Ángel Castro Argiz

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Angel Maria Bautista Castro Argiz (* 5. December 1875 in Láncara , province of Lugo , Spain ; † 21st October 1956 in Biran , Cuba ) was a Spanish-Cuban landowner, the father of the revolutionary leader Cuban and later president Fidel and Raul Castro announced has been.

Life

Ángel Castro spent his childhood in Láncara, a town in the Galician province of Lugo . His family was very poor at the time. He lived with his parents and five siblings, of whom he was the second eldest, in a single room with no partitions.

In 1895 he first came to Cuba as a soldier in the Spanish military under General Weyler in the War of Independence and fought against the Cuban insurgents there. After the Spanish defeat, he first returned to Spain. A few years later (1906) he came back to Cuba to settle here. Friends described him as a brilliant organizational talent, as a disciplined and hard worker, but also grumpy, generous and humanitarian.

He made his way first as the leader of a squad of track construction workers and built rail routes between sugar factories and railway junctions near Banes in the Oriente province . Later, with the help of wealthy friends who gave him credit, he managed to buy land in Birán where he grew sugar cane. At the time of his death, he owned 777 hectares of land. He had leased a further 9712 hectares . In 1911 Ángel Castro married his first wife, María Argota Reyes, with whom he had five children: Manuel Castro Argota (1913–1914), María Lila Perfidia Castro Argota, Pedro Emilio Castro Argota (* 1914), Antonia María Dolores Castro Argota (* 1915) and Georgina de la Caridad Castro Argota (* 1918). In 1917 the Ruz González family moved to this area from the Pinar del Río area. With a young woman from this large family, Lina Ruz González, who worked as a housekeeper in Ángel Castro's house, he began a relationship that resulted in seven more children between 1923 and 1938: Ángela, Ramón , Fidel, Raúl, Juana , Enma and Agustina. However, he did not marry her until 1941, and in 1943 he also recognized the children resulting from this relationship. In 1941 Castro became a Cuban upon application, and at the same time gave up his Spanish citizenship.

Furthermore, it is considered proven that he moved Fidel's date of birth one year forward to enable him to be admitted to school.

death

He died of an intestinal haemorrhage in his hometown of Birán, just 42 days before the revolutionaries landed in Los Cayuelos in what is now Granma Province on December 2, 1956. After his death, his son Ramón continued to run his farm , which he also looked after up to his death. However, the farm was expropriated relatively shortly after Fidel took over the government in 1959 as part of the land reform.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Latin American Studies: From Láncara to Birán: The history of Angel Castro Argis, accessed April 1, 2008
  2. ^ Norberto Fuentes: The autobiography of Fidel Castro p. 39ff.
  3. ^ Norberto Fuentes: The autobiography of Fidel Castro p. 33
  4. ↑ Wiener Zeitung : Fidel Castro: From Lawyer to Revolutionary ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) (accessed on November 5, 2013)
  5. ↑ Bernd Wulffen: Cuba in transition , Links-Verlag 2008; P. 23
  6. ↑ Katiuska Blanco Castiñeira: Ángel: La raíz gallega de Fidel Castro. (PDF), p. 187ff
  7. ↑ Britta Schröder: An analysis of political stability in Cuba ( Memento from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) , in: Cologne Working Papers on International Politics No. 17 2005 , University of Cologne, page 1, note 2
personal data
SURNAME Castro Argiz, Angel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Castro Argiz, Ángel María Bautista (full name); Castro, Angel; Castro y Argiz, Ángel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Father of Fidel, Raúl and Ramón Castro
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Láncara , Lugo Province , Spain
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1956
Place of death Birán , Cuba