Story highlights Peniel Joseph: Fidel Castro re-shaped global politics before reaching the age of 40

Joseph writes that as a revolutionary, Castro was both an icon and an oppressor

Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of history. He is the author of several books, most recently "Stokely: A Life." The views expressed here are his.

(CNN) The firestorm over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's praise for Fidel Castro is proof that, despite the US government's official denunciation of the Cuban leader, Castro's legacy around the world ultimately remains far more complicated.

Trudeau's characterization of Castro as a "legendary revolutionary and orator" drew swift and withering rebukes from American elected officials, most notably from Sen. Marco Rubio, who tweeted that Trudeau's remarks are "shameful & embarrassing," and Sen. Ted Cruz, who called them "disgraceful." Both senators are descendants of Cubans who fled pre- and post-revolutionary Cuba and both remain determined to close off US-Cuban ties until the island's communist regime is replaced with free elections.

Peniel Joseph

Castro's death, taking place against the backdrop of President Obama's efforts at the end of his tenure to normalize relations with Cuba, has touched off a fierce international debate over the meaning of human rights, social justice and political revolution.

Trudeau's praise illuminates the fact that the meaning of Castro's legacy largely depends on historical context. He stands alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X as a political icon who indelibly shaped world history and re-shaped global politics before reaching the age of 40. Castro's successful 1959 revolution overthrew the US-backed Batista regime in favor of a socialist political experiment that was soon backed by the Soviet Union. Castro's acumen as a revolutionary reached far beyond his country's borders. He excoriated American imperialism in jaw-dropping three-hour speeches before the United Nations, met with Malcolm X and stayed in Harlem during a September 1960 visit to the States. He offered military, financial and medical assistance to unfolding liberation movements in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Trudeau calls Castro a "remarkable leader." As the leader of a tiny island 90 miles off the coast of Florida determined to reject the dictates of US foreign policy, Castro was nothing if not a survivor: He weathered assassination attempts, fallout from the Cuban missile crisis and the economic punishment of the US embargo to emerge as the symbolic leader of revolutionary movements raging across the Third World during the 1960s and 1970s.

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