Soy Cuba

Well good morning fellow people of the world. Can you believe it? Tomorrow will mark the one year anniversary of my lovely expedition to Ukraine. I thought that for this momentous occasion I would provide you with some reading material which I have composed since then.

Here is a Cuba paper I wrote...My great uncle who lived in Cuba despised Castro. I have become a little obsessed with Fidel's personality and find him absolutely fascinating:




Pivotal Personality: Foundation of the Cuban Revolution



In the years prior to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, tensions within Cuba surmounted. The Cuban people were fed-up with a variety of oppressors like the dictatorial rule of Batista, negative American influence, and tyrannical capitalist companies. Eventually, these tensions started to form cracks through Cuban society, dividing those who supported Batista and his regime, from those who longed to live free from his oppressive rule. Thus, a revolution weighed heavily on majority of the minds of the Cuban population. Yet, a question still arose. How could the revolution be successful? And who could lead such a feat?

Luckily, the answer to this question naturally presented itself, and the large task of sparking a revolution did not seem so far out of reach. One man took action to bring together his followers and plan the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro. Fidel’s upbringing was almost entirely responsible for his perfect revolutionary qualities. His autobiography, Fidel: My Early Years, described much of his childhood and university education which made his eventual role as the Cuban Revolutionary leader logical. Also, historians Dick Cluster and Rafael Hernandez described in their book, History of Havana, the steps Castro took to carry-out the revolution. The revolution was a very complex set of events which remained a wonder to onlookers. It was difficult to understand how one man could lead such a successful movement. With that, in historian Nelson Valdez’s article, “The Revolutionary and Political Content of Fidel Castro’s Charismatic Authority,” Valdez described how Castro’s charisma really was responsible for making the Cuban Revolution possible. By considering these three writings of Castro, Cluster and Hernandez, and Valdez, it was clear that Fidel Castro’s personality facilitated the revolution as a result of his revolutionary knowledge and charisma.

To begin with, Fidel Castro developed an imperative revolutionary knowledge which he successfully utilized in staging the Cuban Revolution. He constructed his revolutionary intelligence throughout his life. Experiences of his early life, especially during childhood allowed him to understand the importance of hard work, education, and knowledge which can be noted extensively in his autobiography, Fidel: My Early Years (2005): “I began to acquire values of which I was very aware. I had to demand very firmly that I be sent away to study—perhaps not so much out of a love of study, but rather because I felt an injustice had been committed against me” (59). At this point, Fidel was still attending primary school, and he demanded to be sent to boarding school because the people at his school told his parents that he behaved badly and then he was punished (59). He also understood at this age that other students who attended the elite school where he went did so for reasons of social achievement, not to focus on education (59). Therefore, at this early moment in Castro’s life, he was able to recognize an injustice, and he acted upon it by convincing his parents that he needed to go to boarding school.

Moments like this were parallel to the eventual Cuban Revolution when he had to convince the entire Cuban people of a particular issue. However, Fidel Castro was able to recognize that he did not form his revolutionary ideals overnight. Castro (2005) stated, “One could say that it took me six years to acquire a revolutionary consciousness and draw up a revolutionary strategy” (105). The Cuban Revolution was a significant undertaking, and in order for it to be successful, Castro needed to study what would work and what would fail. In this instance, he may have referenced the six years from the July 26th movement (the attack on the Moncada barracks) to the actual Cuban Revolution and final overthrow of Batista. If so, the success in getting rid of the dictatorial regime was dependent on his participation in what evolved into the July 26th organization. Cluster and Hernandez pointed out this in their book, History of Havana (2006), and elaborated that Castro led all of the stages of the revolution that organized into the July 26th movement which targeted the oppressive plights of the dictatorship (207). The Cuban Revolution did not happen in one night, so it was apparent that Castro put a lot of time and effort into planning it.

However, there were other events in Fidel Castro’s early years which contributed to his revolutionary knowledge. For instance, Castro studied revolutionary doctrines like those of Jose Marti. He stated in his autobiography, Fidel: My Early Years (2005), “I had traditional ideas concerning the War of Independence and Jose Marti’s writings; I strongly supported Marti and his thinking” (103). Much of Marti’s ideals revolved around the freedom of Cuba from Spain, discussions on race, and essentially the importance of human rights and liberty. Cluster and Hernandez also provided support to this idea of the importance of Marti in shaping Castro’s revolutionary plans. In particular, Cluster and Hernandez (2006) described, “January of 1950, ten months after the coup, marked the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Jose Marti, ‘The Apostle,’ who by then was treated with the kind of secular religious devotion the name implies” (204). Castro was a Cuban and he understood why his fellow Cubans viewed Marti as an “apostle.” It was because Marti stood up for the Cuban people and allowed their voice to be heard. Basically, Fidel Castro took his understanding of Marti’s ideals and morphed them into his plans for the revolution. It was almost as if he wanted to bring Marti back to life and mimic his ideals again.

Still, Fidel Castro did not base his Cuban Revolution off of solely Jose Marti’s ideals. Instead, there was a multitude of sources that he considered which he especially studied during his years at the university. His autobiography, Fidel: My Early Years (2005), outlined his views of the university, “I believe that in any analysis of my life, nothing was more valuable for me than those years of struggle in the university” (107). Castro explained that it was during his university years that he became a revolutionary devotee to Marti and also became a socialist because of some of the classes he took (83). At this point, his revolutionary knowledge was contextually set, but he also had to understand how to work with people and what actions were successful. Castro (2005) elaborated, “The FEU elections were approaching and that mafia gang forbade me from attending the university” (97). Castro was banned from the university because he helped to remove the president of the law school from his position. This was disapproved by the mafia who dominated the university, and so, they threatened Castro (95-96). Yet, Castro still fought through all this and learned from it. It was an event like this that really allowed him to reflect upon his actions and decisions and realize that it would have been beneficial if he acted differently. This allowed him to understand what would be successful action for the Cuban Revolution. He gained political experience and military strategies because he had to protest this event without arms (96).

Therefore, this also was an event that fed Castro’s reasoning for leading the revolution. His rights as a human and collegiate citizen were infringed upon.
In contrast to the idea which was professed through Castro’s, Fidel: My Early Years and Cluster and Hernandez’s, History of Havana, Nelson Valdez’s article, “The Revolutionary and Political Content of Fidel Castro’s Charismatic Authority” (2008), suggested that the Cuban Revolution was caused solely by Castro’s charisma and not his revolutionary knowledge. Valdez (2008) explained, “Analysts often assume that the interaction between Fidel Castro and the Cuban population is based on emotions rather than ideas or policies” (30). His charisma, as part of his personality, helped spark the revolution because his emotions brought people together and mesmerized them. Valdez (2008) went on to explain, “Ethical populism was consonant with charismatic leadership as long as the leader was not individualistic” (31). This meant that Castro had the perspective and opinion of the Cuban people in mind and that he did not use any of his own personal opinions in facilitating the revolution. Valdez (2008) further elaborated, “Charismatic leadership becomes the possibility in times of institutional crisis and breakdown” (28). The Cuban Revolution was made possible because the institutions in place in Cuba were no longer working and they were not appeasing the people. This crack in Cuban society allowed Castro to fill them in with his charisma in order to bring the people back together.
Additionally, Valdez suggested that Fidel’s revolutionary ideals produced his charisma which, in turn, facilitated the revolution. Valdez (2008) described, “His revolutionary strategy helped to create the charismatic moment, but it was a propitious symbolic event that transformed him into the island’s charismatic revolutionary leader” (28-29). With that, Valdez described that the symbolism of the revolution was what really created charisma for Castro. This was because it was such a well-known, popular event, and Castro really spoke to the Cuban people. However, Valdez’s arguments (2008) were not completely unbiased because he described Castro’s charisma with an American perspective, “The Hollywood style of packaging and marketing of U.S. politicians as commodities or brands has become so pervasive that it seems natural to explain Cuban politics with the same ‘logic’” (30). So, Valdez explicitly stated that he explained Castro’s use of charisma from a biased perspective. Just because Americans saw their politicians as commodities to be sold, does not mean that the Cuban people really thought the same way. As Fidel Castro would say or even Cluster and Hernandez, it was through his hard work and development of revolutionary ideas that he led the Cuban Revolution.

All in all, the Cuban Revolution was successful, and a new Cuba was developed with the results that were put in place by Fidel Castro and his followers. By considering the works of Castro, Cluster and Hernandez, and Valdez, it is certain that the revolution was caused by one man: Fidel Castro. However, what capabilities allowed Castro to lead the Cuban Revolution remains in question. There are many other contributing factors that could be considered like the outside world’s view of Cuba and Castro, the clothing he wore, in particular his military uniform, the infamous beard of Castro, or even his participation in various other revolutions throughout Latin America. Therefore, it is definite, at least, that Castro’s role in the revolution was a complex one and very impactful.

Fidel: My Early Years (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1998).
“Many Happy Returns?: US Occupation and Its Aftermath;” “City Lights: The Fabulous Fifties,” and “Havana in Revolution,” The History of Havana (NY:Palgrave, 2006), chapters 7, 12 & 13.
“The Revolutionary and Political Content of Fidel Castro’s Charismatic Authority,” A Contemporary Cuban Reader: Reinventing the Revolution, eds., Philip Brenner et alia (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefirled, 2008), chapter 1.