The Cuban Revolution and the Impact 

The Cuban revolution started in 1953 and went to 1959 and resulted in the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and the the new communist government under Fidel Castro. In 1940 Batista came to power as the president of cuba and was progressive and had much support from the “left” but over time Batista started becoming anti-communist and this stance gained a lot of American support because of Batista’s deals with American mafia and wealthy Americans making it look like Batista was starting to betray the cuban capital(The Cuban Revolution PDF, 447-451).

In 1952 Batista was faced with defeat in the elections and suspended the 1940 constitution and went down on anyone who didn’t agree with him. This is where Fidel Castro and his brother Raul came into the picture and in 1953 they attacked Batista’s government and failed miserably causing the brothers of Fidel to be thrown in jail. Within a year or so they were released and fled to mexico to do better planning on the overthrow.

Them fleeing caused the Castros to recruit members and in 1956 they returned to cuba hiding in the hills; their movement caused Gorilla warfare against Batista’s government. In 1959 the Movement had won and Fidel Castro led the government to become communist (The Cuban Revolution PDF,450-455 ).

With cuba becoming a communist country they benefited from the bay of pigs. The bay of pigs was a big failure by the US when they landed on the shore for a sneak attack a witness saw Americans on the beach and ran calling out.

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The battle was over within three days and thus leading cuba to run under the soviet union’s arms. Having a ally as big as the soviet union was a big deal during the cuban missile crisis when the States saw missiles aimed at them the US knew they couldn’t attack because of the big brother that cuba had.

As good Cuba had it with having the protection of the big brother “the Soviet Union” by their side there was still trouble that lurked in the economic world of cuba. Fidel Castro is responsible for the central planning blunders and stifling government controls that has eaten the economy alive, leaving most Cubans scrabbling for decent food and desperate for better living standards. As said in “The Poor Got More” many people and children mainly become malnourished in the country because of the high food prices therefore leaving the families in cuba starving(Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott, 345).

With families getting more money in the pockets from not being able to afford the food or really anything in the country parents would finally have enough money to send their children out of cuba and fly them to the States. Said in the “Cuban Refugee Children” the article talks about these two children who left cuba with nothing just a plane ticket to run away from the conditions that the cuban economy put them in(Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh, 557/558)

To put things in perspective of how bad the economic system in the country of Cuba was in 1959 the GDP of the country was $2,067 a year. About two thirds of Latin America in general and about the same as Ecuador (1,975), Panama (2,322) and two thirds of Puerto Rico (3,239). But if you look at the same countries in the 90s there is a big difference Cuba at $2,307, while Ecuador had, relatively, jumped to 3,809, Panama to 5,618 and Puerto Rico to 13,738. That picture alone shows that the country was failing and the reason why families were poor and leaving.(World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files. “GDP”)

Despite the fact of families not being able to afford really any food the living conditions were also very bad for the people for example one case is an article called “Women in the Swamps” by Margaret Randall she mentions children didn’t wear shoes and their feet were always in bad condition and breached from the damp ground. Malaria a disease caused by a bite from a infected mosquito, was a common disease because of the insects that have settled in the swamp. Another is bronchitis was frequent because of the constant moisture in the air. The life was hard, the men heaved the wood after cutting it out of the tough soil. The women helped the men watch the furnaces for never ending fortnights. Randall also said the some duties for the women were to help freight the wood on the flat chilangas barges and march through the dull water(Margaret Randall, 364)