Fidel Castro

Some Lesser Known Facts About Fidel Castro

• Did Fidel Castro smoke?: Not Known

• Did Fidel Castro drink alcohol?: Not Known

• He was born in Birán, Holguin Province, Cuba to a sugarcane farm owner.

• His father was a migrant to Cuba from Galicia in Spain, who became financially successful by growing sugarcane at Las Manacas farm in Birán, Oriente Province.

• At the age of 6, he was sent to live with his teacher in Santiago de Cuba.

• At the age of 8, he was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.

• He attended the La Salle boarding school in Santiago, where he misbehaved regularly.

• Initially he took interest in Geography, History and debating at Belén, however, he did not excel in academics, instead took much interest in playing.

• During his law studies, he became embroiled in student activism and also involved in the violent gangsterismo culture within the university.

• He admitted in an interview that he was “politically illiterate”.

• On a platform of “honesty, decency and justice”, he unsuccessfully campaigned for the presidency of the Federation of University Students.

• During his student years, he was very passionate about anti-imperialism.

• In November 1946, he delivered a speech in a protest against the violence and corruption of Ramon Grau’s government and received front-page coverage of several newspapers.

• He started carrying a gun in the university after receiving a death threat from the Grau’s government.

• In 1948, when he married Mirta Diaz Balart (a student from a wealthy family), he came to know about the lifestyle of the Cuban elite. Their marriage was a love match, which was disapproved by both the families; however, his father-in-law gave them tens of thousands of dollars for their 3-month New York City honeymoon.

• In 1950, he co-founded a legal partnership for the Cuban poor, which proved as a financial failure due to which he could not pay his bills, his furniture was sold and electricity was cut-off.

• He met Fulgencio Batista during the 1952 elections campaigns. Batista seized power in a military coup in March 1952 and declared himself President of Cuba.

• Castro launched a protest movement to oust the regime of Batista and in the process used various tactics like legal cases guerrilla attacks etc.

• He appeared in a military uniform during the attack on Moncada Barracks (a Cuban military base in Santiago de Cuba) in July 1952 and became famous throughout the Cuba, however, he was captured along with his brother Raul and was put in jail.

• He delivered a passionate speech during his trial and was sentenced 15 year jail-term; however, Batista released him after serving only 2 years in jail as he didn’t consider him a threat anymore.

• After his release, he went to Mexico and organized “26th of July Movement”.

• He met with the popular revolutionary figure Ernesto Che Guevara during his travel to Mexico and both bonded together to launch a revolution against the capitalist United States’ exploitation of Latin America. Che became the key partner of Castro in the Cuban Revolution. 

• On 2 December 1956, he arrived on Cuban soil along with the 16th July Movement rebels to start a revolution against the Batista government, however, he couldn’t be successful in that and had to begin guerrilla warfare against Batista’s government.

• During the process, he won the hearts of the Cuban people and Batista government lost the popular support of the Cuban people and ultimately Batista had to flee from Cuba on 1 January 1959.

• By July 1959, he effectively took over as the leader of Cuba and made radical changes in Cuba like nationalization of industries, collective agriculture and seizing American owned farms and businesses.

• He 1959, he visited the United States and met with Richard Nixon (the the Vice President of the USA) whom he disliked instantly. 

• In 1960, he attended the United Nations General Assembly. 

• He built a strong relation with the Soviet Union, which antagonized the United States.

• United States wanted to oust Castro and sponsored the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion that failed with huge loss of life.

• By 1962, United States imposed a near total embargo of trade with Cuba in order to cripple the Cuban economy and as result of which, Cuban products were no longer legal in the United States, US companies were prohibited to do businesses in Cuba and American citizens were prohibited to visit Cuba.

• United States made almost 100 attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, all without success.

• In 2008, he retired from the Presidency and adopted an advisory role in the Cuban Government.