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Fidel Castro Facts & Worksheets

Fidel Castro Ruz was the Cuban prime minister and initial secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.

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Fidel Castro Ruz was the Cuban prime minister and initial secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba. A lawyer by profession, Fidel Castro commenced the Cuban Revolution and remodeled the country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere.

See the fact file below for more information on the Fidel Castro or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Fidel Castro worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

BIOGRAPHY

  • Castro was the symbol of the communist revolution in Latin America.
  • Fidel Castro headed the Cuban Revolution, ousting Cuban President Batista in 1959, and he ruled the country from 1959 until 2008 when he became ill.
  • Under his rule, he installed a communist Marxist government in Cuba.

EARLY YEARS

  • Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, aka Fidel Castro, was born on his father’s farm in southeastern Cuba on August 13, 1926.
  • Fidel’s father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, was a Spanish immigrant and a moderately prosperous sugarcane farmer within a locality that had long been controlled by estates of the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company.
  • While Angel was married to his first wife, he had a relationship with one of their servants, Lina Ruz González, whom he soon also married.
  • They had seven children. Fidel was the third child. He had two brothers, Raúl and Ramón, as well as three sisters, Angela, Emma, and Agustina.
  • When Fidel was 15, his father dissolved his first marriage and formally recognized him as a son. Thus, his name changed from Ruz to Castro.

EDUCATION

  • Fidel was educated in a Jesuit boarding school. He proved his intellectual capability, but he wasn’t a great student. In fact, he was a troublemaker.
  • Fidel was more interested in sports than studies, and he excelled in sports, especially baseball.
  • In 1945, Fidel enrolled in law school at the University of Havana. After that, he became further involved in politics and protesting against the current administration. He believed that the government was corrupt and had too much involvement with the United States.

EARLY POLITICAL INSURRECTIONS AND ARRESTS

  • In 1947, Castro became passionately involved in social justice. He traveled to the Dominican Republic to join an expedition striving to overthrow the country’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo. However, this attempt failed. The following year, he traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, to participate in the anti-government rioting there.
  • In 1947, Castro also joined the Partido Ortodoxo, an anti-communist political party founded by Eduardo Chibas, a Cuban presidential candidate who lost the 1948 election. The party’s goal was to transform the government in Cuba.
  • Chibas swore to reveal the government’s corruption and warn the people about General Fulgencio Batista, a former president, who was plotting a return to power.
  • However, Chibas’ efforts ended up being futile, as his supposed allies didn’t provide any evidence of government wrongdoing.
  • In August of 1951, Chibas killed himself during a radio broadcast.

CUBAN REVOLUTION

  • Castro married Mirta Díaz Balart and had one child, also named Fidel, in 1949. Castro began to develop an interest in the work of Karl Marx.
  • He eventually developed the idea of running for a seat in the Cuban congress.
  • However, in March 1952, General Fulgencio Batista successfully overthrew the government and canceled the elections.
  • Castro then started to organize a revolution.
  • Fidel and his brother, Raul, attempted to take over the government but were arrested and sent to prison.
  • After two years, he was released.
  • Castro did not surrender his idea of revolution, though. He and his brother, Raul, went to Mexico and prepared for his next revolution.
  • In Mexico, he met with other Cuban exiles, including the Argentinian rebel, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who believed that the plight of Latin America’s poor could be corrected only through violent revolution.
  • Castro and Guevara came back to Cuba with a small army on December 2, 1956.
  • They were promptly defeated again by Batista’s troops.
  • Nevertheless, this time Castro, Guevara, and Raul escaped into the hills. They initiated a guerrilla war against Batista.
  • Over time, they accumulated numerous supporters and eventually overthrew Batista’s government on January 1, 1959.
  • In July 1959, Castro successfully took over as leader of Cuba.

COMMUNISM

  • Castro had become an admirer of Marxism, and he used this philosophy as he transformed the government of Cuba. The government took control a lot of of the businesses in Cuba.
  • It also took control of the many businesses and farms owned by Americans.
  • Freedom of speech and of the press was additionally severely restricted. Opposition to his rule was typically met with imprisonment and even execution. Many people fled the country.

BAY OF PIGS

  • The United States attempted numerous times to assassinate or overthrow Castro from power.
  • This included the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, which was ordered by President John F. Kennedy.
  • For this invasion, around 1,500 Cuban exiles were trained by the CIA to attack Cuba. However, the invasion failed miserably. Almost all of the invaders were captured or killed.
  • The Bay of Pigs is regarded as part of the Cold War, since the US was making an attempt to stop communism from seizing control within the Americas.

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

  • After the Bay of Pigs, Castro associated his administration with the Soviet Union.
  • He enabled the Soviet Union to install nuclear missiles in Cuba that could strike the United States. After a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that nearly started World War III, the missiles were removed.

HEALTH

  • The heath of Castro began to fail in 2006.
  • On February 24, 2008, he gave the presidency of Cuba over to his brother, Raul. Fidel passed away on November 25, 2016, at the age of 90.

Fidel Castro Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Fidel Castro across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Fidel Castro worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Fidel Castro Ruz who was the Cuban prime minister and initial secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba. A lawyer by profession, Fidel Castro commenced the Cuban Revolution and remodeled the country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Fidel Castro Facts
  • Fidel Bio
  • Sequencing Events
  • Republic of Cuba
  • Awards and Achievements
  • Involvement
  • Castro Regime
  • Assassination of Fidel
  • According to Fidel
  • Poem for Fidel
  • Fidel’s Caricature

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