Overview (5)

Mini Bio (1)

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Birán, Holguin Province, Cuba, the fifth of nine children of Ángel María Bautista Castro y Argiz, a plantation owner originally from Galicia, Spain, who operated a plantation in Cuba's Oriente Province. His mother, Lina Ruz González, was a servant in his father's home who bore Fidel out of wedlock (they later were married several years after Angel's first wife died). Known as a rebellious, loud, and troublesome child, Fidel was sent to a Jesuit boarding school in Santiago de Cuba, where he was often teased by his wealthier classmates who called him a "peasant." He later attended Belen College before enrolling at the University of Havana, where he earned a law degree. After graduating from the university, Castro briefly practiced law, before he went on to marry Mirta Diaz-Balart, a wealthy philosophy student with family ties to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. They had a son, Fidelito, but after 5 years, the couple divorce and went their separate ways. After several years in prison and exile (he lived in Mexico and New York City before starting the revolution) Castro led an attack on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953. The attack, which was a major attack on Batista's hold of Cuba, found Castro once again imprisoned before he was released. After his release he went to the Yucatan, where he organized a rebel force that landed in Cuba in 1958 and after many successful battles, Castro rode triumphantly into Havana on January 8, 1959.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Luis32789@aol.com

Spouse (2)

Dalia Soto del Valle (1980 - 25 November 2016) ( his death) ( 5 children) Mirta Francisca de la Caridad Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez (12 October 1948 - 1954) ( divorced) ( 1 child)

Trade Mark (2)

His long beard



Almost always appears in public in solid green military fatigues



Trivia (23)

Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959-76 and President of Cuba since 1976.



Rarely slept more than three or four hours a day.



Hobbies were fishing, hunting and reading.



Fluent in English, but refused to speak it anymore, even in public or private interviews because he considered it to be "the language of his enemies.".



Lived with Celia Sanchez, an upper-class Cuban woman and devoted guerrilla leader, for almost 30 years. Sanchez, the love of his life, was also the only one who could disagree with him. Her death from cancer in 1980 was said to hurt him very hard.



According to some reports he was born in 1927; however, due to the fact that he was too young to enroll at school, he changed his year of birth to 1926 so he could enter school (26 also happens to be his lucky number).



His brother Raul Castro is next in line to rule if he were to die. Raul has ruled Cuba as regent since Castro became ill in July 2006.



Entering law school at the University of Havana in 1956, he became involved in the political culture there.



Quit smoking cigars in 1986.



On 20 October 2004 he fell off a stage following a speech he gave at a rally. The fall fractured his knee and arm. He underwent three hours and 15 minutes of surgery to repair his left kneecap, which was fractured into eight pieces.



Underwent major surgery for an intestinal illness in July 2006. His brother Raul has temporarily ruled the country since then. The illness is widely believed to be cancer, though he has denied this.





Born to Ángel María Bautista Castro y Argiz (5 December 1875-21 October 1956), an immigrant from Spain (Galicia) who became a prosperous farmer, and his later wife Lina Ruz González, a household servant. He had five older siblings from his father's first marriage with María Argota Reyes: Manuel (1913-14), María Lila Perfidia (born in 1913), Pedro Emilio (born in 1914), Antonia María Dolores (born in 1915) and Georgina de la Caridad (born in 1918) Castro Argota. From his parents' marriage, he had two older and four younger siblings: Ángela María (born on 2 April 1923, died in 2012), Ramón Eusebio (14 October 1924-23 February 2016), Raúl Modesto (born on 3 June 1931), Juana de la Caridad (born on 6 May 1933) (aka Juanita Castro ), Emma Concepción (born on 2 January 1935) and Agustina del Carmen (28 August 1938-26 March 2017 Cuba) Castro Ruz, all born before wedlock.



Has one son from his first marriage, Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart (born on 1 September 1949), and an illegitimate daughter from his relationship with Natalia Revuelta Clews, wife of Orlando Fernández: Alina Fernández Revuelta (born on 19 March 1956). From his second marriage to Dalia Soto del Valle, he has five sons: Antonio, Alejandro, Alexis, Alex e Angel Castro Soto del Valle as well as a son by an unknown mother, Jorge Angel Castro.

Announced that he would resign as president and commander-in-chief (19 February 2008).



Had an estimated net worth of $900 million, according to "Forbes" magazine.



Loved to play baseball, and while living in the US was invited to try out for the Washington Senators. He failed to make the cut, however, and went to law school instead.



While attending The University of Havana in 1946, he worked as an extra in several American films, including Holiday In Mexico (1946) and Easy To Wed (1946), both starring Esther Williams.



Mentioned in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire".



He is mentioned in Dragon's "April Sun In Cuba.".



Personal Quotes (31)

[from a 1957 "New York Times" interview] Power does not interest me. After victory I want to go back to my village and just be a lawyer again.



[text from a 1953 speech. The last line is considered his most famous quote ever] I know that imprisonment will be harder for me than it has ever been for anyone, filled with cowardly threats and hideous cruelty. But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.



I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews.



I would not vote for the mayor. It's not just because he didn't invite me to dinner, but because on my way into town from the airport there were such enormous potholes.



I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement.



How can we help President [Barack Obama]?



Sorry, I'm still a dialectical materialist.



The revenues of Cuban state-run companies are used exclusively for the benefit of the people, to whom they belong.



There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.



A revolution is not a bed of roses.



North Americans don't understand . . . that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.



I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba.



The universities are available only to those who share my revolutionary beliefs.



I am a Marxist Leninist and I will be one until the last day of my life.



I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened.



Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.



I neither will aspire to nor will I accept the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief.



A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.



I find capitalism repugnant. It is filthy, it is gross, it is alienating . . . because it causes war, hypocrisy and competition.



There is not Communism or Marxism, but representative democracy and social justice in a well-planned economy.



I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.



They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?



I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ.



My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn't work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious.



The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters.



Men do not shape destiny; destiny produces the man for the hour.



No thieves, no traitors, no interventionists! This time the revolution is for real!



More than 820 million people in the world suffer from hunger; and 790 million of them live in the Third World.



Propaganda is vital--propaganda is the heart of our struggle.



These long-haired walk around with their transistor radios listening to imperialist music! They corrupt the morals of young girls -- and destroy posters of Che! What do they think? That this a bourgeois liberal regime? NO! There's nothing liberal in us! We are collectivists! We are communists! There will be no Prague Spring here!



These long-haired youths walk around with their transistor radios listening to imperialist music! They corrupt the morals of young girls -- and destroy posters of Che! That this is a bourgeois regime? NO! There is nothing liberal in us! We are collectivists! We are communists! There will be no Prague Spring here!

