Early life of Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro
Castro in July 1953
Born	Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (1926-08-13)13 August 1926 Birán, Oriente, Cuba
Died	25 November 2016(2016-11-25) (aged 90) Havana, Cuba
Occupations	Lawyer politician

This article is part of a series about Fidel Castro
Personal Early life Politics Religious views Dairy My Life: A Spoken Autobiography Death and state funeral Participation in Cuban Revolution Attack on the Moncada Barracks History Will Absolve Me 26th of July Movement Landing of the Granma Triumph of the Revolution Provisional government Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution Revolution first, elections later Agrarian reforms Huber Matos affair CIA assassination attempts P.M. affair Bay of Pigs Invasion Escalante affair Cuban Missile Crisis Revolutionary Offensive State visit to Chile Constitutional government Rectification process Cuban intervention in Angola Presidential duties transfer Legacy Awards and honours Eponymous things Cuban dissident movement
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The early life of Cuban dictator and politician Fidel Castro spans the first 26 years of his life, from 1926 to 1952. Born in Birán, Oriente Province, Castro was the illegitimate son of Ángel Castro y Argiz, a wealthy farmer and landowner, and his mistress Lina Ruz González. First educated by a tutor in Santiago de Cuba, Fidel Castro then attended two boarding schools before being sent to El Colegio de Belén, a school run by Jesuits in Havana. In 1945 he began studying law at the University of Havana, where he first became politically conscious, becoming a staunch anti-imperialist and critic of United States involvement in the Caribbean. Involved in student politics, he was affiliated to Eduardo Chibás and his Partido Ortodoxo, achieving publicity as a vocal critic of the pro-U.S. administration of President Ramón Grau and his Partido Auténtico.

Immersed in the university's violent gang culture, in 1947 he took part in a quashed attempt to overthrow the military junta of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Returning to student politics, Castro was involved with violent demonstrations in which protesters clashed with riot police, at which he became increasingly left-wing in his views. Traveling to Bogotá, Colombia, he fought for the Liberals in the Bogotazo before returning to Havana, where he embraced Marxism. In 1948 he married the wealthy Mirta Díaz Balart, and in September 1949 their son Fidelito was born. Obtaining his Doctorate of Law in September 1950, he co-opened an unsuccessful law firm before entering parliamentary politics as a Partido Ortodoxo candidate. When General Fulgencio Batista launched a coup and overthrew the elected presidency, Castro brought legal challenges against him, but as this proved ineffective, he began to think of other ways to oust Batista.