Fidel Castro
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- Ninth Pan American Union conference April 1948
- Bogotá Colombia; organized by Juan Peron; Castro showers delegates with pamphlets condemning US influence in Latin America; blamed for riot; proves he's communist
- Education reform
- teacher training institutes; number of teachers tripled, number of schools quintupled, volunteers teach reading and writing all over island; illiteracy disappears, education free from nursery to university, highest literacy rate in hemisphere, huge book production increases
- 1948 election
- Carlos Prio Socarras of Autentico vs. Eddy Chibas of Orthodoxo; Castro fights for Chibas but Socarras wins; Castro loses faith in democratic revolution
- Evaluate Castro's economic reforms
- failure; attempt to industrialize makes impractical poor-quality stuff and hurts agriculture by 50%; 1965 attempt to improve sugar production also failed; making Cuba more dependent on Soviet aid
- Women under Castro
- Federation of Cuban Women; women involvement in revolution, literacy campaign and neighborhood watches; day care centers provided; prenatal care and abortions provided; women in education and professions increased; provided with 18 weeks paid maternity leave; 1975 Family Code required equality in marriages and child-rearing
- African Intervention
- Castro allies himself with revolutionary groups throughout world; sent aid and soldiers to Ghana (1961), Algeria (1962) and Angola (1965) - where he helped rebels win and became significant international military power
- Latin America involvement
- supports Sandinistas in 1979; El Salvador in 1981
- Castro's rise to power
- Caribbean Legion; attempt to defeat candidates of the Autentico Party (gains recognition in Orthodoxo Party); Ninth Pan American Union; July 26th Movement; head of Cuban Armed Forces (1959)
- Agrarian Reform Law 1959
- Suga companies owned 70-75% of land but not enough of it was being used; confiscated estates were worked as cooperatives under the national Institute of Agrarian Reform but lots of land remained privately owned
- Fulgencio Batista
- Cuban dictator that Castro overthrew
- Playa Colorado
- Castro and group land here, only a dozen survive Batista's army waiting for them
- Party of the Cuban People
- Orthodoxo Party, Castro joins; demand reform; national identity; anti-foreign; social justice; economic independence
- Health care reform
- hospitals and doctors increase, medical services free, 1965 - $19.15 spend per person for medical care (big difference to other Latin American countries), health improves, life expectancy lengthened
- "History will absolve me"
- Castro defends himself in court (he'd been to law school remember) accuses Batista of violating Constitution of 1940, using terror and torture, rejection universal human rights guarantees; says he represents democracy, agrarian reform, education reform, labor improvements and public housing provisions
- US Trade Embargo 1960
- partial embargo allowing only food and medical supplies
- Mariel Boatlift 1980
- Castro allows people to leave Cuba but he also empties the mental asylums and prisons, dumping over 100,000 weirdos on US
- Public housing reform
- living conditions of masses improved, everyone given their own hosing, corruption of real estate ended
- US relations with Cuba
- Platt Amendment; US support of Batista against socialist San Martin; US ownership of 40% of sugar, 50% of railroads, 90% of utilities since 1890; US monopoly over Cuban market and purchasing of sugar; US refusal to help out Castro during visit in 1959; Guantanamo Bay; Sept 1959 Ike recalls US ambassador; Oct. 1960 sugar quota cut, trade embargo increased; Jan. 1961 diplomatic relations broken; Bay of Pigs; Cuban Missile Crisis
- Results of Bay of Pigs 1961
- May - Castro cancels elections and nullifies Constitution of 1940; December - announces Cuba as socialist nation
- Cuban Petroleum Institute
- Castro cancels contracts with US oil companies and makes his own but can only get business from Soviets; 1960 Castro expropriates oil companies
- 26th of July Movement
- name of Castro's group to lead revolution in Cuba; based off the failed Moncado Barracks attack
- Maintaining power
- mass meetings where Castro speaks for hours; neighborhood watches to enforce rules; censorship of press
- Sierra Maestro Mtns.
- Where Castro sets up guerilla HQ slowly gaining weapons and popularity
- 1952 elections
- Castro becomes head of Ortodoxo Party and runs for seat in House of Reps only to be put off by coup d'etat by Batista; Castro switches in favor of armed revolution
- Popular People's Power movement 1976
- allowed voters to elect communist approved candidates to small government posts who in turn chose national representatives
- Non-Aligned Nations Association
- 1980 Cuba was president
- Operation Mongoose
- US effort to destroy Castro from within Cuba and through military invasion; restricted after Missile Crisis
- Caribbean Legion
- 1947 Castro joins a group of political exiles from other Caribbean nations and tries to overthrow Rafael Trujillo in Dom. Rep.
- New Man Theory
- part of socializing Cuba; new type of citizen who sees work as commitment to social change not personal enrichment; all income and benefits distributed evenly; no political parties; state controls press; neighborhood watch groups
- Moncado Barracks
- July 26 1953 Castro, his brother and 150 guys attack barracks of 1000 men to start a revolution but fail terribly; draws lots of sympathy to their cause
- "Che" Guevara
- Argentine Marxist Castro meets through Raul while in Mexico; joins Castro with idea of rural peasant support