Fidel Castro Biography

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Mayari municipality in the province of Oriente on August 13, 1926. He did his schooling in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. He practiced the spartan regiment at Colegio de Belen, a Jesuit boarding school. In 1945, Castro enrolled for law at the University of Havana and graduated in 1950.

While still a student, Fidel Castro was married to Mirta Diaz-Balart in 1948. Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, a son, was born to them in 1949. In 1954, Fidel Castro was legally separated from his wife.

Fidel Castro Biography (1926 - )

As a child, Castro showed great interest in history and military affairs of Cuba. Many say a peasant rebellion in Oriente influenced his political leanings and he became involved with a student's political and revolutionary groups as a student of law. On completion of his graduation in law, he offered free legal services to the poor and needy.

In 1952, Fidel Castro ran for a seat in the Cuban parliament. However, before the election could take place, a military dictator Fulgencio Batista overthrew the Cuban parliament and military rule was established.

In 1953, Castro and the allies made an attempt to overthrow the military dictator. The attempt failed and he was imprisoned. He became a known and well-reputed person among the Cubans after his attack on the military regime.

In 1955, he was released under amnesty. He went into hiding in Mexico and later in the US. During this time, Fidel Castro along with his brother Raul and Ernesto Guevara, an Argentinian revolutionary, were making plans to overthrow the military regime in Cuba.

On December 2, 1956 Castro along with eighty-one insurgents came by a boat to attack the military barracks. It was a failure and there were only few survivors including Guevara and the Castro brothers. They escaped to Sierra Maestra Mountains where they hid till they made a large-scale attack in 1958.

In January, 1959, Cuba was freed from Batista and Castro became the prime minister of free Cuba and his position was immediately recognized by the US Government. Fidel Castro nationalized the Cuban factories and plantations. The US government was not happy with the economic reforms of the Cuban government.

In 1961, under his leadership, the US-supported émigré invasion at the Bay of Pigs was stopped, putting an end to the American economic dominance. Fidel Castro established close relations with Soviet Union and became reliant on their aid. Under his keen leadership Cuba became the first communist nation in the Western hemisphere. However, Cuba had to face economic difficulties when USSR collapsed in 1991 and he had to open the Cuban borders for the foreign investors.

In December 1976, Fidel Castro became the 22nd President of Cuba. In the meantime he was the target of CIA 638 times, but none of the assassination attempts were successful.

While holding his office as the President, he opened 10,000 new schools, attempted to erase illiteracy and built many health care centers. He was a dictator in his own way. The trade unions lost the power to strike, many newspaper companies were closed down and the religious institutions were harassed. Many Cubans fled to the US, seeking refuge from his rule.

The state of his health became a major issue in the late 1990s. On July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro underwent surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding. His brother Raul who was Castro’s second-in-command was elected as his successor and the president of Cuba. The Cuban public and in fact the entire world, have seen Fidel Castro only in photographs or in video footage since his surgery.