Raul Castro

On 26 January 1959, Raul Castro married Vilma Espin, a chemical engineer from Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, and a post-graduate from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The couple had four children: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro Castro Espín.

Vilma played a significant part in the revolution, not only acting as a messenger while the Castros were exiled in Mexico, but also offering significant assistance while they were regrouping in the Sierra Maestra mountains.

As Fidel Castro did not have a wife when he became the president, Vilma acted as the First Lady even before Raul Castro became the president and thus she played a significant role in the governance of the country all her life. She died on 18 June 2007 following a long illness.

Raul Modesto Castro Ruz was born on 3 June 1931 in Birán, Cuba. His father, Angel Maria Bautista Castro y Argiz, came to Cuba in 1905 from Galicia, Spain, almost empty handed. Having a strong sense of business, he soon set up a big plantation at Birán. He also owned other businesses.

Raul’s mother, Lina Rauz González, was Angel Castro’s second wife. She was brave, spontaneous and hard working. Initially appointed a cook in the household, she soon became Angel’s mistress and then his wife. Their first three children were born out of wedlock.

Raul was born fourth of his parents’ seven children and the youngest of their three sons. His elder brothers were Ramón Eusebio Castro Ruz and Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. In addition, he had four sisters, Angela, Juanita, Emma, and Agustina.

From his father’s first marriage to Maria Argota, Raul had five half-siblings; Pedro Emilio, Maria Lidia, Manuel, Antonia and Georgina. In addition, he had another half-sibling, Martin Castro, born out of Angel’s liaison with a farmhand, Generosa Mendoza.

Raul, just as his brother Fidel, was a rebel from the very beginning. He had his early education at the Jesuit School of Colegio Dolores in Santiago and was later transferred to the more prestigious Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Havana.

In 1952, Fidel Castro was nominated by Partido Ortodoxo to run for the election of the House of Representative from one of Havana’s poorest districts. However, it was cancelled when in March Heneral Fulgencio Batista seized power, declaring himself President.

Fidel Castro first tried the legal way, bringing several cases against the government. When it failed to achieve its result, he planned an uprising, which resulted in the attack at the Moncada Barracks, an army facility in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on 26 July 1953.

In this expedition, Raul, barely twenty-two years old, was with his brother from the very beginning. He was assigned to the team that was sent to occupy the Palace of Justice. However, the expedition was a failure from the beginning and both the Castro brothers were arrested.

In a trial that began on 21 September 1953, Fidel and Raul Castro were sentenced to prison for fifteen years. However, they were granted amnesty after twenty-two months by President Batista due to civic pressure.

In 1955, on being released from prison, the Castro brothers fled to Mexico, where they began to reorganize the movement with eighty other exiled leaders. This time, they wanted to make sure that the guerrilla force they raised was more effective.

Eventually they acquired an 18 meter (60 feet) long cabin cruiser, christened Granma, bought secretly. Shortly after the midnight of 25 November 1956, the 82 rebels, including Fidel and Raul Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, boarded the yacht from the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracru.

Setting sail on 26 November at 2 am, they landed at the Playa Las Coloradas, municipality of Niquero, on 2 December 1956. Unfortunately, it was day-time and they were detected by Cuban Air Force. A battle that followed took a heavy toll on the revolutionaries.

Out of the 82 men that started on the voyage, only twelve survived and Fidel and Raul Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos were four among them. Subsequently, they set up their camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains and soon were joined by hundreds of volunteers.

Raul Castro, although barely twenty-five, had by then proved his leadership capabilities as well as his trustworthiness. Therefore, he was now given bigger and bigger roles to play and was made a comandante on 27 February 1958.