Cuba-Castro Vocabulary
Movimiento Estudantia
During the Revolution, when it came to overthrowing Batista, many students got involved to overthrow him and out of power for the reforms that he had implemented.
Camilo Cienfuegos
A 26th of July veteran who led the Gramma expedition in the Sierra Maestra mountains. He died in a plane crash in 1959 that was suspected to be a sabotage attempt by Castro.
Major Hubert Matos
A Cuban dissident activist and writer. He was once a revolutionary who had helped Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other members of the 26th of July Movement to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista as part of the Cuban Revolution. Matos had opposed Batista since the general's effective coup in 1952, which he saw as unconstitutional, and became very critical of the movement's shift towards Marxist principles, closing his ties with the leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba. He would later be convicted of "treason and sedition" by the new Castro regime, and would spend 20 years in prison (1959-1979). Matos became a school teacher in Manzanilla, while also owning a small rice plantation. Regarding his party affiliation, he joined the Cuban nationalist party Partido Ortodoxo, in which Fidel Castro was a prominent member of. While he was involved as a member in the Partido Ortodoxo during the coup of Batista in 1952, he got involved with the resistance movement against Batista. He then went to Costa Rica but remained in contact with the revolutionaries of the July 26th Movement that were stationed in Sierra Maestra (the mountains), while helping them with their plans. He was also able to get in touch with the President of Costa Rica who supported Cuban rebel aims and helped Matos obtain weapons and supplies, Jose Figueres.
Gerardo Machado
A general during the Cuban War of Independence 1895-1898, as well as the President of Cuba in 1925-1933. He was a corrupt and brutal dictator who was eventually overthrown in 1933. Machado's police force tended to be very aggressive towards students protesting, however in the Sergeant's Revolt of 1933, many of the non-commissioned officers supported the students and arrested their own officers. His presidency was welcomed by the middle class as well. Throughout the years 1927 and 1928, he seized control of the Cuban political parties and was reelected in 1928, despite heated opposition from students and professional men.
Fidel Castro
A member of the Ortodoxo party, because he was drawn to their ideology of social reform and justice. He attended the University of Havana and completed his law studies in 1950 in Cuba. He was the son of a wealthy planter. After completing his studies he established a law firm that would help a wide range of people, especially poor clients in general. When Fulgencio Batista obtained control of Cuba in a military coup in March 1952, he and his allies tried through legal means to reverse the coop and in 1954, he launched a legal challenge to Batista's undemocratic seizure of power, and he was foiled by the corrupt court system, declaring himself an "enemy of the state". However in1953, he also launched The Moncada Barracks which started the July 26th Movement, against the Batista Regime. Castro's use of propaganda helped to convince Batista that the guerrilla army in the Sierra Maestra had a huge amount of fighters. In May 1961, after Batista had fled in 1958, Castro finally had the chance to create the "new Cuba" that he had promised in his Moncada Programme back in 1954 an publicly declared that the Cuban Revolution was a socialist one and that Cuba was a communist state. Due to his familiarity with the works of Marx and Lenin, and Jose Marti, he looked up to them when formulating policies. Castro was then given the position of prime minister and became president of Cuba in 1976. He implemented land reforms and redistributed land to the poor, nationalized agricultural properties, launched a successful literacy campaign/program, and initiated public health programs for which Cuba had become famous. Housing and infrastructure were improved, creation of jobs, democracy was introduced, the armed forces were strengthened, and many industries were nationalized. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs, the Soviet Union provided Cuba with economic aid and direct military aid because they were engaged already in trade with the USSR. Finally, in 1965 he and his colleagues reorganized the political leadership of the country and formed the Communist Party of Cuba.
Ramon Grau San Martin
A popular university lecturer who led the Revolutionary Directorate (1933-1934). During the 1930's, after Machado resigned, Dr. Ramon Grau San Martin, replaced him. A "new Cuba" was promised, with a democratic government, a promise to end social inequality, higher wages, lower prices, and also voting rights for women. The new government also declared the Platt Amendment null and void and he then became President of Cuba from 1933 to 1934 as well as from 1944 to 1948.
Agrarian Reform Law 5/1959
As Castro had promised in his Moncada Programme of 1953, he wanted to implement reforms that would improve the lives of the peasants. His initial reforms adversely affected only the wealthiest landowners while providing short-term economic benefits for the vast majority of the Cuban population. The reforms involved nationalizing major industries into smaller units and turning the into cooperatives similar to those in communist China in the 1950's. Land was confiscated from large companies and then redistributed to the peasants. More than 200, 000 peasants were give the title deeds to land on which they had previously worked for wealthy landlords. Land reform for the 26th of July Movement leaders, was the path towards achieving social justice, which was what had sparked the revolution. Therefore, the Agrarian Reform Laws of 1959 called for a nationalization of large landholdings and the most productive plantations. This allowed land to be redistributed among impoverished plantation workers and small plantation owners, or be taken by the government itself to be used as state farms.
Fulgencio Bastista
Batista came into power after the Revolt of the Sergeants in 1933 which overthrew the dictator of Cuba at the time, Gerardo Machado. Batista maintained control of the government through puppet presidents until 1940, when he was finally elected President of Cuba. Batista was able to gain supported from a wide cross-section of the Cuban society. He came from an impoverished peasant background, and learned to read and write after joining the army. He was Cuba's first non-white ruler, and he drew a lot of support from the non-white population, which formed a majority of the disenfranchised classes. He had control of the military, which enabled him to improve pay and working conditions, especially the promotion of non-white soldiers, which won him their support. In addition, he would bribe journalists, clergymen, and union leaders. So, he was convinced that the Cuban people genuinely loved him. In 1954, he used the corrupt judiciary and politicians to maintain his grip on power while using the BRAC to brutally crush any opponents that the courts wouldn't block. The more Batista relied on violence to eliminate opponents, the more he was seen by the Cuban people as an imperialist oppressor. Throughout the 1940's, when he rose to power once again, he established tighter censorship of the media and used his secret police to torture and perform public executions of anyone who tried to oppose him and his ideology or got in his way to power. It was his actions therefore, that inspired the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, and Fidel Castro to become an opponent and attempt to destroy the Batista regime.
Carlos Prio
Carlos Prio Socarras, was the last elected president of Cuba. He became involved in politics while he was a law student at the University of Havana and spent two years in prison for his anti-government activities. After he was released, he took part in the coup that overthrew Gerardo Machado's dictatorship in 1933 and helped organize the Partido Revolucionarie Cubano Autentico (The Authenticos). I 1944, he was appointed by President Ramon Grau as the Minister of Labor. He became a popular minister and in 1948, he replaced Grau as president. However, he never kept his promise of removing the Mafia from Cuba. During the election campaign General Batista, with the support of the armed forces, overthrew Prio, drove him out and took control of the party.
1933 Revolution
During the 1920's Cuba consisted of a corrupt and brutal dictator by the name of Gerardo Machado who was eventually overthrown in 1933. The purpose of the 1933 Revolution was to kick Gerardo Machado out of office because he was a dictator. Many workers and laborers went on a strike. Overall, the revolution consisted of: students, railroad workers, physicians, etc. Finally, the US Government encouraged Machado to resign and so he was replaced by a provisional government headed by Dr. Ramon Grau San Martin, who was a university professor. He promised a "new Cuba" with higher wages, a democratic government, an end to social inequities, and voting rights for women. The new government, therefore declared the Platt Amendment null and void. In addition, when he was encouraged to resign, he refused to and he even attempted to keep his position but in the end workers continued their strike. Eventually, Machado ended up resigning anyway on August 11th.
Revolt of the Sergeants
During the Cuban Revolution of 1933 when workers and civilians were attempting to overthrow dictator Gerardo Machado, student protests had often been met with frequently police brutality. However the impact of the Great Depression on the Cuban economy had caused support for students to increase, with strikers and protests by the workers. However, the Sergeant's Revolt on September 1933 was when the non-commissioned officers decided to support the students and even arrested their own officers. This group was led by a mixed-race army stenography from a poor background who became the most politically influential man in Cuba, by the name of Sergeant Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar.
Eduardo "Eddie" Chibas
Eduardo Rene Chibas was a Cuban radio presenter and politicians who set up the socialist Partido Ortodoxo in 1947and by the late 1940's he became strongly opposed to communism. He expected to win the election of 1952, however Batista launched his coup before the votes were cast and he killed himself live on air. Ironically, it was during a commercial break.
Attack on Moncada Army Barracks
In 1953, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul planned an uprising against the regime of Batista. They decided, along with a group of young rebels who were part of the Ortodoxo youth movement to attack the Moncada Barracks near Santiago de Cuba, the capital city of the impoverished and turbulent Oriente province. The plan to capture as many weapons as they could while waking up people and to create an uprising in the province. The rebels would then use the weapons that they captured for their own force, spreading the revolution to all of Cuba. However, this turned out to be huge failure as many were captured, killed, and tortured. Castro survived, and got the right to a trial where he explained his vision of the Moncada Programme which then became the July 26th Movement.
26 of July Movement
In 1953, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul planned an uprising against the Batista regime. Along with many rebels who were from the Ortodoxo youth movement, Castro attacked the Moncada Barracks near Santiago de Cuba, which was a capital city of the impoverished Oriente province. The plan was to capture the barracks, and produce a spontaneous and sudden uprising with the goal to avoid bloodshed if possible. However, this plan failed, as many were wounded and killed. After Castro escaped, during his trial he outlined his vision for a new Cuba, known as the Moncada Programme, which consisted of a more open and fair society to end corruption. The failure of the attack on the Moncada Barracks, led to what was called the 26th of July Movement, which was a revolutinoary movement led by Fidel Castro to overthrow the Batista regime in 1959. Castro kept many of the promises he made in the Programme of 1953, and implemented reforms to improve the lives of the peasants. Land was confiscated form large companies and were redistributed among the peasants. This was very important to the leaders of the movement because land reform was seen as the path towards achieving social justice which had inspired the initiation of the revolution in the first place. 68
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
In 1955 in Mexico, Castro had organized the M-26-7 group to return to Cuba. While Castro was in Mexico, he met Camila Cienfuegos (A Cuban nationalist) and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who was an Argentinian doctor. Both wanted rid Latin America of American corporate imperialism. Castro however was less committed to Marxist or communist ideals than Guevara. In the Sierra Maestra campaign (1956-1959), Guevara along with Juan Almedia and Camila Cienfuego regrouped to from a guerrilla army. They would wage a hit and run campaign against the forces of Batista in the Oriente province. They then began their campaign with help from the peasants and the 26th of July activists. Overall, he was a figure of society that influenced the Cuban revolution, and inspired the creation of a new society that would be motivated to act according to morals rather than focusing on personal gain.
3/1958 Arms Embargo
In 1958, Castro's forces in the Sierra Maestra gained strength and launched more attacks against the increasingly demoralized government outposts and forced Batista to withdraw his forces entirely from the area by the spring of 1958. In March 1958, the rebels called for a nationwide general strike as a show of solidarity with the 26th of July movement. The United States then imposed an arms embargo on Cuba on March 14, 1958 with the conflict between the rebels who were led by Fidel Castro and the Batista regime. This conflict violated US policy because it had allowed the sale of weapons to Latin American countries that were a part of the Rio treaty, which stated that weapons were not to be used for reasons such as aggression, violence, or hostile purposes. This embargo had a heavy impact on Batista.
Partido Ortodoxo
In the 1948 general elections Chibás came third in the presidential election, whilst the party won four seats in the House of Representatives. In the 1950 mid-term elections they won nine. Chibás' cousin, Roberto Agramonte, was the favorite to win the 1952 election (for the Orthodoxos) but Fulgencio Batista staged a coup before the winner was determined. Fidel Castro was an active member of the Ortodoxo Party in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He intended to run as an Ortodoxo Party candidate for the Cuban parliament prior to the coup by Batista. The reason that the Orthodox Party consisted of many members was because it was open to anyone who desired to joined it and fit the criteria. The mission of the Party was to remain anti-Imperialist (Anti-US) to their economic policies and military intervention, Agrarianism which meant agricultural diversification, redistribution of land, higher wages, a direct democracy, as well as nationalization of railways, sugar, etc., and to fight against political corruption, violence, and embezzlement like the Batista Regime was doing at the time.
Juan Almeida
Juan Almeida was born in Cuba. He attended the University of Havana where he met Fidel Castro, who was a candidate for Congress for the Cuban People's Party as well as a law student. Like Fidel Castro, he thought that the revolution was the only way that the Cuban People's Party would gain power after Batista had just come into power. In 1953, he and Castro, along with an armed group attacked the Moncada Army Barracks, which had the goal to overthrow Batista but ended up failing. He was imprisoned with Castro but released in the end and they both went to live in Mexico, where they planned another attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. Finally during the July 26th Movement, they set up their base in the Sierra Maestra mountains. When the guerillas took control of the territory, they redistributed the land amongst the peasants and in return, the peasants helped the guerrillas against the soldiers of Batista.
Melba Hernandez
Melba Hernandez wa a remarkable revolutionary figure of Cuba. She was born in Las Cruces in 1921 and was trained as an attorney at the University of Havana, graduating in 1943. Her family was involved in the struggle for Cuba's liberation from Spanish colonial rule, so she decided to join the revolution against Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of Cuba. On July 26, she joined the Moncada Barracks attack and was one of the women who participated actively during this attack under the leadership of Fidel Castro. After the attack resulted in failure, along with many others she was imprisoned in the women's prison in Guanajay. After being released, she immediately returned to the struggle and was vital to assuring the publication of Fidel Castro's famous speech "History will Absolve Me", which was one of the most important documents of the Cuban Revolution. She traveled to Mexico along with Castro and many of the other prisoners and continued to work in the leadership of what became the July 26th Movement, along with Castro, "Che" Guevara, and Jesus Montana, her husband. She then became a fighter in the Third Front when she returned to Cuba, under the command of Juan Almeida Bosque. After the Revolution of January 1, 1959, she was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Cuba, and was elected a member of the Cuban "People's Power" parliament from 1976 to 1986. She also served as the President of the Cuban Committee and was a Cuban ambassador to Vietnam and Cambodia. Today, even after her death she remains one of the greatest women revolutionaries as she fought for the rights of women as well as socialism.
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev was heavily involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis and oversaw the building of the Berlin Wall. He was the Premier of the Soviet union after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 on April 15, 1984. In addition, he visited the the West, and announced his brand of "Reform Communism". During his early years, he found work in a factory at the age of 15. He ended up joining the Communist Party of Russia in 1918 and fought in the Red Army during the Russian Revolution. He soon became a true believer of communism. In 1934, he became a member of the Central Committee and during World War II, he worked with the military to further Soviet control over Poland and Ukraine. Khrushchev was known for his dramatic ideas and he attempted to humanize the Soviet system by easing the restrictions on free expression and release waves of political prisoners from the infamous Gulaf force labor camps. Khrushchev plays an important role in the Cold War, because he was considered combative and belligerent depending on who he was conversing with or who his audience was. During the Missile Crisis, he devised a plan to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, because of the communist ideology they both shared. In October, the US detected the missile and they placed a naval blockade. After 13 days of negotiations, the crisis ended with Russia agreeing to remove the missiles.
Bay of Pigs Invasion
On the 17th of April 1961, a group of anti-Castro Cubans who had fled the to the USA launched an invasion of Cuba intended to overthrow Castro. But within three days they were defeated and capture. Within one week, the world know that the failed invasion attempt had been planned, funded, and executed by the USA. This was in part, the idea of the USA because they underestimated the loyalty of the citizens to Castro and thought that they wanted to overthrow him, however it did not turn out this way. The plan to was to destroy Castro's air force, however because Castro and his guerilla forces knew where their opponents might attack (due to his advisers who knew the area well as well as about the raid), they were able to avoid getting attacked.
Raul Castro
Raul Castro was born in Cuba. He is known as the brother of Cuban Revolutionary Fidel Castro. He became interested in politics and joined a socialist youth group from a young age, and participated in the revolution with his brother, Fidel Castro. In 2008, he succeeded Fidel Castro as President of Cuba and since that time he implemented a variety of social, economic, and political reforms in the country, including the restoration of diplomatic ties with the United States. As a Cuban Revolutionary, he attempted to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, but ended up with Fidel after the failure of the Moncada Barracks attacks. For many years, Raul assisted his brother in many ways, especially leading the movement of guerrilla forces. Raul was later appointed the head of the armed forces and ordered the execution of 100 of Batista's military officers.
Richard Bissell
Richard Bissel was born in 1910. In 1948, he was appointed as an administrator of the Marshall Plan in Germany and eventually became head of the Economic Cooperation Administration. Bissel also worked closely with the Office of Strategic Services which had helped to organize guerrilla fighting, sabotage, and espionage during the war. Bissell then associated a group of journalists, politicians and government officials that became known as the Georgetown Set. He then joined the CIA, whose role was to evaluate intelligence reports and coordinate the intelligence activities of the various government departments in the interest of national security. In 1954, he was placed in charge of developing and operating the U-2 spy plane. The U-2 was designed by Kelly Johnson. The U-2 spy plane was a great success and within two years Bissell was able to say that 90% of all hard intelligence about the Soviet Union coming into the CIA was "funneled through the lens of the U-2's aerial cameras". This information convinced Eisenhower that Nikita Khrushchev was lying about the number of bombers and missiles being built by the Soviet Union. Eisenhower now knew that the United States enjoyed a major advantage over the Soviet Union and allowed him to control defense spending.
1958 Pastoral Letter
The 1958 was a confrontation between the Catholic Church and the state, in terms of ideology. The Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Enrique Perez-Serantes, who saved Fidel's life after the Moncada Barracks attack, framed it as a pastoral letter. Many people interrupted the religious services and accused priests of being counterrevolutionaries. Therefore an identity and conflict had developed between the Catholic Church and the opposition. In his pastoral letters, one of the pastors explained why the revolution of Castro was not considered Christian, despite trying to create more good and trying to eliminate corruption and embezzlement by ending racial discrimination, helping the poor, and implementing programs to create more social equality. He saw the revolution of Castro as not Christian because he observed that they harmed the rights of others. He said that if he wanted the revolution to be Christian, then it needed to be a bit more spiritual and about humanity rather than about policies and all the material concepts involved, because he believed that it had led to violating the constitution of God, because it had violated the concept of caring for one another through means of love, and instead focused on all the negative aspects, such as hate, inequality, fighting, violence, class struggle, etc.
Committee for the Defense of the Revolution
The CDR system was formed by Fidel Castro on September 28, 1960 after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the dictator Fulgencio Batista. The slogan of the CDR was "In every neighborhood, Revolution!" A CDR unit was set up on each square block throughout all urban areas. The CDRs acted basically as the eyes and ear of the regime at the most personal level since they were designed as a "neighborhood watch" in which neighbors are both the watching and the watched. The police are in this network to gain information from an individual: background of the family, work history, volunteer activities, etc. A certificate from the CDR is required before any building material to repair or remodel a house can be requested from People's Power, the organization in charge of their distribution. In order to change residence, citizens would need to get permission from the CDR to transfer the family food identification card to a new address. After the revolution, the national revolutionary militia, the police, and the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution were responsible for maintaining law and order. The post-revolutionary force was composed of mostly loyal recruits from the revel army, and many from the lower classes. Therefore, the CDRs provided a link between the central government and the local community and formed the basis for a number of welfare and crime-related intitiatives.
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba or (Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) was the political party led by Fidel Castro and that ruled the Republic of Cuba, which followed the Marxist-Leninist model. Fidel Castro replaced Batista in January 1959 and was appointed commander in chief of the armed forces. Castro also established an organization to oversee the rapid and efficient implementation of his proposed agrarian land reforms: the Office of the Revolutionary Plans and Coordination (ORPC). This body was made up of his closest confidants from the guerilla war, including his brother Raul and Che Guevara. The prime minister Jose Miro then resigned in February 1959 and Castro was appointed prime minister in his place. Power was then decided to lay in the hands of Castro and the ORPC. Throughout the early 1950's, Fidel Castro's method of leadership usually was characterized by once a decisión was made in his head, he would simply act on it rather than debating it or discuss it with others. There was, in other words a preference for action rather than words or discussion. Because of this, many thought of him as a dictator. More people began to perceive him as a dictator when he suspended elections to allow time to consolidate the revolution and secure it against the threat of the US-funded counterrevolution, and as a result the fair and free elections that he had once promised, never arrived. Instead, other parties in Cuba became were unable to launch their own campaigns or start up and activities that would appear counterrevolutionary against the Communist Party of Cuba. In comparison to China, Cuba seemed to implement more market reforms. The Communist party favored supporting revolutions and passed many policies in Latin American countries.
Fundamental Law of the Republic 2/1959
The Fundamental Law of the Republic was based on the 1940 Constitution and was amended in the view of the changes that have taken place in the country. In these changes was the legislative power and constitutional authority given to the Council of Ministers on February 7, 1979.
Literacy Crusade
The Literacy crusade was the idea to eliminate illiteracy in the state of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution because during this time period, literacy rates were very low due to the lack of education and especially since those in poor economic situations did not have the resources necessary for education, nor could not have access to education without sufficient money. Castro's vision was to create a Cuba of educated people, which consisted of individuals being literate and therefore the goal was to make Cuba have one of the highest literacy rates in the world. This crusade would also help to mesh the two classes of society in both urban and rural areas. This was in part to create more equality among social classes. In addition, the purpose was to educate those living in poor conditions (economically) and along with education reforms that were implemented it would bring equality for all Cuba citizens which is what Castro had envisioned.
National Association of small farms
The National Association of small Reforms was formed in 1961 and the membership consisted only of those who were farmers whose land holdings were less than 67 hectares. The Cuban government supported this association by provide interest-free loans to the members. Then, the Second Agrarian Reform Law of October 1963, introduced the State control over medium and large agricultural estates. In 1966 along with the Federation of Cuban Women, the Mutual Aid Brigades were established to help rural women become more economically active outside the home. The FMC-ANAP brigades increased available rural labor force artificial moments in the agricultural cycle, and were instrumental in the campaign to increase the sugarcane harvest in Cuba.
National Institute of Agrarian Reform
The National Institude of Agrarian Reform was an agency that was used to form the institue of the Agrarian Reform Law of 1959 and led by Che Guevara. This consisted of nationalizing products and industries, as well as taking away the land of wealthy landowners and redistributing it among the peasant population. The agency also implemented the Second Agrarian Reform Law of 1963 which was in charge of running rural infrastructure.
Nationalization campaign of 1960
The nationalization campaign of 1960 took place when Castro knew that he needed to consolidate his position fast in order to secure the future of the Cuban Revolution. Due to the fact that the CIA had arranged a coup in Guatemala in 1954, it showed how far the US government would go to protect the profits of their most powerful companies. Therefore, Castro was forced to continue his programme of land reform and nationalization. Castro and his administration the decided to nationalize all foreign-owned goods and property, especially American holdings in August of 1960.
Partido Autentico
This conservative/nationalist party was set up by Dr. Ramon Grau San Martin during his exile in the USA (1934-1940). This party opposed Batista's government and it used armed political gangs to deal with opposition and had close ties to the American Mafia. It also consisted of individuals who had brought down Gerardo Machado to defend the purpose of the Cuban Revolution in 1933. Its program had socialist elements and it supported efforts to implement labor unions, who were the party's biggest supporters. In addition, businessmen and labor leaders supported the management of the economy.
Batista 1952 Coup
When the election of 1952 came closer, the US Mafia wanted to protect their inestments by offering President Carlos Prio Socarras, a bribe of $250,000 so he could stand down in favor of Batista. In August of 1951, Eddy Chiba announced his suspicions of a coup by Batista on his radio shot, and then shot himself on live air. On March 1952, Batista staged a coup and seized power, with the help of the army, and took control of the government. He was then recognized by the US government, and returned as a brutal dictator, controlling the media, the university, as well as embezzling sums of the economy.