Latin America: Cuban Revolution Flashcards
When did Fulgencio Batista come to power?
1952
When was Fidel Castro’s ‘History Will Absolve Me’ speech?
1953
Facts about pre-revolution cuba beign dependent on foreign countries
-85 percent of cuba’s small farmers paid rent to foreign-owned corporations
Pre-revolution undemocratic fact
Elections in June 1952 cancelled
Pre-revolution state repressive organisations
- Military Intelligence Service (SIM)
- Bureau of Reprssion of Communist Activities (BRAC)
Pre-revolution literacy rate
literacy rate 75%
Urban Vs Rural dichotomy fact
-One physician per 227 people in Havana, but only one per 2423 in Oriente Province
Democratic shortcomings of the revolution
-Manuel Urrutia a former anti-Batsita judge resigned as head of state in July 1959 as a protest
Post-revolution Nationalising fact
- Agrarian reform law passed in 1959
- Agrarian reform law in 1960 allowed expropriation of US companies
Post-revolution education fact
- illiteracy rate dropped from 20% to 12% in two yeras
- High rates of university education
Post-revolution women and family facts
- Freedom of choice in abortionand birth control
- Child care, maternity leave
- 1975 Cuban Family Code outlwaed discrimination against women and girls even within family
- Federacion de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC)
LGBT institutions post-revolution
-Cuban National Centre for Sex Education promoted LGVT
Post-revolution wages fact
-Wages rose by 40% in first three years of the revolution
Post-revolution industry facts
-Very inefficent so in 1963 soviet advisors recommended suspending industrialisation projects
Post-revolution agriculture facts
- Sugar production at dangerously low levels by 1962
- In 1963, Castro set goal to harvest 10 million tons of sugar by 1970 which was not achieved
Over-reliance on soviet union facts
-After dissolution of Soviet Union, Cuba lost access to 75% of its imports and over 90% of its external market, and more than 90% of its crude oil that it exchanged for sugar
-Income equality fact during special period
-During special period everyone loser about 20 pounds of weight , regardless of occupation or status
De-racialisation of society and politcs facts
- 80% of blacks in favour of the revolution
- Castro speech in March 1959
- Forum against racial discrimination in 1959 in University of Havana
state taking control of employment fact
-by 1963 state owned 70% of agriculture, 95% of industry, 75% of retail
Afro-cuban education facts
- Nationalising of private schools in 1961 gave afrocubans opporutunities
- Mass literacy campaign of 1961
Historians
- ada Ferrer blacks
- develin Benson blacks
- sharpio claims a lot of repression under Batista
Batista repression
20,000 dead under Batista according to Sharpio
