Blog Post for the Week of March 24

 This week, I found our reading of History Will Absolve Me by Fidel Castro to be very interesting. I've heard a fair amount about him in the past, but it was always in a negative light due to his tense relations with the United States. It was enlightening to read a speech written by him. It made me realize that he started his revolution on good intentions. He wanted to free the people from the Batista regime and help improve their living conditions, which are good things to do. His story, though, reminds me the idea that people sometimes turn into what they were initially fighting against. In this speech, he makes it clear that the government rules by the will of the people, and that the people have a right or obligation to rebel against oppressive governments. When he finally achieved power, though, he didn't listen to the will of the people as he didn't have elections. Additionally, he used any means he felt necessary to suppress all dissent and opposition, to the point where one speaker in the documentary we watched stated it was safer to cross the ninety miles of shark-filled water to Florida than it was to try to fight back agains Castro's regime. Thus, it seems that Castro started off on a positive note. Once he reached power, however, he contradicted himself and replaced Batista's regime with one of his own.

Comments

  1. Seth TenElshofMarch 25, 2022 at 8:44 AM

    Hi Joe! I completely agree that Castro ended up as the same type of leader that Batista had been. People can start out with good intentions and completely go off in a different direction. This is a reminder to base our perception of leaders not just on what they promise, but how they carry out their promises.

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  2. Médar SerrataApril 1, 2022 at 4:03 PM

    Thank you, Joe, for your post. I totally agree with your statement that once Castro reached power, he contradicted the principles he had embraced in his speech.

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