It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action
— Fidel Castro
36 INSPIRATION
13-08-1926 to 25-11-2016
It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action
— Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro – an inspirational figure for revolutionary movements all over the world- died at the age of 90. He was regarded as a rebel, a champion of socialism and someone who dared to defy the US for over five decades. His cigar, the unruffled long beard and the military uniform became symbols of rebellion all around the world, but how many of us know about his journey towards becoming the most iconic revolutionary leader of the 20th century?
• Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926 in Birán in Holguín Province of Cuba.
• He was a Cuban politician and a former leader of the Republic of Cuba. Fidel Castro served as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 to 2008.
• He studied law at the University of Havana from 1945, during which time he developed views on leftist anti-imperialist politics; a term which can relate to nationalist movements and their desire to achieve an organized society by formally withdrawing from the larger polity.
• From an early age, he admired history’ s boldest figures, particularly Alexander the Great, and believed he and his rebels were part of that tradition.
• In 1953, Fidel Castro launched an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks to remove President Fulgencio Bastista from power in a rebellion against the social strategy of the Dominican Republican and Columbian governments. Although the attack failed, it created a terror in the heart of the Batista government and marked the beginning of the Cuban revolution. Castro was arrested and sentenced to 15 years
• After surviving years of imprisonment, he travelled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother and present Cuban president Raúl Castro and an Argentine Marxist revolutionary called Che Guevara.
• The United States was alarmed by Castro’ s friendly relations with the Soviet Union, and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.
• Castro claimed he survived 634 attempts or plots to assassinate him, mainly masterminded by the Central Intelligence Agency and U. S.-based exile organizations.
• Castro holds the record for the longest speech ever delivered to the United Nations: 4 hours and 29 minutes, on Sept. 26, 1960, according to the U. N. website. One of his longest speeches on record lasted 7 hours and 30 minutes on Feb. 24, 1998, after the national assembly re-elected him to a five-year term as president.
• Time Magazine in 2012 named Castro as one of the 100 most influential personalities of all time.
WINSPIRE: Empowering youth | December, 2016