other businesses in Cuba.^[270][265] In October 1960, the U.S. government then prohibited most exports to Cuba, marking the start of an economic embargo that would devastate the island's economy for decades to come.^[271]

Castro at the United Nations General Assembly in 1960.

In September 1960, Castro flew to New York City for the General Assembly of the United Nations. Taking offense at the attitude of the elite Shelburne Hotel, he and his entourage instead stayed at the cheap, run-down Hotel Theresa in the impoverished area of Harlem. Here, he met with a number of journalists as well as anti-establishment figures like the African-American leader Malcolm X. At the hotel he was also visited by the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khruschev, and the two leaders used the occasion as a press opportunity to highlight the poverty faced by many U.S. citizens in areas like Harlem; Castro would later describe New York as a "city of persecution" in reference to the treatment of working class and African-Americans by the establishment. Relations between Castro and Khrushchev were warm, with the two leading the applause to one another's speeches at the General Assembly. Although Castro still publicly denied being a Marxist or even a socialist, Khrushchev would privately inform his entourage that the Cuban would become "a beacon of Socialism in Latin America."^[272][273] During the trip, Castro was also visited by two other senior world leaders, the socialists President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and President Jawaharlal Nehru of India.^[274]

Returning to Cuba, Castro feared that the U.S. would attempt to overthrow his government, and so purchased tanks and other weaponry from the Soviets.^[275] In September 1960, he created the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, a nationwide organization of civilian groups who implemented neighborhood spying in an effort to weed out "counter-revolutionary" activities and who could back up the regular army in the case of invasion. Eventually, 80% of the Cuban population would be involved in these Committees.^[275] Health care was socialised.^[276]

The Bay of Pigs Invasion: 1961[link]

Che Guevara (left) and Castro, photographed by Alberto Korda in 1961.

By January 1961, the U.S. Embassy in Havana had 300 staff, of whom 80% were believed by Castro to be spies. He ordered the Embassy to reduce its size to match that of the Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C. The U.S. response was to cut off all diplomatic relations with Cuba, with the CIA increasing its support for militant dissidents in exile. Such dissident groups began attacking ships trading with Cuba, and organized raiding parties to destroy Cuban factories and sugar mills in an attempt to disrupt the island's economy.^[277] Under the Eisenhower administration, the CIA had organized a plan to invade Cuba using exiled Cuban dissidents as soldiers, thereby avoiding an international condemnation that would have arisen if they used U.S. troops. Following the election of Democratic Party nominee John F. Kennedy as U.S. President in 1961, the CIA gained his support for continuing with the plan, which would result in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of April 1961. Brigade 2506, made up of around 1,400 Cuban dissidents, divided into five infantry and one paratrooper battalions, had assembled in Guatemala, a U.S. ally, before being transported to another pro-U.S. state, Nicaragua, from which they set off aboard seven ships toward Cuba on 13 April. On 15 April, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers took off from Nicaragua and bombed three Cuban military airfields, damaging runways and fighter planes, as well as killing 7 and injuring 52. The U.S. government immediately proclaimed that the bombers had belonged to Cuba's air force and had been commandeered by dissidents who wanted to defect to the U.S.; in retaliation, Castro publicly went on state television to denounce their claims, providing evidence to expose their misinformation.^[278]

Castro feared that the bombing was a prelude to an invasion, putting the armed forces on maximum alert and ordering the arrest of anyone suspected of having counter-revolutionary sympathies. This constituted at least 20,000 people, who were detained in prisons, theaters and sport centres. At the funerals of the dead airmen on 16 April, he publicly proclaimed that "What the imperialists cannot forgive us, is that we have made a Socialist revolution under their noses." This was his first ever declaration that the Cuban revolutionary movement was socialist in character, and he proceeded to declare that his movement was "a revolution of the humble, with the humble, for the humble, democratic and Socialist."^[279]

At night, the invasion fleet landed in Cuba largely undetected along the narrow inlet known as the Bay of Pigs. A local revolutionary militia opened fire on the invaders, but was forced back by heavy fire from the landing craft. Castro had not expected this to be their landing site, and as a result it was a poorly defended stretch of coast. He ordered Captain José Ramón Fernández to launch an immediate counter-offensive, and ordered the country's small air force to destroy the Brigade 2506's ships which contained weapons, food and medical supplies for the dissidents. Eventually taking direct command of the operation, Castro oversaw the counter-offensive, bringing in reinforcements and tanks to use against the rebel army. President Kennedy was unwilling to directly intervene with U.S. military support, and so on 20 April 1189 men of the Brigade 2506 surrendered to the Cuban army.^[280]

Celebrating his victory, Castro ordered that the rebels be interrogated on live television by a panel of journalists. He himself took over the questioning on 25 April, walking in among them with a microphone and asking them why they had taken part in the invasion. 14 of them were then put on trial for crimes that they allegedly committed before the revolution, while all of the others were returned to the U.S. in exchange for medicine and food valued at around U.S. $25 million.^[280] Castro's victory was a powerful symbol for his supporters, both at home and across Latin America, but also served to increase some internal opposition, particularly among the thousands of primarily middle-class Cubans who had been detained in the run-up to the invasion. Although most were freed within a few days, many decided to flee Castro's Cuba for Florida.^[282]

Embracing Socialism: 1961–1962[link]

Following the Bay of Pigs Invasion, on May Day 1961, Castro officially declared the Cuban government to be socialist.^[283] He founded a new political organization, the ORI, under which he united the MR-26-7, the Communists and the Revolutionary Directorate.^[284] The Soviet government were hesitant over Cuba's open embrace of socialism, fearing U.S. retaliation, but relations between the two nations deepened, with Castro supporting the USSR during the Sino-Soviet Split and sending his son Fidelito to be schooled in Moscow.^[284] In December 1961, Castro officially proclaimed himself to be a Marxist-Leninist, and in his subsequent Second Declaration of Havana called on the peoples of Latin America to rise up in violent revolution against their governments.^[285] In response, the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States expelled Cuba, while the Soviet government privately reprimanded Castro for being reckless, believing that other Latin American governments would now crack down on communists, ultimately hindering the cause of socialism.^[285]

Castro's government brought in measures to shape society using the Soviet model, persecuting both political opponents and perceived social deviants such as prostitutes and homosexuals. Castro expressed the opinion that homosexuality was a bourgeois decadence absent from working class rural areas, proclaiming that "in the country, there are no homosexuals".^[286] Members of his government spoke out against the treatment of gay people, noting the support of homosexual intellectuals in the Cuban Revolution, and ultimately Castro agreed that while they would be prevented from involvement in education, they would not be punished.^[287] Nevertheless, many homosexuals were rounded up by police and forced into a manual labor organization for criminals, the Military Units for the Support of Production (UMAP).^[288] Decades later, Castro expressed deep regret for these actions, taking full responsibility and calling them "moments of great injustice, great injustice!".^[289]

By 1962, the Cuban economy was in steep decline, a result of poor economic management coupled with the interference and trade embargo of the U.S. government. There were major food shortages, and the government introduced rationing, with a riot breaking out in Cárdenas.^[288] Security reports indicated that the Cuban people were increasingly associating the governing communists with austerity, shortages and persecution, and so in March 1962 Castro removed the most prominent "Old Communists" from office, labeling them too "sectarian".^[291] On a personal level, Castro was feeling increasingly lonely and isolated in his position as Prime Minister, and relations with his old friend Che Guevara became strained as the latter became increasingly anti-Soviet, instead favoring the Chinese Marxist-Leninist government of Mao Zedong in the Sino-Soviet Split.^[292]