
Fidel Castro is primarily known as a communist revolutionary leader native to Cuba. He grew up in a relatively wealthy family. Well educated, his first career was as a lawyer. During this period he formed political opinions critical of the government, responsible for mass poverty. He believed that socialist ( reform could help amend this, and that the only means to achieve this was the removal of the American-backed series of dictators from office. This led to a chain of events resulting in his failed attempts at political reform, a revolution (Cuban Revolution), and his rise to power. The Bay of Pigs and cuban missile crisis ensued, with him at the center of the tensions. He is as widely known as the figure of one of his revolutionary accomplices, Che Guevara . He is no longer in power, but was so until issues of health prevented him from governing.
Early Life
Fidel Castro was born on august 13th, 1926 from an illegitimate Creole father who made a living out of a sugar plantation. He was known to be a rebellious child and helped his father organize a worker’s strike at his father’s sugar plantation at the young age of thirteen. Even though his parents we illiterate, they didn’t want Fidel to follow their steps and set him to a Jesuit boarding school. Even though he did not enjoy the school itself because of its strict rules and discipline, there is no record of him to try to rebel against the rules, instead, it is said that he was proven to be a very intelligent young boy. Once his education was done, he became a lawyer, concentrating mainly on cases involving the poor and the unfortunate. It is in 1947 that he join the Cuban People’s party, he was attracted towards the party because of its views against corruption, poverty, injustice and low wages. He became a candidate for congress of the party in 1952. He was known to be a great and very strong public speaker and was as popular amongst the older generation as he was with the younger one. The party was going to win the election when General Fulgencio Batista took over the country. The Cuban Revolution, lead by Fidel Castro, followed these events.

The United States Government and Castro
Fidel Castro(1)
The United States Government tried various schemes to assassinate Castro but none of them worked. They still continue to economically isolate Cuba. The CIA even tried to invade Cuba to remove Castro from power, but the cubans fought it off. As a result of all this, Castro aligned closely with the Soviet Union. The Soviets bought large amounts of sugar and also supplied Cuba with economic and military assistance. The soviets money fueled Castros programs such as war on illiteracy and free universal health care. Unfortunately, aligning Cuba with the USSR only led to more friction between Cuba and the United States(2).
Patrick's main sources: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDcastroF.htm
http://www.biography.com/articles/Castro,-Fidel-9241487
http://library.thinkquest.org/18355/fidel_castro.html
Nick’s Sources:
- www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDcastroF.htm
- www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=48
Travis' Sources:
(1) http://www.solarnavigator.net/geography/geography_images/Fidel_Castro.jpg
(2) http://library.thinkquest.org/18355/fidel_castro.html
The Life and Times of Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz—more commonly referred to and known as just Fidel Castro—was born on the 13th of August in 1926. Castro was born to a wealthy family that provided him with a good education at Havana University—the oldest in Cuba and one of the first university establishments in the Americas—where he earned a degree in law while he went on a political journey. Castro quickly became recognized as a strong political leader attracted the attention of Cuban authorities while attending Havana. Castro got power following the Cuban Revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Soon, Castro became the Prime Minister, he was the prime minister from 1959-76. In 1965 he became firstsecretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and led the transformation of Cuba into a one - party socialist country. Was then promoted to the 23rd Presidency of Cuba in ’76 and held the spot until February of 2008 when health issues became a problem. Castro is known as the leader whom transformed Cuba into the socialist republic it is. In late 2006, Fidel had surgery by one of Spain’s top doctors; most assumed it was for cancer treatment. Rumors of Castro’s ill health have gotten quite popular in recent years, yet Cuba insists he is in stable condition. Castro’s death will have a huge effect to the Cuban nation.

http://www.wavemagazine.net/arhiva/17/politics/castro1.jpg
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
The Recent Times of Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, commonly known as just Fidel Castro, was the 23rd president of Cuba and was in office from the 2nd of December 1976 to the 24th of February 2008. Fidel is known for creating a Communist regime in Cuba despite outside efforts to force him to change the way he ruled his government by the U.S he managed to keep transform Cuba into one of the only Socialist regimes still out there. On July 31st 2006 following a surgery to his intestines, at the age of 79 Castro transferred his Presidential duties to his brother Raúl Castro for two years. Finally, after his health condition was too unstable, Fidel permenantely gave his younger brother Raúl, formerly his Vice-President, the Presidency of Cuba. According to the National Assembly of people's power, Fidel is too be consulted before any decision on defense or military offense of the country before it is put into march. Fidel is now retired and living in Cuba.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
http://library.thinkquest.org/18355/fidel_castro.html
http://bucf.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/fidel_castro_dead.jpg (picture)

Comments (1)
Patrick Lemieux said
at 1:55 pm on Jun 9, 2009
There are too many portraits of Castro, and the pictures are not well embeded in the text. Three additional entries are relevant and chronological, but the third one does not adhere to this order. The sources should have been listed at the end, but they are not. Font is not constant, and communism was linked twice.
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