60 Fun Facts About Fidel Castro

Which Cuban dictator did Castro's revolution overthrow at the start of 1959?

Batista fled on 31 December 1958 with over US$300 million; Castro reached Havana on 9 January.

From which region of Spain had Castro's father Ángel emigrated to Cuba?

Ángel took his household servant Lina Ruz as his mistress and later wife; Fidel was born out of wedlock on the farm at Birán.

Which religious order ran the Dolores School and El Colegio de Belén, where Castro was educated?

He was baptised at eight, which allowed him to attend the La Salle boarding school in Santiago.

What did Castro study at the University of Havana from 1945?

He graduated as a Doctor of Law in 1950 and co-founded a legal partnership for poor clients that failed financially.

In 1947 Castro joined an expedition to overthrow which Dominican dictator?

He evaded arrest and returned to lead student protests in Havana.

In which capital was Castro caught up in rioting in April 1948 after Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination?

He stole guns from a police station and joined the Liberals; the Organization of American States was founded there the same month.

Which Cuban politician's Partido Ortodoxo did Castro join in 1947, later seeing himself as his heir?

Castro was present at Chibás's politically motivated suicide in 1951.

On what date did Batista seize power in a coup, cancelling the elections Castro was standing in?

Batista called his new system 'disciplined democracy'; Castro's legal challenges went nowhere.

Which military garrison did Castro's 165 rebels attack on 26 July 1953?

Three of the sixteen cars never arrived; the rebels lost six dead in the fighting and 22 more were executed without trial afterwards.

Under what title was Castro's speech at his October 1953 sentencing later published?

Acting as his own counsel, he named José Martí as the intellectual author of the attack; he got 15 years.

On which island was Castro imprisoned in the Presidio Modelo after Moncada?

He ran a school for prisoners, read Marx alongside Freud and Shakespeare, and renamed his group the 26th of July Movement.

How did the imprisoned Castro learn that his wife Mirta had taken a job in Batista's Interior Ministry?

He raged that he would rather die 'a thousand times'; both filed for divorce and Mirta got custody of Fidelito.

How long did Castro actually serve of his 15-year sentence before Batista's 1955 amnesty?

Batista, backed by the US and big business, believed Castro was no threat.

In which country did Castro form the 26th of July Movement's exile force and meet Che Guevara?

Raúl befriended the Argentine doctor first; Fidel later called Che 'a more advanced revolutionary than I was'.

Which Spanish Civil War veteran agreed to teach Castro's exiled rebels guerrilla warfare?

Castro toured the US for funds meanwhile and allegedly survived an assassination attempt by Batista's agents.

What was the name of the yacht that carried Castro and 81 revolutionaries to Cuba in November 1956?

The crossing was meant to take five days and took seven; the party newspaper is named after the boat.

How many of the 82 men who landed in December 1956 reached the Sierra Maestra after being ambushed?

The survivors included the Castro brothers, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.

Which New York Times journalist's 1957 interview in the mountains made Castro an international celebrity?

CBS and Paris Match reporters soon followed him into the Sierra Maestra.

What was Batista's all-out 1958 offensive against the Sierra Maestra called?

Ten thousand soldiers under General Cantillo surrounded the mountains, and many of them defected.

On arriving in the capital in January 1959, where did Castro set up his home and office?

He had a moderate lawyer, Manuel Urrutia, installed as president but ruled by decree himself.

On what date was Castro sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba?

He also appointed himself head of the tourist industry and tried, unsuccessfully, to lure African-American holidaymakers.

Which US vice president met Castro in Washington in April 1959 and instantly disliked him?

Eisenhower refused to see him; Nixon judged him 'either incredibly naive about Communism or under Communist discipline'.

Whose farmlands were among those seized under Castro's First Agrarian Reform of May 1959?

The law capped holdings at 993 acres and gave title deeds to about 200,000 peasants.

Which Russian-American gangster said before his death that Cuba had 'ruined' him?

The CIA later allied with the Mafia, aggrieved at losing its brothels and casinos, in plots against Castro.

Which slogan did Castro use in April 1959 to announce that the promised vote would be postponed?

In a May Day speech in 1960 he cancelled all future elections, calling Cuba a direct democracy.

The 1960 explosion of which French vessel in Havana prompted Castro's first 'Patria o Muerte'?

The ship carried Belgian arms; the cause was never determined but Castro insinuated US sabotage.

Where in Harlem did Castro stay for the 1960 UN General Assembly, receiving Khrushchev, Nasser and Nehru?

He met Malcolm X there and chose Harlem in solidarity with its poor Black residents.

How long was Castro's 1960 speech to the UN General Assembly, the longest ever delivered there?

It was the same session at which Khrushchev banged his shoe on his desk.

What were the neighbourhood spying organisations Castro created in September 1960 called?

By 1970 a third of Cubans belonged to a CDR, eventually rising to 80%.

On what date did the US impose its economic embargo by prohibiting most exports to Cuba?

Cuba retaliated by seizing 383 private businesses the next day and 166 US companies later that month.

What was the name of the CIA-trained exile force that landed at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961?

1,400 strong and based in Nicaragua, it surrendered after three days; Castro interrogated captives on live TV.

For what did Castro exchange the Bay of Pigs prisoners with the US?

Fourteen were kept back and tried for pre-revolutionary crimes.

How did Castro finish his 1961 line 'Within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution...'?

He delivered the 'Words to the Intellectuals' speech in June 1961 after the film P.M. was banned.

In which month and year did Castro publicly admit he had been a Marxist-Leninist for years?

The Organization of American States expelled Cuba in response, and the Soviets privately scolded him for recklessness.

What did Castro urge Khrushchev to do if the US invaded Cuba during the 1962 Missile Crisis?

Khrushchev negotiated the missiles away without consulting him; Castro felt betrayed and fell ill.

Which two newspapers did Castro merge in 1963 to create the party daily named after his yacht?

On the same Soviet trip he received the Order of Lenin and addressed a Red Square rally.

Which Soviet loyalist was arrested in January 1968 for passing state secrets to Moscow?

Castro had already purged him as 'sectarian' in 1962; months later he endorsed the invasion of Czechoslovakia to please Brezhnev.

When the 1969 sugar quota was missed, what did Castro do during a public speech?

The crowd insisted he stay; the army had been drafted in and a seven-day week imposed for the harvest.

To aid which country did Cuba send 4,000 troops during the 1973 Yom Kippur War?

Castro had just broken off relations with Israel at the Non-Aligned summit in Algiers, winning Gaddafi's friendship.

What was Cuba's 1975 military intervention in Angola called?

He sent 230 advisers, then 18,000 troops; between 1979 and 1991 about 370,000 Cubans served there.

How many Cuban troops did Castro send to Ethiopia in the 1977 Ogaden War?

He had first proposed a federation of Ethiopia, Somalia and South Yemen to avert the war.

From which port did some 120,000 Cubans leave for Florida in the 1980 boatlift?

It began after 10,000 Cubans stormed the Peruvian embassy; the government loaded criminals and psychiatric patients onto the boats.

On whose side did Castro stand in the 1982 Falklands War, despite despising its military junta?

He even offered the Argentines military aid.

In October 1985, on medical advice, Castro gave up what?

He meant it as an example to the rest of the population.

Which general, hero of Angola and Ethiopia, was executed in 1989 after a drug-smuggling trial?

Castro had clashed with him over the defence of Cuito Cuanavale the year before.

What did Castro call the era of hardship after Soviet subsidies ended in 1991?

Chinese bicycles replaced cars, oxen replaced tractors and power cuts ran 16 hours a day; GDP fell over 40% in two years.

Which British prime minister's economic policies did Castro think Cuban socialism could learn from in the 1990s?

He liked her emphasis on low taxation and personal initiative, and legalised the US dollar and farmers' markets.

Which pope did Castro invite to Cuba in January 1998?

Religious believers had recently been allowed to join the Communist Party; Benedict XVI visited in 2012.

Under the 2000 deal with Hugo Chávez, how many Cuban medics went to Venezuela in return for cheap oil?

Cuba got 53,000 barrels a day at preferential rates; by 2004 it was 40,000 medics for 90,000 barrels.

After intestinal surgery in July 2006, to whom did Fidel delegate his presidential duties?

The National Assembly formally elected Raúl president in February 2008; Fidel resigned as First Secretary in 2011.

How much did Forbes estimate Castro's personal wealth at in 2006, a figure he called 'repugnant slander'?

He said his net worth was nil and his income about 900 pesos, roughly US$40, a month.

How old was Castro when he died in Havana on 25 November 2016?

His ashes travelled 900 km to Santiago de Cuba, retracing the 'Freedom Caravan' of January 1959 in reverse.

How many sons did Castro have with his long-term secret partner Dalia Soto del Valle?

Their names all began with A: Alexis, Alex, Alejandro, Antonio and Angelito. Her existence was hidden until 2006.

In which village was Fidel Castro born on 13 August 1926?

He was born out of wedlock on his father's farm; his mother Lina Ruz González was the household servant.

With which country did Castro publicly break off relations at the 1973 Non-Aligned summit in Algiers?

The move won him respect across the Arab world and a friendship with Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Which Soviet honour was Castro awarded as relations with Moscow deepened in the early 1960s?

He also sent his son Fidelito to be schooled in Moscow as Soviet technicians arrived on the island.

By 2006, Cuba was the only nation meeting which UN body's sustainability definition?

Castro embraced environmentalism in the early 1990s and set up a dedicated environment ministry in 1994.

Which Chinese honour, a rival to the Nobel, did Castro receive in December 2014?

It cited his efforts to seek peaceful solutions with the US and to prevent nuclear war in retirement.

In which cemetery were Castro's ashes entombed after nine days of public mourning?

He was cremated after his death on 25 November 2016 and laid to rest in the city where his revolution began.

What did Castro do when Barack Obama visited Cuba in March 2016?

The letter declared that Cuba 'has no need of gifts from the empire', despite his cautious welcome of the Cuban Thaw.