The Cuban Revolution was an event that has shaped Cuba to be what it is today. In Cuban history, Cuba struggled to gain independence. Similarly to other countries that have been affected by imperialism, Cuba had to rely on foreign powers to achieve their independence, which in some ways made them more dependent. For example, the United States helped Cuba when they were fighting Spain for independence, but the U.S. only did this to create their own hold on Cuba. Once Cuba was “independent” in 1898, the United States still had many contingencies with the country. As stated in “History of Cuba”, “the U.S. would take over Guantanamo Bay, dictate Cuba’s foreign policy, and give itself the right to intervene in Cuban affairs” (“History of Cuba”, 01:46-01:51). Policies with the United States became even more hostile when Bastista took control under his dictatorship. Since the United States backed Bastista out of fear of Castro’s communism, Cuba continued to see the U.S. as an enemy. Due to Cuba’s struggles with Spain, the U.S., and Batista, the Cuban people never had a chance to make their voices heard. This changed with the Cuban Revolution.
The Cuban Revolution did not occur solely because of Castro. The people of Cuba were being mistreated by their dictator and were tired of being thrown around between different figures of authority. Although Castro used this revolution to further his control, the Cuban Revolution itself was an event that inspired and made the Cuban people proud. In “An Overview of Culture of Cuba” this support of the public can be seen through the following quote, “the third symbol of national pride and independence is the flag of the 26th July Movement, which contains the black initials M26J (Movimiento 26 de Julio) on a field of red. The M26J flag commemorates Castro's attack on the army barracks at Moncada and served as a symbol of resistance to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and the imperialism of the United States” (“An Overview of Culture of Cuba”, 2-3). Since this flag is a symbol of national pride, it cannot be solely Castro that wanted this attack on Batista to occur.
Aside from the fact that the Cuban Revolution began as a desire of the public, Castro’s reign that followed was not what the public had in mind. At the start, there were many benefits of communism. It provided Cuban citizens with free education, healthcare, and housing, but these benefits soon turned into struggles when the food was highly rationed and when Castro’s reign became similar to a dictatorship. Some of the downsides of Castro’s rule were pointed out in the article “Fidel Castro”. After speaking about his positive policies, the article states, “he also closed down opposition newspapers, jailed thousands of political opponents and made no move toward elections” (“Fidel Castro”, 2). Despite the fact that the Cuban Revolution lead directly into another power hungry ruler, it still shaped what Cuba is today. If the Cuban Revolution never happened, then the country would still be in a battle to escape imperialism and gain its own independence. If it had remained dependent, its own policy and culture would be under the influence of another nation. Since the Cuban Revolution lead Cuba to be independent, it benefited the country overall and allowed its own people to decide the culture of Cuba. Do you believe that Castro helped Cuba shape its culture? Do you think that Cuba would be more independent if Castro never existed, or would this power struggle have continued even without him?
I agree with what you have said about how the Revolution has shaped the country of Cuba to what it is today and how, in many ways, being the underdog made the country "stronger" in the long run. However, I don't entirely agree when you state that because the flag of the 26th of July Movement is a national symbol, that more than just Fidel wanted to attack Batista. I definitely think that others wanted Batista gone, but based on the videos we've watched about Cuba, it seems that nearly everything is regulated by the government, and in turn Fidel. For this reason, I think Fidel and the regime he created had more of an influence on this than the Cuban people. Additionally, to answer your first question, I definitely think Castro helped shaped Cuban culture. I feel that by having him as a leader, Cuban's have become more prideful and due to being under a communist government, I believe this influenced the people to view each others as equals. Additionally, Fidel had a huge impact on religion, and because of him nearly no one in Cuba is catholic, unlike nearly all other Spanish speaking countries. Lastly, to answer your final question, I think without Castro, Cuba would never have had any sense of independence. I understand how now, the government in Cuba is very oppressive and doesn't give the Cuban people a sense of freedom, but I think if Fidel never became in charge, the United States would have taken over Cuba for its own personal interests. For this reason, Cuba would likely have had to fight for 'freedom' much longer if Fidel never stepped in, but then again, many who lived in Cuba when he was in charge left because they felt they were not free, so its possible there would have been no difference in 'power struggles' if Fidel never took over.
ReplyDeleteI think Castro, in many ways, did help Cuba shape it's culture. Ingrid made some really valid points about religion, communism and nationalism that I agree with. I do think that Cuba has always had a great sense of culture with or without Castro, especially in regards to music, dance and art, but, as Ingrid said, I do agree that the country wouldn't have as much independence if it wasn't for his impact. He is a huge symbol of freedom for Cuba, and was the main person to make actions in achieving independence like no one had before in Cuba. He tended to make long winded speeches that would spur these intense feelings of nationalism, and I think the pictures and idea of him still encourage that today in the country. I'm not exactly sure what the state of Cuba would be without Castro, but I do think the power struggle would still be present in some way. If Fidel Castro had never been the figure of the Revolution, I believe that somebody else would have rebelled against Batista and have had a similar symbolic impact over Cuba. There's this idea about patterns in history and history repeating itself: in it's years, Cuba has the repetitive timeline of being controlled by a stronger, larger country, fighting for independence, being controlled, fighting for independence... perhaps it is only due to Castro that this cycle was broken, but that can't be certain.
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe that Fidel Castro and the revolution shaped Cuba’s culture, people, government, and education. The way a country is governed is how the country will turn out in my opinion. I believe if Fidel Castro never existed then Cuba would have still remained under Batista’s dictatorship especially since Batista had the support of the United States. My question is why would the Cuban people allow Fidel Castro to become a dictator if they just fought to overthrow Batista who was another dictator? Just doesn’t make sense to me. I honestly believe that Fidel tried to do right by his country, just like Molly stated, Fidel provided free education, free healthcare, and more benefits. However, the way Fidel governed and set up the government in Cuba the people did not have the right to voice their opinion or able to elect a new candidate. Although free education and free healthcare are nice, there are pros and cons to having these benefits. For example, in the film “Cuba and the Cameraman”, in one of clips a scene is shown where gloves were recycled after being used. How do you know these gloves are properly sanitized or if whatever they were used for was highly contagious? When a country has free healthcare there are longer waiting lines, ambulances aren’t able to arrive as fast, the care might not be as good, or low supplies of medicine. In another clip from the same film, there was a scene shown where the pharmacist shows there is hardly any medicine that can be provided to its people since medicine is extremely expensive and the government is in charge of paying for all of the medicine since there is free healthcare. Just like with everything there are always pros and cons. In conclusion, I don’t believe a country should turn socialist. I think it will fail every time and nothing positive will come out of it. I do believe if Castro never existed, then Cuba will still be under the control of Batista and would have remained under a dictatorship.
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