Justin Smith
English II Honors
8/13/2013
1st Hour

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926 in Birán, Cuba, located in Cuba's eastern Oriente province. He was the third of six children, he had two brothers and 3 sisters. Castro received his education from El Colegio de Belen a Jesuit boarding school where he was acknowledged for being very intelligent.

After he graduated in late 1945, Castro entered law school at the University of Havana and studied and became interested in Cuban nationalism, anti-imperialism and socialism. In 1947, He traveled to the Dominican Republic to join an expedition attempting the overthrow of the dictator Rafael Trujillo which failed before it started. On July 26, 1953, Castro and 150 supporters attacked the Moncada military barracks in an attempt to overthrow Batista. The attack failed and Castro was captured, tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Castro was released in 1955 he went to Mexico, where he met Ernesto "Che" Guevara there, he devised a new strategy to overthrow the Batista regime based on guerrilla warfare. In January of 1959, at the age of 32, Castro successfully concluded a classic guerrilla campaign to take control of Cuba.

In 1961 Castro’s relationship with the United States begun to deteriorate. On April 16, Castro formally declared Cuba a socialist state. The following day, 1,400 Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Castro. The incursion ended in disaster;