26th of July Movement

Reinaldo Arenas, author of Before Night Falls, portrays the political, social, and intellectual struggles he had to endure both in Cuba and in the United States. As a teenager in Holguín, Arenas experienced how the current political activity in Fidel Castro’s attempt to overthrow Fulgencio Batista affected their Christmas. Arenas declares although he loved to hear his grandfather mention the topic of Christmas, in 1957, he did not mention it. Arenas discusses that, “[i]t was only the ‘the Bloody…

government, but would end in failure. He would also attempt to attack the military of Moncada on July 26, 1953 that would again prove to be unsuccessful. After the battle, Castro and his attackers, would be captured, tried, and imprisoned. “After being released by an amnesty in 1955, Castro was exiled to Mexico City, where he began organizing an expedition against Batista dubbed the 26th July Movement. On December 2, 1956, Castro, his brother Raúl Castro, and eighty other men landed in Oriente…

The first event of women fighting for their rights occurred July 19th, 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York and was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton ("The Women 's Rights Movement 1848-1920"). Stanton had no clue what she would start. On August 26th, 1920, the 19th amendment was passed and women had their right to vote. However, it took not only many years to be passed, but many riots, speech, and letters that were directed to the congress. One of the main speeches that played a key role in creating the…

The great social theorist and philosopher, Isaiah Berlin once stated, “Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible.” In simpler terms, Berlin is saying that to cure injustice and poverty, men may use revolution and reform but they cannot “live only by fighting evils”, they must also live by…

On December 31st, 1958, the small island nation of Cuba was ablaze with battling between the U.S installed government forces of Fulgencio Batista and the revolutionary forces of the July 26th movement, their namesake coming from a previous attack against the Batista regime that had failed. The very next day saw an end to fighting, and a young Cuban lawyer emerged victorious. (NSA, Bay of Pigs C hronology) Though relatively unknown prior to the Cuban Revolution, both world superpowers of the cold…

Over the course of this semester, my fellow classmates and I learned about the unique history of Cuba; mostly surrounding its revolution and the active cultural presence it had. However, the weeks throughout the semester proved to be more than just passing time and attendance in class, but, indeed, a change in history. After the study abroad portion of the class and, shortly thereafter, changes to current U.S.-Cuban relations, I began to wonder what would happen to Cuba in the future. As I…

had an absolute monarchy in King Louis XVI, two dictatorships in Napoléon Bonaparte I and his nephew Napoléon Bonaparte III. Today, they have a stable running republic, which is headed by the prime minister. After the July Revolution of 1830, the Orleanist rule began from July 1830 to February 1848. They were a French right-wing faction that had developed out the French Revolution. The group was compromised of many intellectuals and liberals who wanted to reestablish the monarchy, but only as…

a voice in their own governments.” Standing outside of the White House with this direct quote from President Wilson angered him and many Americans. These women were looked at as disloyal to the country. Many women who were apart of the suffrage movement rejected continuance these tactics. Years later during an interview with Paul she stated, “Our own women you see, began to revolt against us because we wanted to go on with the picketing and they wanted us to stop the picketing. The whole…

suffering injustice. December 2nd marked the day that we arrived in Las Coloradas, Cuba. However, when we arrived we were ambushed by Batista’s troops leaving many of our men killed and myself wounded in the chest and neck. Though it seemed that our movement failed, we didn’t give up. Fidel and I fought until that coward of Batista and his family left Havana in 1959, giving us complete power over Havana (Cuba’s capital) and eventually all of Cuba. ("Che Guevara Military…

consequences of his actions to his father (Hinds 240). The quote exemplifies the great amount of problems Odysseus must face in order to return peace and prosperity to Ithaca. On the other hand, the aftermath of Che Guevara’s success in the 26th of July Movement lead to his love of standing up to injustices through rebellions. Specifically, Che Guevara travelled to Congo in 1956 to train rebels in guerilla warfare tactics and to Bolivia in 1966 to try to lead a revolution against the Bolivian…