Fidel Castro: Movies & Box Office

**Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz** was born on *13 August 1926* in the modest farm of Birán, Oriente, Cuba, the son of Spanish immigrant Ángel Castro y Argiz and his house‑maid Lina Ruz. After a childhood marked by school in Santiago de Cuba and later at Havana’s prestigious Colegio de Belén, he enrolled at the University of Havana to study law, where his activism blossomed. Influenced by José Martí, anti‑imperialist sentiment, and the writings of Marx and Lenin, Castro helped found the *26th of July Movement* following a failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks. Imprisoned for a year, he used the trial to articulate his vision in the famous “History Will Absolve Me” speech, and after his 1955 release he fled to Mexico, where he met Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and organized the Granma expedition that returned to Cuba in 1956. The guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra culminated in the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista in January 1959, after which Castro assumed the roles of Prime Minister and later President, consolidating a one‑party Marxist‑Leninist state. His tenure saw sweeping agrarian reforms, the nationalization of foreign‑owned enterprises, massive expansions in education and health care, and the establishment of a pervasive security apparatus including the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

Internationally, Castro positioned Cuba as a champion of anti‑imperialism, aligning with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, surviving the Bay of Pigs invasion, and playing a central role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He supported revolutionary movements across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, sending troops to Angola, Ethiopia, and Grenada, while also pioneering Cuban medical diplomacy that sent doctors worldwide. Domestically, his policies produced notable achievements in literacy, infant mortality reduction, and universal health coverage, yet were accompanied by political repression, censorship, and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Cubans. In 2006, deteriorating health led him to transfer power to his brother Raúl, officially stepping down as President in 2008. Fidel Castro died on *25 November 2016* in Havana, leaving a legacy that remains deeply polarising—celebrated as a revolutionary hero by many and condemned as a dictatorial oppressor by others.