The entire world was fascinated by the apparent explosion of idealism: Fidel, Che and Celia basked in goodwill, entertaining intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. There was a chance, many felt, that Cuba would become a paradise of political, racial, and gender equality.
The reason for our amnesia about how the revolution was received is, of course, political: the popular memory of the guerrilla campaign was an early casualty of the Cold War. When los barbudos first rolled into Havana in January , they were showered with admiration for what seemed a black-and-white struggle for liberty. But Atomic Age milestones such as the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in April and the near-Armageddon of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October , which pushed the human race the closest it has ever come to extinction in nuclear war, quickly overshadowed any romance for most in the Western world.
It became widely accepted in the U. It was also full of larger-than-life characters. Images of the dashing guerrillas and attractive guerrilla women—almost all in their 20s or early 30s, some of them fresh-faced teenagers—jolted the world towards the s. Thanks to the veil of suspicion and ideology hanging over Cuba today, few are aware of just how improvised the revolution was; its leaders were largely forced to make up their own brand of jungle combat and urban resistance as they went along.
Under Batista, thousands of young rebel sympathizers disappeared into police torture chambers, their mutilated bodies strung up in parks or dumped in gutters the next morning. But by going back to original letters, diaries, TV and newspaper accounts, it's possible to turn back the clock to recapture the atmosphere of Cuba in the s, when the actors were unknowns, history was unformed, and the fate of the revolution hung in the balance.
Imagining history as it was lived helps to explain how the optimism of the uprising went so badly awry. Cuba recently erupted in the largest protests seen there in six decades, reflecting popular anger over a crippling economic crisis, scarce food and medicines and a half-century of repression. Cuba remains largely an enigma to outsiders, and especially to Americans.
This article examines five common areas of confusion about Cuba, Cuban Americans and the U. Fidel Castro and a band of guerrillas overthrew the brutal U. Anti-communist revolutionaries allied with him. The revolution was a nationalist revolution for most Cubans, then, not a communist one. When Castro installed a socialist economy and a one-party political system, many fellow revolutionaries felt betrayed. Cubans fought to form a government that would answer to the Cuban people, rather than foreign interests.
Many poor Cubans revered Castro for implementing policies that promoted equity and minimized discrimination, including major reforms in land, agriculture, education and housing. Others fled because of fear and persecution. The U. Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of US presidents during his half-century rule, died at age Hide Caption. Cuban students chant slogans and carry a wreath as they mourn the death of revolution leader Fidel Castro, at the University of Havana, on November 26, , in Havana.
People gather outside the Cuban Embassy in Santiago, Chile. One of the world's longest-serving rulers and most singular characters, Castro defied 11 US administrations and hundreds of assassination attempts.
People take to the streets to react to the news of the death of former Cuban President Fidel Castro outside the restaurant Versailles in Miami. Cuban-Americans take to the streets of Miami's Little Havana neighborhood early Saturday, November 26, upon hearing the news of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro's death.
Castro died at age 90 after ruling the island nation with an iron hand for nearly half a century. Celebrations continue into the early morning November 26 in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Few who came to the United States in the late '50s and early '60s believed Castro would hang on to power for so long, only ceding the presidency to his brother Raul in recent years. Members of Communist Party of India march as part of a remembrance rally in Chennai on November 26, Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 US presidents during his half century rule of Cuba, has died at age The mood seems somber in Havana on November 26 as Cubans react to the announcement of the revolutionary leader's death.
Those out on the streets of Miami include Cuban-Americans of all ages. Some Cuban exiles have waited years to mark this moment. The streets are quiet in the Cuban capital on November 26 following the announcement of Castro's death the evening before on national TV.
People gather at an office of the Popular Assembly in Havana in front of a picture of the iconic leader on November 26 after President Raul Castro announced his brother's death on television.
A sign that reads, "Long live Fidel," stands on a government building in Havana early November Story highlights Louis Perez: In death, Castro passes into status of historical subject impossible to discuss dispassionately for years to come He says Castro defied America; even with his death Cuba not likely to bend to demands of US with incoming Trump administration.
Fidel is a metaphor. He is a Rorschach blot upon which to project fears or hopes. A prism in which the spectrum of colors refracted out has to do with light that went in. He is a point of view, loaded with ideological purport and political meaning. A David who survived Goliath. Frankly, the heroes of the United States have not necessarily aligned with the heroes of marginalized peoples of this country nor with the heroes of the Global South.
There was a time when Martin Luther King Jr. Terrorist Watch List up until Even now, as President-elect Donald Trump appoints racists and white nationalists to his cabinet, there are calls for the Black Lives Matter Movement to be labeled a terrorist organization. Fidel Castro has been and will continue to be one of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century and as we continue national dialogue on the different perspectives of his leadership, we must avoid martyrdom as well as vilification.
Just as we condemn the suppression of dissent in Cuba and discuss the demographic makeup of the Cuban prison population, we must also acknowledge the active role Cuba played in the decolonization of Africa and the Caribbean, the training of professionals from these areas and efforts of Cuban medical and educational professionals throughout the Global South over the past 50 years.
Nana Brantuo is an educator, researcher and writer. A doctoral student, she centers her academic interests on the mobility, migration and the educational experiences and trajectories of African and African descendant peoples. Her academic work has taken her to various states and countries around the world with her most recent travels taking her to Cuba and Haiti. Support Provided By: Learn more.
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