The Cuban revolution began 50 years ago just as I was starting my second term at university. As history students we were obsessed by the Spanish civil war, a conflict that had ended just two decades earlier, and we were also fascinated by the contemporary struggle of the revolutionary forces in Algeria. Then along rolled the wonderful Cuban revolution, with its charismatic and bearded leadership descending from the hills, young men in their 20s brandishing guns and seizing the cities, and calling for land reform.
In a world dominated by aging conservative leaders who had risen to power during the second world war or before -- Macmillan, Eisenhower, De Gaulle, Adenauer, Khrushchev, Salazar, Franco -- the radical and youthful guerrillas, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara especially, put Cuba on the map for students all over the world, and the unknown continent of Latin America suddenly emerged into view. We clipped the newspapers, followed events closely, and took sides as Castro began his epic quarrel with the United States -- through the US abolition of the sugar quota, the arrival of Soviet oil, the CIA invasion at the Bay of Pigs, and the missile crisis of 1962.
Like hundreds of others I could not wait to get there, finally reaching the promised land in 1963.
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