Fidel Castro

            Fidel Castro Ruz was born on January 13, 1926. He was an illegitimate child of Angel Castro y Argiz, an immigrant worker from spain and Lina Ruz Gonzalez. Fidel grew up in the mountainous region of Oriente province. As a boy, Fidel worked in the family's sugar cane fields and, at 6 years old he convinced his parents to send him to school. When Fidel turned 7 years old, Angel Castro married Fidel's mother so that his son could attend the Colegio La Salle in Santiago de Cuba. After attending the Colegio La Salle, he went to the Colegio Dolores also in Santiago, and then to the Belen High School in Havana. He proved to be an outstanding Athlete in the Belen High School.
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             In 1945 Fidel entered the University of Havana, and earned a law degree. To further his political ambitions as an aspiring university student leader, Fidel joined one of two political gangster "action groups,"" the Union Insurreccional Revolucionaria (UIR), to break the dominance of a rival group, the Movimiento Socialista Revolucionaria (MSR), over the university. Fidel joined with rival MSR leaders in the Cayo Confites campaign to overthrow the dictator Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo in 1947. The following year, he tired to take a leadership role in the urban riots that swept through most of Bogota, Colombia. .
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             After Fidel graduated, he began to practice law and became a member of the Ortodoxos, the reformist Cuban People's Party. Fidel intended to campaign for a parliamentary seat in the election of 1952 but General Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar overthrew the government of President Carlos Prio Socarras and canceled the election. Castro went to court and charged the dictator with violating the constitution. The court rejected Castro's petition. Castro organized an armed attack by 165 men on the Moncada Barracks in Oriente province on July of 1953 in hope of sparking a popular uprising. The effort was futile and most of his men were killed.