You are here: MaxAbout.com > People

Fidel Castro

Personal Profile

Fidel Castro
  • Birth Name:
    Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
  • Nickname:
    El Comandante
    El Caballo
    El Jefe Maximo
  • Date of Birth:
    August 13, 1926
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Leo
  • Place of Birth:
    Biran, Oriente Province, Cuba
  • Sex:
    Male
  • Nationality:
    Cuban
  • Education:

    Catholic schools in Santiago

    Jesuit boarding school

     

     

  • Hobbies:
     Fishing, Hnting, Reading

Family

Fidel Castro
  • Brother:
    Raúl Castro
  • Spouse:
    Mirta Francisca de la - Divorced
    Dalia Soto del Valle -
  • Son:
    Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart

Career

Fidel Castro

Trivia

Fidel Castro
  • Early in 1952 Castro began campaigning for a seat in congress as a replacement for Chibás. Elections were never held, however.
  • On March 10 General Batista and his army overthrew the regime of Cuban president Carlos Prío Socarrás. For Castro, violence seemed the only way to oppose the military takeover.
  • Castro organized a group of followers and on July 26, 1953, attacked the Moncada military barracks in Oriente Province.
  • Castro was captured, tried, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
  • After being released by an amnesty (a government pardon) in 1955, Castro was sent to Mexico City, Mexico.
  • There he began organizing an expedition against Batista called the 26th of July Movement.
  • On December 2, 1956, Castro and eighty other men landed in Oriente Province. After encounters with the army, in which all but twelve of his men were killed or captured, Castro fled to the Sierra Maestra.
  • In these mountains, Castro designed a guerrilla operation, where a small band of revolutionaries would attempt to remove Batista.
  • Castro emerged as the undisputed leader of the anti-Batista movement, and his guerrillas increased their control over rural areas.
  • On April 9, 1958, Castro called a national strike. It was called off after Batista ordered strikers to be shot on sight, causing massive shootings. Soon Batista began losing power within his military.

Quotes

Fidel Castro
  • “[He charged that other INS documents make reference to efforts to] Show Fidel, ... we gave child back.”
  • “Hugo, nothing can stop you now.”
  • “They were planning a parallel summit.”
  • “It's important that our people know that they (the U.S. mission) aren't here just to give out visas but rather to wage war, to openly conspire against Cuba, openly and without hiding it.”
  • “put an end to the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people that is taking place while the world stares in amazement.”
  • “For every word you have said -- even those I might disagree with -- on behalf of all the Cuban people, Holy Father, I thank you!”
  • “Cuba knows no fear and despises deceit; it listens with respect but believes in its ideas; it firmly defends its principles and has nothing to hide from the world.”
  • “The plane will be ready to leave Tuesday if the visas are granted.”
  • “And now, suddenly you discover that almost everything is behind you, and that life has its limits.”
  • “Humanity will preserve an emotional memory of the tireless work of His Holiness John Paul II in favor of peace, justice and solidarity among all people.”
View all Quotes: Fidel Castro

Biography

Fidel Castro
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fidel Castro Castro was in Mayari municipality in the province of Oriente. He attended good Catholic schools in Santiago de Cuba and Havana, where he took to the spartan regime at a Jesuit boarding school, Colegio de Belen. In 1945 he enrolled at the University of Havana, graduating in 1950 with a law degree. He married Mirta Diaz-Balart in 1948, but they were divorced in 1954.

Their son, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, born in 1949, has served as head of Cuba's atomic energy commission. A member of the social-democratic Ortodoxo party in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Castro was an early and vocal opponent of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. On July 26, 1953, Castro led an attack on the Moncada army barracks that failed but brought him national prominence. At the time, his political ideas were nationalistic, antiimperialist, and reformist; he was not a member of the Communist party. Following the attack on Moncada, Castro was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison but was amnestied in 1955.

He then went into exile in Mexico, where he founded the 26th of July Movement, vowing to return to Cuba in order to fight against Batista. In December 1956, he and 81 others, including Che Guevara, returned to Cuba and made their way to the Sierra Maestra, from which they launched a successful guerrilla war. Castro proved himself a strong leader; he also demonstrated shrewd political skills, convinced that he had a historic duty to change the character of Cuban society.

Seeing his army collapse, and unable to count on the support of the United States, Batista fled on Jan. 1, 1959, paving the way for Castro's rise to power. In its early phase, Castro's revolutionary regime included moderate politicians and democrats; gradually, however, its policies became radical and confrontational. Castro remained the unchallenged leader, and the masses--whose living conditions he improved--rallied behind him.

Submit Content