After year of recruiting, training, plotting, Fidel was ready to launch his revolutionary offensive. “His rebel ‘army’ consisted of less than 200 men, and two women;” (Huberman 1960: 28) the group consisted of students or graduates, and nearly all of them were young people like himself and his brother, Raúl. Most of them were “politically active, articulate and impatient young men who had been drawn to the radical movements or to the ardently reformist Orthodox Party of Eduardo Chibas.” (Macgaffey 1962: 275) The rebels gathered outside Santiago, in the Fidel’s native Province of Oriente where they could launch an attack on Moncada Barracks, the army’s second largest military installation. (Huberman 1960: 28; Macgaffey 1962: 275) The attack was slated for July 26, 1953, at dawn, during the annual carnival celebration. (McCormick 1998: 67) “With the carnival in full sway, Castro expected the military to have its guard down.” (Leonard 1999: 9) At dawn of July 26, they divided into small groups to launch the assault, each group with specific objectives. The first intention was to “take by the surprise and capture the Fort Moncada, and take machine guns, tanks, armored trucks, up-to-date rifles and ammunition.” (Huberman 1960: 28) They could then seize radio stations, (Hampsey 2002: 95) and “They were to announce a revolution based on ‘Creole values,’ (Goldenberg 1965: 151) led by new men ... free of all obstacles with foreign nations and ... of appetites of politicians. They promised welfare and economic prosperity, social justice, respect for other nations, and respect for the constitution.” (Macgaffey 1962: 275, 276) “Such publicity was designed to call the people to revolt against the dictator, Batista,” (Hampsey 200... ... middle of paper ... ... arrange a Military Junta.” (Goldenberg 1965: 163) However, before the plan could be put into operation, ‘the battle of Santa’ Clara took place, ending in a total fiasco for government troops.”(Goldenberg 1965: 163; Macgaffey 1962: 293) On the night of December 31, Batista and his collaborators fled to Dominica Republic. (Macgaffey 1962: 293) Immediately, Fidel called for general strike and subsequently, other major cities surrendered and Fidel and his rebels marched to Havana. (Goldenberg 1965: 163; Macgaffey 1962: 293) “Before the dawn on January 2, Fidel’s army marched into Santiago, and accepted unconditional surrender of Batista’s forces at Moncada.” (Goldenberg 1965: 163) The war was over and Fidel and his victorious army rode in triumph from one end of the island to the other and arrived in Havana on January 8. (Goldenberg 1965: 163; Macgaffey 1962: 293)
On July 26, 1953, the war for Cuba’s independence began, and for 6 years many Cubans fought for their freedom. The most famous of these revolutionary icons being Fidel Castro, who led the main resistance against the Cuban government. On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and the rest of the Cuban's succeeded. This revolutionary war went on to affect the entire world and Eric Selbin believes it is still affecting it. Throughout Eric Selbin's article, Conjugating the Cuban Revolution, he firmly states that the Cuban revolution is important in the past, present, and future. Selbin, however, is wrong.
Fidel Castro entered Havana, Cuba and took his place as Prime Minister in January of 1959, just after the fall of the Batista regime. Within days, many of the Cuban upper class began exiting the island, wary of losing their socioeconomic status and possibly their lives (Leonard 13). Castro’s radical new policies appealed to most of the suppressed lower class seeking change, but the middle sector “became disillusioned with their new leader” and soon comprised the majority of the Cuban refugees in Miami, Florida (Leonard 3). Beginning in December 1960 and ending with the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, over 14,000 of those refugees wou...
“The Invasion and the Failure.” The Invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. 1999. 11 April 2000 .
“A revolution is not a bed of roses ... a revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.” – Fidel Castro, 1961. This statement was certainly true for Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries during the Cuban Revolution, an armed revolt that took place between July 26th 1953 and January 1st 1959, which ended successfully. During this revolt, many of Fidel Castro’s fellow revolutionaries were killed in this process of violent revolution (My Life, p133, 2006). However, Castro and his accompanying revolutionaries, of which he was the leader, also caused their fair share of deaths using brutality in the name of revolution and political justice. Using various combat tactics, the most prominent being guerrilla warfare, the Cuban Revolution was certainly won through the use of violence and brutality.
In 1961, Fidel Castro, Cuba’s dictator, introduced the Marxist-Leninist ideology to the Cuban people, “by grafting it onto the images, symbols, values, and concepts of Cuban nationalism” (Medin 53). This ideology was promoted through what Medin describes as a world where there are no "in-betweens," but instead only "good and evil", and any straying from that perceived norm was seen as counter-revolutionary and must be removed so they wouldn’t corrupt the process of developing a “homogenous revolutionary social consciousness” (Morales-Diaz 1). “The notion of ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and the connection to capitalist nations epitomizes the revolutionary government's contempt for anyone who is not on the side of the communist revolution" (Medin 40). In that way, Castro was creating enemies of any Cubans who weren’t up to his standards. According to Arenas, this new idea of unifying Cuba came at the expense of the persecution of a large segment of the population an...
The Creoles wanted to somehow get political power, but they were being rejected of it; however, they were gaining nobility. They owned the “largest and richest mines and haciendas” (Hook Exercise), but even with wealth, the Creoles “held few high-ranking jobs in the government” (Hook Exercise); hence, those jobs went to the peninsulares. They were also the “least oppressed” (Modern World History) of those who were born in the Latin America as well as the most educated, for they adopted the Enlightenment ideas. Also, when the monarchy collapsed, the Creoles wouldn’t let the “political vacuum to remain unfilled, their lives and
... The troops were killed at sea or never made it in time. After the Army surrendered, 1,180 soldiers were captured and taken as prisoners to Havanna (Fursenko, Aleksandr, and Timothy Naftali 95). Almost all of the captured exiles told Castro about the connection with the CIA and told him the US had planned this invasion. When the United States found out that Castro has taken the soldiers as prisoners they tried to negotiate a trade. Castro’s men were in need of medical supplies and assistance; so the United States gave them what they needed in return of the prisoners freedom. Two days after the invasion Castro spoke in an interview and said the following, “The invaders have been annihilated. The Revolution has emerged victorious. It destroyed in less than seventy-two hours the army organized during many months by the imperialist government of the United States”.
The exodus of the majority of skilled workers brought about a rapid change in the methods employed in educating Cuba’s population. If the revolution was to be successful, Cuba needed to replace the skilled workers that left with other skilled workers in the shortest amount of time possible. In 1961, the revolutionary government developed a nationwide campaign to rid Cuba of illiteracy. The program was given slogans like “ The people should teach the people and If you don’t know learn; if you know teach”. This program consisted of volunteer teachers who would help illiterate Cubans increase their education by teaching them the fundamentals. According to Fitzgerald, “(The literacy campaign) helped to integrate town and county and to galvanize support for revolutionary goals by bringing urban and rural populations into direct contact. ( p. 41)” Also, according to Fitzgerald, “ Enrollment in adult education rose dramatically from 66,577 students in the 1960-1961 school year to a peak of 842,024 students in the 1964-1965 school year, but plummeted to 309,717 students in 1969-1970. (P. 42)” This program benefited the poorer citizens of Cuba who remained in Cuba. They w...
Originally a dictator ran Cuba: President Fulgencio Batista, who was an ally to the United States. Cuba during this time enjoyed a healthy urban middle class, and its citizens enjoyed some degree of freedom without a police state. Many other countries seemed a lot more likely to revolt, because economically and developmentally, Cuba seemed stable. However, the United States’ role and control of Cuba’s economy started to take its toll on the “peasants”. In 1953, the United States owned many of the major entities, such as 50% of the railroad. Just as much development as there was in the urban areas there was a lack thereof in the rural areas. Not just economically, Cubans started to resent the image of Sin City that Americans gave the country. Cuba was a popular tourist spot where Americans came to behave badly. Castro’s success came from these opposite sides of distaste for the United States, the peasants economically and the middle class socially & nationally. Castro was not originally a socialist; he was a nationalist first. However when he attacks Moncada Barracks, he is arrested and exiled to Mexico City. During this time his failures are turned into “successes” through propaganda. Castro meets with Che Guevara in Mexico City and when he returns, he purges the military of 483 Batista loyalists and enacts land reforms and nationalizes US
Che Guevara attempted to have a revolution in Bolivia and Guatemala. In Mexico, he trained for his return to Cuba in 1956. The textbook also mentions how Fidel Castro formed local camps as a new revolutionary power (510). They continued to fight in urban areas. It was not until 1959 where they defeated Batista and his government. Many people were happy because Fidel Castro became the president of Cuba. The Cuban people had faith in Fidel Castro to improve the state of Cuba and benefit the people unlike Batista. The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its People state that, “In 1958 almost all Cubans agreed that a renewed Cuban nationalism would approve their future,”
People have different reasons to start a revolution. However, the road to freedom is always full of one thing, death. The Cuban Revolution was a civil war led by rebel Fidel Castro with the goal of getting dictator Fulgencio Batista out of office. While the American Revolution also had a very strong leader in George Washington and a similar goal of attempting to gain control of the government the way they got there was very different. The Cuban and American Revolutions had many distinct characteristics that made them successful. People in the US and Cuba wanted a new system of government, but not necessarily for the same reasons. In Cuba, dictator Batista was a cruel being who was not helping the country. At the same time, Americans wanted reform so they could be a part of government. Every person in Cuba knew that Batista needed to be stopped, and eventually a rebel leader arose. Whereas, in America everyone King George needed to be stopped, but instead of just one leader, the whole nation rose to the occasion. Cuba becomes freed from the dictatorship of Batista, but instead of getting better, life in Cuba got worse. Cuba may not have been better off, but America was now thriving with their lives and government back under control. Americans and Cubans were both looking for a new government, but for contrasting reasons and with different results.
It seemed that Batista almost enjoyed antagonizing his people. He formed profitable links to the organized crime groups in Cuba, just so he could antagonize his people. The fact that he was doing this was a strong reason why they revolted.... ... middle of paper ...
The Cuban Revolution, which began in the early 1950’s, was an overthrow of a very corrupt government. It was an attempt to improve the conditions of the Cuban people, but the path was covered in blood and sweat and an informed historian has to ask, was it really worth it? How much actually changed?
On July 26, 1953, he directed about 160 men in a suicidal attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba hoping to ignite a popular uprising. Fidel was arrested and most of the men were killed. After a trial in which he carelessly defended himself, the government sentenced him to 15 years of imprisonment. He and his brother Raúl were eventually released in 1955 in a political amnesty with the Batista government. The two brothers then traveled to Mexico to endure their campaign against the Batista regime. In Mexico is where Fidel began to organize Cuban exiles into a revolutionary group called the 26th of July
The tropical island of Cuba had been an object of empire for the United States. Before the Missile Crisis, the relationship between Castro and the US were strained by the Bay of Pigs occurrence in 1961. This was where counterrevolutionary Cubans were American funded and tried to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. However, the counterrevolutionaries failed. Castro then found an alliance with the Soviet Union and an increase of distrust that Castro had on the US. On January 18, 1962, the United States’ Operation Mongoose was learned. The objective would be “to help the Cubans overthrow the Communist regime” so that the US could live in peace. Consequently, Castro informed the Soviet Union that they were worried about a direct invasion on Cuba, thus longed for protection against th...