“There is plenty of building material and more than enough manpower to make a decent home for every Cuban. But if we continue to wait for the golden calf, a thousand years will have gone by, and the problem will remain the same.”

Cuban communist revolutionary and politician

Fidel Castro was a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who led Cuba from 1959 to 2011. He is known as the central figure of the Cuban Revolution and as the country’s long-serving head of government and state. He served as prime minister from 1959 to 1976, president from 1976 to 2008, and first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1965 to 2011. His rule was shaped by Marxist-Leninist and Cuban nationalist ideas, and under his administration Cuba became a one-party communist state with nationalized industry and business, along with wide-ranging socialist reforms.