report

CHRISTIAN PAVKOVICH
4TH HOUR BIOGRAPHY REPORT
FIDEL CASTRO
A Biographical History

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in August 13th, 1926, on a sugar plantation in Biran, near Mayari, in the present day province of Holguin, Cuba. He was the son of Angel Castro y Argiz, a well-to-do farmer. Angel Argiz was married to Maria Luisa Argota at the time, but was having an affair with the housemaid, Lina Ruz Gonzalez. When Fidel was 15, his father married Lina, dissolving his previous marriage to Maria, and bringing the children count to seven: Fidel, his two brothers, and four sisters.
In 1945, Fidel entered the world of politics. He became involved in many gang and political group rivalries, as was the style of politics at the time, and was soon collaborating on taking his first life, one Rolando Masferrer. This never came to pass, however, and the leader of Les Tigres (Castro's gang) and Castro's mentor, Eduardo Chibas, shot himself in the stomach during a radio broadcast. In 1950, Castro gave up gangs and graduated with a Doctor of Laws degree and set up a part-time business in Havana.
While in Havana, he married Mirta Diaz Balart. Known for his strong nationalist views, he ran for parliament in 1952, but this was short lived as Fulgencio Batista initiated his coup d'etat on the current government. Castro, angry for losing his chance for a seat in the new parliament initiated and attack on Batista. He failed in his attempt and was tried for treason, but his defense speech was so elegant that he walked, free of all crimes.
Following his trial, Fidel organized an underground movement. It consisted of roughly 200 people, including his brother Raul and Mario Chanes de Armas. Most of the supporters were Cubans who were angry against the coup. In 1953, the 26th of July, Fidel and his underground organization attacked the Moncada Barracks and proved more disastrous than expected. This second attempt also failed, leading to the formation of the 26th of July movement. This group of eighty people, led by Castro, met up with revolutionary visionary Che Guevara, and attacked Batista's regime with underground guerrilla warfare. After several attempts to silence Castro by Batista, the regime failed and Castro was sworn in as prime minister in May 17, 1959.
Castro has been the target of many overthrowing attempts, such as the famous Bay of Pigs incident. In this, the CIA sent 1,400 trained soldiers to overthrow Cuba's government. Cuba destroyed this attack, however, and declared it was adopting communism as a result. Cuba has been under much fire for its communist views. It has had a missile crisis, soviet connections, and, as of now, an embargo with the U.S.
As of today, there have been 638 attempts on Castro's life due to his strong communist-nationalist political views. These attemps have been made into a short biographical movie entitled 638 Ways to Kill Fidel Castro. None of these assassination attempts have prevailed, obviously, and Fidel Castro has been leading Cuba soundly until his retirement on February 24.