The Cuban Revolution is unique in that, even though it happened in Latin America during the Cold War, and put in a communist regime, it managed to not be undone by the US (apologies to Guatemala). It is for this reason that we can use Cuba to study the effects of whether or not communism in Latin America can work. Now, before the revolution, Cuba was a, as PBS puts it “one of the most advanced and successful countries in Latin America” with “profound inequalities”. Now, Cuba under Castro wasn’t exactly paradise on Earth. As Erin Blakemore puts it, “As Cuba’s dictator, Fidel Castro oversaw sweeping reforms… But these changes came at an overwhelming price” (Blakemore). But then again, every leader, no matter how great, have their mishaps and setbacks, and Castro obviously was no exception. Under him, Cuba arguably became more corrupt than ever, with their heavy censorship, economic suffering due to communism, and the persecution of the LGBT. Nevertheless, regardless of all the bad and awful things that Castro brought to Cuba, the country was better off under him for the average Cuban, especially the poor Cubans in the rural countryside, than it was under Batista before him. 

Before Castro’s time, it was Fulgencio Batista who was in power. Bautista first became president in 1940,  with which he ushered in “an era of hope” (“Pre-Castro Cuba.”) who even stepped down when his time was up. However, that “era of hope”, which was marred by political violence and corruption, came to an end when he unseated Ramón Grau San Martín, the democratically elected president of Cuba, in a coup d’etat in 1952,  and destroyed the democracy that he created. Although Cuba “ranked 11th in the world in the number of doctors per capita.” (“Pre-Castro Cuba.”), healthcare and education never reached the poor Cubans who made up the majority. It was only for a select few group of people (the rich White people) and not something that benefited the country as a whole. 

After the revolution, Cuba was under the power of one Fidel Castro, a man who according to the New York Times “really loves people as people” and had a “genuine, simple pleasure and affection for people, the humbler the better” (Matthews). This in contrast to Batista, a man so power hungry that he staged a coup d’etat to retake power despite already having been president before. Also, Castro said in an interview with Clark Galloway in 1959 “They demand so much—I am making a census of all their needs. I have asked all the active citizens in each town to tell me what things do they need and in what order they would like to have the Government provide them” (“1959: The Lost Interview”). This shows that he was somebody who was always looking out for Cuba and was always listening to the people. Note that since this interview took place before he came in power and during the revolution, this would mean that while he was fighting, he was already making plans and trying to figure how to best serve the people, a testament to his character. He was a true patriot and someone who truly cared about his country. Further proof of an increase in living conditions during Castro’s reign comes from a Western reporter who lived in Cuba for some time named Barbara Smith. According to Smith, “I never saw any children suffering from malnutrition. Cubans are big eaters and the rationed allowance of most foods is large by British wartime or postwar standards.” (Smith).  

Also, under Castro, living conditions for the poor increased drastically. Under Batista, as stated before, Cuba was a developed nation, but the only people who got to experience that development was the rich. It was a country that was plagued by inequality and unfairness. Under Castro, that changed in the form of healthcare and education. Let’s focus on these two subjects one by one. In terms of healthcare,  “As the country’s president, Fidel consistently promoted advances in primary healthcare, public health, medical education and research” (Shukla). For example, he established “a widespread network of public hospitals and community-based clinics, emphasizing on preventive and promotive health measures, and building a unique system for training of doctors and healthcare professionals” (Shukla) Also, according to the same article, “Fidel supported the creation of the family doctor-and-nurse programme since the 1980s, ensuring that every neighbourhood of Cuba had access to primary healthcare” (Shukla). All this shows that he was a man of the people, and unlike Batista, not just the rich people. He wanted to better the lives of his people, all of his people. 

Now as for education, it was one of Castro’s biggest issues from the get-go. According to Jenni Ramone, before the Revolution “Castro cited the lack of rural education and access to adequate schools as a primary impulse for seeking social change in 1953” (Ramone). According to the same article, before the revolution, a very large amount of people (40%) Were completely illiterate, to the point where they couldn’t even write their names. And yet, in just a few years post revolution (by 1961), he managed to practically eradicate illiteracy by sending teachers into rural areas to teach the people there how to read. Also, after literacy was taken care of, “instructores de arte (cultural teachers) taught art and music in rural areas, schools and factories” (Ramone). This shows that Castro was also a man who appreciated and valued the arts and creativity showing that he wanted children and adults alike to be both well read and creative, that he wanted his people to be well-rounded. 

There are, however, opposing views to this, that life under Castro was worse, which is a 100% valid claim to make because there were several ways that life in Cuba did become worse as a result of Castro coming into power. In fact, the claim that the government under Castro was far more corrupt is something that I myself personally agree with, although the claim that the quality of life was worse is not. According to Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), Cuba is 169th/180 on the ranking of freedom of the press by country. Although this report was technically published after Castro’s regime (hell, after his death), Castro’s regime is the very thing that destroyed this freedom of the press and brought upon heavy censorship. Additionally, according to Ernst Halperin, “Not all members of the militia were equally enthusiastic at the time of enrollment, and drilling and guard duty has dampened the ardor of a considerable number more” (Halperin), showing that Fidel may not have been as popular as he was during the years of the revolution after he came into power and that quite a few people had problems with him and his regime. And lastly, according to Blakemore “As the years of Fidel’s dictatorship dragged on, so did the trade embargo with the United States. In the meantime, Cuba’s regime-controlled economy stagnated” (Blakemore). And once the Soviet Union collapsed, “the Russian-dependent economy was on the brink of famine. As hunger grew, desperate Cubans began to eat dogs and cats.” (Blakemore), showing that the Cuba of 1963 in which Smith lived had changed rather drastically over the course of a few decades under him. This led to an exodus of Cubans as they fled to Florida and other South American countries. 

But, Fidel didn’t let his country fail forever. No, instead, he managed to “to sidestep the collapse of Cuba by allowing limited reforms… allowed some family businesses and foreign investment… stopped supporting foreign militants and expanded Cuba’s economic alliances” (Blakemore). This shows that Fidel was a resilient man. Even when his country was at its lowest and on the brink of total collapse, he was able to save it and bring it back from failure. This is the sign of true leadership, how one bounces back from problems and bad situations and failures. It is qualities like this that separates him from weak leaders. 

However, he had a less than amazing (to say the least) track record with the LGBT community. According to James Kirchik of the Daily Beast, “It wasn’t long after Castro came to power that police began rounding up gay men. In 1965, the regime established prison work camps known as Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP), into which it deposited homosexuals” (Kirchik). 

However, this was just another setback (albeit, a rather big setback) in his history. According to a previously cited article by Abhay Shukla, “after visiting a labour camp and meeting men held there in 1968, he closed the camps” (Shukla). This shows he regretted his actions and that he didn’t mean for things to get as bad as it did. He is quoted in an interview with Carmen Lira Saade in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada as saying “‘Estoy tratando de delimitar mi responsabilidad en todo eso porque, desde luego, personalmente, yo no tengo ese tipo de prejuicios.,’” (I am trying to define my responsibility in all that because, of course, personally, I do not have such prejudices) and “‘sabotajes sistemáticos, ataques armados, se sucedían todo el tiempo: teníamos tantos y tan terribles problemas, problemas de vida o muerte, ¿sabes?, que no le prestamos suficiente atención’” (systematic sabotages, armed attacks, they were happening all the time: we had so many terrible problems, life or death problems, you know, we don’t pay enough attention.) (Saade). Now, to be fair, this did come well after the genocide and while he wasn’t in power, and at a time that his previous views and opinions on homosexuals were considered far more unacceptable than they were back then, so it’s entirely possible that this is more of an attempt at an image overhaul by an old man than a genuine apology. But it’s also entirely possible that he changed. He changed in his ways, he changed in his thinkings, and he had a great regret for all the crimes he committed against homosexuals. Fidel Castro was, and to this day, still is, a very polarizing figure. People argue over many things about him; was he justified in his revolution, was he good for Cuba or bad for Cuba, were the benefits of his rule worth the drawbacks of his rule? As with many, if not most, other questions in life, the answer here is not a yes/no. And although this paper does show the more unfortunate moments and elements of Castro’s rule, it is also a testament to the benefits and goodwill Castro’s rule and Castro himself. I think an article from The Guardian by Thair Shaikh puts it best: “Raul lives in a largish wooden shack he rebuilt last year with the help of his son and son-in-law. The floors are uneven concrete, the windows don’t shut properly and the thatched roof wouldn’t survive a category 1 hurricane, let alone a category 4… Raul is a Cuban peasant and his life is not an easy one, but his house has electricity and running water. Clean water.” and then “But none of them would want to live in a Cuba, no matter how rich, without universal free education, free healthcare, cheap public transport and the lowest rates of violent crime in the Americas” (Shaikh). Castro didn’t build a perfect Cuba. A large amount of the people are very poor, people in the cities still face shortages of commercial goods, and most state workers earn 300 pesos (£12) a month. But still, they lead safe lives. Lives where the crime is low, the water is clean and just like healthcare and electricity, free. In spite of the fact that everybody wants to better their lives, nobody wants to live in a Cuba that isn’t like this. This, is what his legacy is. Even though he didn’t create perfection, he didn’t create intense discomfort like the kind that existed during Bautista’s time. It is for this reason that the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro was ultimately a good and beneficial thing for Cuba, in spite of its drawbacks.

 

Works Cited

“Pre-Castro Cuba.”PBS, 14 November. 2019, 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/comandante-pre-castro-cuba

Blakemore, Erin “How the Castro Family Dominated Cuba for Nearly 60 Years” History, https://www.history.com/news/cuba-after-castro-miguel-diaz-canel. Accessed 15 November 2019.

Matthews, Herbert L. “Now Castro Faces the Harder Fight.” The New York Times, 8 March 1959, p SM22.

“1959: The Lost Interview” Blank on Blank, n.d. https://blankonblank.org/interviews/fidel-castro-1959-lost-interview/#read-more

Smith, Barbara. “What It’s Like in Cuba.” New Republic, vol. 148, no. 15, 1963, pp. 21-24, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 30 Nov 2019.

Halperin, Ernst. “The Ubiquitous Cuban Militia.” New Republic, vol. 145, no. 16, 1961, p.p. 10-11.

Shukla Abhay. “Fidel Castro: A champion of public health.” DownToEarth, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/popular-prolific-populist-56607. Accessed 2 December 2019.

Ramone, Jenni. “Education and art for all: Castro’s cultural legacy.” The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/education-and-art-for-all-castros-cultural-legacy-69513. Accessed 2 December 2019.

Saade, Carmen Lira. “Soy el responsable de la persecución a homosexuales que hubo en Cuba: Fidel Castro.” La Jornada, 31 August 2010, p. 26.