BIRAN, CUBA

(Day 3  if you are following “SEE ALL OF CUBA in 10 DAYS” blog post)

Billboards are everywhere in Cuba with Fidel and Raúl Castro  on them. Their photos are also on buildings, engraved in sculptures, etc. You cannot forget who runs this country. We drove to Biran, Cuba to the house where Dictator Fidel Castro was born and raised.

It was here that he is said to have had his first thoughts about making the country a better place. He watched the Haitians working hard farming sugar cane while  being treated cruelly on his father’s own land. He vowed then he would forfeit his father’s wealth to make the world a better place with his own beliefs. 

After Fidel won the revolution he sent his revolutionary troups to Castro Town to confiscate it for the new government. They were greeted by his mother with her shotgun. They told her to call Fidel as their family land had been nationalized by their son.

It was like a little village with its own stores, hotel, post office, etc. A 2012 hurricane destroyed the main house so they were building a replica of the home during our visit. Due to over 600 assassination attempts on Fidel’s life, no Cuban was every told where Fidel resided after the revolution. Castro’s family home gives the impression he was born into wealth. Upon his death Forbes magazine claimed Castro was worth $900 million (which is sad when his people are so hungry).  

  Fidel Castro is buried in Santiago. 

She was recruited by the CIA and is responsible for rescuing and exiling at least 200 Cubans into America. She insisted that her two brothers, Fidel and Raúl were torturing the Cuban people and holding them as hostages on the island. Juanita has lived in the USA since 1964 and became a citizen in the 1980’s.