Qwiz5 Quizbowl Essentials – Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro was a defining figure in the history of Cuba, but his impact was felt worldwide. Castro led the successful Cuban Revolution, deposing the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He would go on to lead Cuba continuously until 2008, first as prime minister and then as president. Under Castro’s leadership, Cuba became a one-party Communist state, causing great friction with the nearby United States. Castro remains a controversial historical figure, praised by some for his reforms and vilified by others for his authoritarian tendencies.  

By analyzing questions, you can see patterns emerge, patterns that will help you answer questions. Qwiz5 is all about those patterns. In each installment of Qwiz5, we take an answer line and look at its five most common clues. Here we explore five clues that will help you answer a tossup on Fidel Castro. 

STORMING OF THE MONCADA BARRACKS

Castro’s first attempt at revolution was not successful. In 1952, former president Fulgencio Batista had seized control of Cuba’s government through a coup. Castro, who had been running as a candidate in the upcoming election as a member of the Partido Ortodoxo, was enraged, as were many other young Cubans. Castro funneled this rage into a scheme to attack Santiago de Cuba’s Moncada Barracks. The desperate plan had been to seize the barracks, the nearby Palace of Justice, and a radio station from which the rebels would read a manifesto supporting opposition leader Eduardo Chibás. Unfortunately for Castro and his followers, the raid failed miserably. 

HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE ME

Castro initially escaped capture and torture following the failure at Moncada, but he was later captured. That he was taken alive was likely due to the political connections of his then-wife Mirta Díaz Balart, but she couldn’t prevent him being put on trial. Already a skillful orator, Castro used that trial to publicize his cause. He delivered a famous speech justifying his actions, claiming that “History will absolve me.” The court, however, did not. He was found guilty, Castro was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment on the Island of Pines, off the shore of Cuba. 

26TH OF JULY MOVEMENT

Castro only ended up serving three of the fifteen years of his sentence. Under international pressure, Batista released many political prisoners, including Castro. The revolutionary and his brother Raúl then relocated to Mexico for several years. In 1956, Castro and roughly 80 followers returned to Cuba in secret aboard a yacht named the Granma. This nucleus of rebels would eventually make its way to the Sierra Maestra Mountains in Cuba’s interior. They would form a rebel army against Batista, taking their name from the date of the failed assault on Moncada.

BAY OF PIGS

Although many Cubans celebrated the overthrow of Batista, the United States was not happy, and their displeasure only grew when Castro announced that he was a Marxist-Leninist. On April 17th, 1961, a United States-trained force of Cuban exiles landed on the island in an attempt to overthrow Castro. The exiles, known as Brigade 2506, had been trained for this invasion in Guatemala. Despite this training the exiles and their leader, José Miró Cardona, were quickly suppressed by well-disciplined Cuban forces. 

OPERATION MONGOOSE

With the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the United States shifted to more clandestine efforts to get rid of Castro. Operation Mongoose encompassed a series of plans developed by the CIA and Department of Defense to both undermine the Cuban people’s support for their government and assassinate Castro. Under the command of General Edward Lansdale, Operation Mongoose failed at its primary objectives. 

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Quizbowl is about learning, not rote memorization, so we encourage you to use this as a springboard for further reading rather than as an endpoint. Here are a few things to check out: 

• A skillful politician, Castro never missed a chance to call out the United States for its own hypocrisy, particularly on racial issues. 

• The United States attempted to assassinate Castro many times of the years, and some of those attempts were, for lack of a better word, bonkers. 
  

• Castro’s “History Will Absolve Me” speech ran over four hours in length. but you can read a heavily abridged version of the speech here.
  

• For a nice summary of the relationship between Cuba and the United States check out this video.

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