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Biography of Fidel Castro

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Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926 in the Bíran, Cuba. (See Figure 5) Fidel grew up in wealthier circumstances than most Cubans at the time, amid the massive and growing poverty. His father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, was originally an immigrant from Spain. During Fidel’s childhood, Ángel was a fairly prosperous sugarcane farmer on a farm that had been dominated by United States owned United Fruit Company. His mother, Lina Ruz Gonzalez, was a maid to Angel's first wife, during Fidel’s infancy. By the time Fidel was fifteen, his father disbanded his first marriage and wed Lina, who is seen by Fidel to be his true mother. Fidel was educated in private Jesuit boarding schools. By 1945, he entered the law school at the University of Havana. …show more content…

Castro continued to use guerrilla attacks and gained large numbers of radical followers. Using these guerrilla warfare tactics, Castro became known as the “Guerilla Prince” and with his supporters, he attacked Batista's forces, conquering and overtaking numerous towns and cities. Batista quickly lost much of his popular support and suffered many embarrassing defeats. Finally, on January 1, 1959, Batista fled Cuba and went into exile, leaving the Cuban government in need of a president and somebody to get rid of the corruption that had previously plagued the country.
Manuel Urrutia, a very liberal Cuban lawyer and politician, was placed as president of Cuba, and Castro was placed in charge of the military. However, by July of 1959, Castro had easily and effectively taken over as leader of Cuba, which he would remain as, for the next four decades. (See figure 2) With close ties to his brother, Fidel put Raúl in charge of the military, allowing the Castro family to have most of the control over Cuba. In Castro’s beginning years as Cuba’s ruler, he made several radical and significant changes in Cuba, including collectivizing agriculture, nationalizing industry, and seizing and eliminating most American-owned businesses, factories, and farms. Fidel taxed American products so heavily that U.S. exports halved in just two years, making the United States put heavy

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