Fidel Castro Biography
             Fidel Castro was born on Aug. 13, 1926, on a farm in Mayari. He went to Catholic schools in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. In 1945 he enrolled at the University of Havana, graduating in 1950 with a law degree. He married Mirta Diaz-Balart in 1948, but they were divorced in 1954. His son, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart is now serving as head of Cuba's atomic energy commission. A member of the social-democratic Ortodoxo party in the late 1940s, Castro was an early and publical opponent of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In July 26, 1953, Castro led an attack on the Moncada army barracks that failed but brought him national recognition. When his political ideas were nationalistic, anti-imperialist, and reformist, he was not a member of the Communist party. After the attack on Moncada, Fidel Castro was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison but was let out in 1955. He then went into exile in Mexico. In Mexico he founded the 26th of July Movement, vowing to return to Cuba in order to fight against Batista. In December 1956, he and 81 others fighters, including Che Guevara, returned to Cuba and made their way to the Sierra Maestra, from which they launched a successful guerrilla war. Castro proved himself a strong leader. Seeing his army collapse, and unable to count on the support of the United States, Batista fled on Jan. 1, 1959, letting Castro rise to power. In its early stages, Castro's revolutionary regime included moderate politicians and democrats; gradually, however, its policies became radical and confrontational. Castro remained the unchallenged leader, and the masses--whose living conditions he improved--rallied behind him.
             At the beginning of the 20th century, Cuba was an independent nation under U.S. protection. After the Spanish-American War in 1898, the
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