Fidel Castro

John F. Kennedy

The US president that sent the Bay of Pigs Invasion and had to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

CIA

A civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence

History will Absolve me

A pamphlet that circulated and disseminated Castro's name throughout Cuba. It contained historical analysis used by Fidel to persuade the court about Cuba's ills and argued the duty of patriotic Cubans to take up arms against Batista.The historical significance of Castro's famous speech is that its content crystallized the goals of the July 26 Movement in Cuba

INRA

Agency of the Cuban Government that was formed to institute the Agrarian Reform Law of 1959 and also the Second Agrarian Reform; oversaw development of the rural infrastructure; Che Guevara was minister of INRA

OAS

An association of 35 nations from North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean; goals of the OAS are "to defend the sovereignty and independence of member states and to promote the economic, social, and cultural development of the peoples of the Hemisphere, and to speed the process of economic integration

Sugar Economy

Cuba's economy was dependant on its production of sugarcane

Sierra Maestra Mountains

Castro fled and stayed in the mountains after returning to Cuba. Batista had announced that Castro was dead but he remained planning and leading in the mountains while the revolution was happening near the capital.

US Oil Embargo

Cuba expropriated American oil refineries after the refiners refused to refine cheap crude oil by the Soviet union

Fidel Castro

Cuban revolutionary leader who overthrew the corrupt regime of the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and soon after established a Communist state. He was prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and has been president of the government and First Secretary of the Communist Party since 1976.

Raul Castro

Fidel's brother; Cuban politician and revolutionary who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008; after Fidel Castro took power, Raúl Castro was one of the most important figures in the new regime, serving as Minister of the Armed Forces from 1959-2008

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

Bay of Pigs

In April 1961, a group of Cuban exiles organized and supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency landed on the southern coast of Cuba in an effort to overthrow Fidel Castro. When the invasion ended in disaster, President Kennedy took full responsibility for the failure.

Public housing reform

Living conditions of masses improved, everyone given their own housing, corruption of real estate ended

Operation Mongoose

Secret program of the CIA during early years of Kennedy's presidency; it was a project of propaganda, psychological warfare, and sabotage against Cuba to remove the communists from power; it originated after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion

Guerrilla Warfare

Small bands of fighters stage hit-and-run attacks against a larger power

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

26th of July Movement

The 26th of July Movement was a vanguard revolutionary organization led by Fidel Castro that in 1959 overthrew the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba. The Movement fought the Batista regime on both rural and urban fronts

Los Barbudos

The Bearded Ones, guerrilla military force. Rebel forces of the Cuban revolution

The Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and its allies against Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in July 1953, and continued sporadically until 1 January 1959, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state.

Federation of Cuban Women

The FMC was deeply involved in the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign and in supplying workers after the mass exodus of trained labor following the Revolution. Several goals of the FMC involved bringing women out of the home and into the economy, providing equal opportunities for women, and providing adequate working conditions for women.

The Granma

The Granma was the yacht that was used to transport Castro, his brother, Che, and 82 of his men from Mexico to Cuba in November 1956 for the purpose of overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio Batista. Though the yatch did not arrived at the time and place planned, this allowed Fidel to create alliances with marginalized peasants at the Sierra Mestra

Communist Party of Cuba

The PPC was the predominant party of power in Cuba. In July 1961, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed by the merging of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, the Popular Socialist Party, and the Revolutionary Directory March 13. On March 26, 1962 the ORI became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC) which, in turn, became the Communist Party of Cuba on October 3, 1965.

Fulgencio Batista

The elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution.

Agrarian Reform

The government gained 44 % of farm and ranch land, which did not distributed to peasants --because the gov't believed that doing so would lead a decline in production-- instead it converted these lands into state farms and cooperatives. Hence, the US owned 1/4 of the land in Cuba, the Agrarian reform soon directed into conflict to both governments. Historically, these first reforms ignited the problems between the both countries.

Marxism

The political, economic, and social theories of Karl Marx including the belief that the struggle between social classes is a major force in history and that there should eventually be a society in which there are no classes

Cuban Missile Crisis

US-SU political and military standoff over the installation of nuclear armed Soviet missiles on Cuba. Kennedy agreed to remove US missiles from Turkey in exchange for the removal of Cuban missiles

Literacy Campaigns

Was a year-long program in 1961 initiated by Revolutionaries in an attempt to abolish illiteracy and create a new political culture. Its historical significance is that it worked. Literacy rates raised and it was proved a success.