"I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I would do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action."
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and communist, and the longest-serving head of state in Cuban history.
Born to a peasant and conscript from Spain who became a sugar plantation owner in Cuba, Fidel involved himself in revolutionary politics during his days as a law student in Havana. He participated in the attempt to overthrow the Dominican Republic's dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1947, as well as the first, unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, the right-wing, pro-American dictator of Cuba. He then fled to Mexico, where he met Che Guevara. Gathering Che, Camilo Cienfuegos, and other like-minded Cubans, Castro formed the left-wing nationalist 26th of July Movement or M-26-7. After sailing back to Cuba in 1956, Castro and M-26-7 waged a bloody guerrilla war in the cities and countryside against Batista, finally managing to topple the dictator in 1959, in what has become known as the Cuban Revolution. Castro became a celebrity and toured the United States to much acclaim.
Contrary to popular belief, Castro had no true interest in communism as a young man and was simply a left-wing nationalist with vague and hazy political views during the revolution, and only later found the direction for his own views in communism. He began his political career as a radical social democrat working for the like-minded populist Orthodox Party (many 'Ortodoxos' that were the party's former youth wing later joined M-26-7's ranks), and promising a democratic Cuba with the restoration of the famous 1940 Constitution. After his victory on January 1, 1959, Castro began getting interested in communism when he met with Cuban communists — who had previously scorned him as a bourgeois hipster all throughout the revolution — to form a working left-wing government, even siding with them in some disputes over his own guerrilla army. Worsening relations with America over nationalization of American business properties in Cuba, and an embargo by the Eisenhower administration, led Castro to seek support from the Soviet Union, destroying the revolutionary alliance as he exiled or imprisoned anyone who was opposed to the now pro-Soviet direction of the revolution. But it took the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 for Castro to declare himself and the revolution officially communist.note From then on, he was very insistent that he had always been a communist from a young age, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
He then set up an autocratic regime with himself as the Glorious Leadernote He held his post-1959 position as Prime Minister for many years despite Cuba remaining a presidential republic. Only in 1976, when a new communist constitution was drafted, did Castro become president. transformed Cuba into an authoritarian one-party state under Marxism-Leninism, and ruled the island as its uncontested autocrat until 2008, when he officially stepped down due to ill health. He was succeeded by his much quieter younger brother, Raúl (who had been second-in-command for decades). But until his death, Castro was the face of Cuba, and his left-wing nationalism (now taken in a communist direction) ensured that he had the respect of the Cuban populace, even those who privately disagreed with the communist system. Both his admirers and actual supporters alike are known as Fidelistas in Spanish, and Castrists in English.
Naturally, Castro quickly became an enemy of the United States, especially with his relentless nationalizations of US corporate assets. The CIA tried in various ways to get rid of Castro, including multiple assassination attempts (including some rather odd methods like exploding cigars), the Bay of Pigs Invasion on 1961, and an economic embargo since 1962 (this is still in effect, though Barack Obama worked to lighten the restrictions—even allowing visitors to bring home 100 dollars' worth of Cuban cigars), he nevertheless survived. Castro was also excommunicated by Pope John XXIII, as Cuba under his command was far less religious than other Latin American nations due to the Catholic and Protestant churches generally being opposed to communism, and the Cuban government retorted with accusations of support of US economic domination of Cuba. Ironically, his own stance towards religion was far more moderate than other Communist leaders, to the point of entertaining personal ideas about God himself.note His religious views were... complicated. Castro denied to have ever been a believer and was a critic of Christianity for social and political reasons, but he once wrote his belief that "God is the supreme idea of goodness and justice" and often compared his own political ideas to Christian precepts, and also cited God and St. James the Great in his speeches about Hispanic heritage. The Cuban government actually began a careful rapprochement with the Church in the 1970s and 80s, helped by the surprising alliances formed between sympathetic clergy and pro-Cuba socialist revolutionaries in Central America, and changed its constitution to declare the state a secular one as opposed to state atheism. This fact was acknowledged when Pope John Paul II, a famous anti-communist icon, visited Cuba under his tenure and condemned the US embargo. Years later, Pope Francis played a role in brokering the US–Cuban Thaw.note Of course, Havana and Washington had been doing backchannel negotiations for many years in secret.
Religion was not Castro's only unusual affinity. At his core, he was an anti-colonialist and an admirer of Cuban independence leader José Martí, but Castro was also a strong proponent of Pan-Hispanism, extolling Cuba's Spanish heritage and calling for the union of all Spanish-speaking peoples as the crown of his war against oppression.note He characteristically compared Los Angeles, "where Hispanics, blacks and poor are discriminated against everyday", to "that wonderful intermixing of Spaniards, Indians and Africans" that Hispanic peoples were. This, combined with the fact that Francoist Spain notably ignored the US embargo and supported Cuba by trade, led Castro to an infamously amicable relationship with the pseudo-fascist Francisco Franco, although Castro had no illusions to what Franco's ideology really was and criticized him when he saw fit, while Franco rumoredly also saw Castro as a bit of a loon.note Spanish fascists (or Francoists in Franco's case) used to have an ambivalent stance towards Pan-Hispanism — they were happy to highlight the influence of Spain and Catholicism in world history, but preferred to focus on domestic ordeals and believed that thinking too much about Hispanic America was a Disco Dan attitude. After Franco's death, although clashes with the now democratic Spain became frequent, Castro developed a healthier but equally bizarre friendship with King Juan Carlos I of Spain, which the Cuban once explained humorously as, "I'm not a royalist (realista), I'm a 'Juancarlist' (Juancarlista)".note Their relationship almost reached bromantic levels during their meetings. According to the king's bodyguards, Castro would always put someone to warn him every time Juan Carlos left his hotel room so Castro could then come, pretend to have walked into Juan Carlos by chance, and spend as much free time together as possible. Castro's pleasure to be with the king at the first Ibero-American Summit in 1999 moved him to state they had fulfilled Simón Bolívar's dream together.
Castro was also a central figure in the Cuban Missile Crisis and he was the one player in the incident most ready to launch the missiles if the Americans dared invade (as well as mobilizing the entire army beforehand), only to be barely restrained by his Soviet partners. However, Castro only wanted to launch the missiles as an absolute last resort. Nikita Khrushchev also openly treated Cuba as a pawn in the whole matter despite previously buttering Cuba up as a trusted Soviet ally and locked Cuba out of the negotiations; Castro absolutely resented this as a Cuban nationalist, and he never forgave the Soviets for it. As a result, Cuba aligned closer to the Non-Aligned Movement than to the Warsaw Pact afterwards, despite still being a Soviet ally. Through the Cold War, Cuba relied on Soviet support, mainly through the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, and when that was cut off Cuba faced a major economic crisis (mostly due to a lack of oil). Later, Castro also admitted that he came to regard John F. Kennedy as a Worthy Opponent and honorable man, and that if he had been involved in the JFK assassination, the US would've invaded and occupied Cuba.
During the Cold War, Castro's regime heavily involved itself in anti-colonialist struggles in Africa. Cuba involved itself with liberation struggles in Mozambique, Namibia, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Guinea-Bissau, and Angola. Cuba's intervention in the Angolan War against Portugal was especially decisive, since it played a part in the end of the Portuguese empire and its transition to democracy, secured Angolan and Namibian independence, and stopped an invasion by Apartheid South Africa. Castro also provided much support and inspiration for Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress, and he dispatched doctors across Africa to provide aid to the poor. For these reasons, Castro and Cuba in general have a heroic reputation in Africa, and Nelson Mandela considered Castro his friend and mentor. However, Castro also provided military support for the pro-Soviet 'Derg' military junta in Ethiopia, which was widely condemned for its cruelty, corruption, ineffective governance, and worsening an ongoing famine with its thuggish policies.
Castro also made some surprising and intriguing alliances with leaders supposedly at the opposite end of the political spectrum to him: as noted above, Francisco Franco (notwithstanding Fidel's Republican sympathies, the two men actually had a lot in common — shared Galician heritage, mutual suspicion of the USA, similar social conservatism and dislike of Fulgencio Batista's hedonistic rule), the brutally anti-communist Argentine junta (Castro strongly supported what he saw as the 'anti-imperialist' invasion of the Malvinas) and the fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini (mutual suspicion of the US again, nations suffering from US sanctions, and coming to power via a popular revolution against an increasingly out-of-touch US-aligned dictatorship).
The blockade persisted throughout all aspects of Cuban life and caused tremendous economic strain. Still, Castro managed to overcome these difficulties through a rigorous re-structuring of the country's planned economy. Cuba is now a major tourist destination for non-Americans (Americans are forbidden to go to the island by the US government, though many do nonetheless) and much of its economy is based around tourism. Cuba also had a long history of pursuing secret backchannel negotiations with the US to try and form some sort of detente throughout the Cold War and afterwards.
Although Cuba remains a poor country with very limited political and economic freedom, Castro's regime did much to improve public education, sports and particularly public health. Cuba still exports doctors to many Latin American countries and has an average life expectancy on par with your average Global North country. On the other hand, many basic living commodities are rationed, many buildings are in a poor state of repair, Internet access is extremely limited, journalists are treated badly, press freedom is almost nonexistent, and the human rights record of the government is poor, particularly regarding incarceration rates (which have been historically very near those of the United States, either just above or just below), as Castro was notoriously fond of short-term arbitrary detention in Hellhole Prisons for all his critics, with bouts of psychological torture to boot. However, the human rights record has improved over the years, albeit very slowly, and is at least significantly better than the average dictatorship nowadays. The country does have a good rating on the sustainable development index, though this likely has more to do with the poverty than conscious government policy (that is, they waste little resources because many things are in short supply, and their living standards are low so they don't consume much anyway).
Aside from the infamous executions of Former Regime Personnel without trial at La Cabana prison (overseen by Che himselfnote Historical consensus is that the prisoners were guilty of the crimes accused, but the show trials and executions were not legal or part of judicial process.), Castro was notoriously homophobic even for the 1960s, with homosexuals being thrown in labor camps immediately after the revolution while others were expelled from the country. That said, Castro did take personal responsibility many years later, declaring that his attitude to LGBT rights was wrong in his autobiography, and outright declaring that he was wrong in his homophobia in 2010.
Not as much is known about Castro's personal life, but one of Castro's biographers, Leycester Coltman, the United Kingdom's ambassador to Cuba in the early 1990s, described the Cuban as being "fiercely hard-working, dedicated, loyal... generous and magnanimous" but also noted that he could be "vindictive and unforgiving" at times. He went on to note that Castro "always had a keen sense of humor and could laugh at himself" but could equally be "a bad loser" who would act with "ferocious rage if he thought that he was being humiliated." There have been claims he had been with around 35,000 women, with his secret police allegedly recruiting many of them off Cuba's beaches. He was known as a cigar fan, but stopped smoking them on the advice of his doctors in 1985.
Castro was the author of many political books (most of them being edited collections of his speeches, of which there are many—Castro currently holds the record for the longest speech delivered at the United Nations General Assembly, at 4.5 hours in 1960note And that wasn't even his longest speech recorded: he gave a speech of over seven hours at the 1986 Cuban Communist Party congress.), most of them dealing — as you'd expect — with his problems with capitalism and American foreign policy.
Castro died on November 25, 2016, of unannounced causes. Ironically enough, his death on November 25 was Black Friday in America, a very consumerist capitalist holiday. It was also the birthday of far-right Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, leading to many jokes to the effect that Pinochet's birthday wish had finally been granted. On a less ironic note, he passed away on the very day that he and his comrades sailed to Cuba to begin the most important section of their revolution. November 25 was also the birthday of Armenian communist and national hero Monte Melkonian, funnily enough. A small group of people believe Castro had actually died months to years before the announcement, with it being withheld for various reasons depending on who you ask.
Tropes as portrayed in fiction:open/close all folders
Comic Books
Comedy
Comic Strips
Film
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
And he's fighting the war on the streets of Masaya
Little Indian girl, where's your father?
Little Indian girl, where is your momma?
They're fighting for Mr. Castro in the streets of Angola.
Castro in the alleyway, talkin' that missile up,
Talkin' 'bout JFK, and the way he shook him up!
Video Games
Web Originals
Western Animation
Krieger: (whispering) Fidel hates the gays!
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