June 26, 2017

Cuba: Part 2 (S2.06B)

1 hour 20 minutes

S02E06b: Cuba (part 2) Audio

In this episode of 80 Days: an exploration podcast, we return to Cuba to bring its story from the Castro Revolution, right up to the modern day. As US-Cuba relations have been in the news this week, it’s impossible to keep up with all the twists and turns, but we do our best. If you haven’t already listened to Part 1 of this episode, we recommend listening to that first to see how we got here. Cuba is an island in the Caribbean Ocean, just 90 miles south of the US state of Florida. Cuba is home to over 11 million inhabitants. Cuba gained independence from Spain in 1902, but soon fell under US influence and became a playground for the rich and powerful; this was particularly true following the 1952 coup that brought Fulgencia Batista to power. Following a turbulent revolution which spanned almost the entire 1950s, the Communist Party of Cuba, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, took control of the country in 1965. Although poverty is widespread, modern Cuba has an outstanding health care and education system and relations with the US are currently beginning to thaw after a protracted embargo that has been in place since the 1960s. Since Cuba has an awful lot of history, particularly in the 20th Century, we decided to split this episode into two parts: this is the second part.

Your hosts are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Switzerland and – as a new voice for regular listeners – we’re joined in this episode by Erin Barclay in the USA. (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle).

http://media.blubrry.com/80_days_an_exploration/content.blubrry.com/80_days_an_exploration/S02E06b-Cuba-2.mp3

Table of Contents:

[02:20] Who is Fidel Castro?

[06:36] Castro starts his “July 26” Movement

[09:10] Exile in Mexico, meeting Che and the Voyage of the Granma

[12:28] Revolution!

[14:50] The ousting of Batista, victory for Castro

[17:38] Break

[18:12] Divisions within the revolution on the question of communism

[20:15] Courting the US, and the ‘communist closet’

[24:20] Che’s role in the world

[26:11] Refugees and Operation Peter Pan

[27:15] The Bay of Pigs invasion attempt

[35:26] US Trade Embargo begins

[36:57] The Cuban Missile Crisis – Armageddon averted

[44:00] Che leaves the stage

[46:03] ‘Castro really liked milk’, and other assassination attemps

[49:45] Cuba in the Soviet economic sphere – old cars

[51:42] “Los Frikis” punks

[52:42] Mariel Boat Lift

[54:03] Soviet Union falls, and the ‘special period’

[56:20] Medicine and oil

[58:31] Elian Gonzalez case

[60:21] Spies and political refugees

[61:07] Thawing of US-Cuba relations under Raul Castro

[64:10] What does the Pope have to do with this?

[65:30] Death of Fidel

[68:51] Trump’s evolving policies towards Cuba

[71:16] Sports! Baseball!

[73:00] Afro-Cuban traditions

[75:30] Some Cuban lunch

Here are a few things you may want to read/watch more about:

Vintage News article on the voyage the Granma, including Guevara’s of their landing

The Giants of History Podcast has a five-part series about the life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara: here is a link to the first episode

“CUBA: Castro’s Brain”, a detailed 1960 TIME Magazine article on the leaders of the revolution, especially Che Guevara and Fidel Castro

Public Access America archive radio documentary about the revolution, featuring at 42:00 the interview with a soldier who came to realise Castro was a communist and fled into exile

The scene from The Godfather, part II, depicting the end of the Batista regime in Havana on New Years Eve 1958 (YouTube)

Ed Sullivan TV interview with Fidel Castro on 11 January 1959, very soon after the revolution seizes control (YouTube)

“Cuba’s ‘Peter Pans’ Remember Childhood Exodus”, National Geographic (Greta Weber) – article about the mixed feelings of those children sent away from Cuba during Operation Peter Pan

“How Kennedy bought 1,200 hand-rolled Cuban cigars just hours before ordering a blockade of the communist state 50 years ago” (Lee Mora, Daily Mail, 2012)

Che Guevara’s farewell letter to Fidel Castro

Here are a few resources to learn more about the Cuban Missile Crisis: A TedEd educational video about it; An essay by the Office of the Historian of the US State Department on the Crisis (from a diplomatic and western viewpoint);“10 Things You May Not Know about the Cuban Missile Crisis” (History.com); BBC History File documentary on the topic; also watch US President Kennedy’s address to the nation during the crisis (YouTube)

“Fidel Castro had a bizarre obsession with milk” – article from War Is Boring

RadioLab podcast episode on “Los Frikis”, the Cuban punk rockers who injected themselves with HIV as the ultimate act of rebellion

“Cuban healthcare is painted rosy in ‘Sicko,’ critics say” (Rene Rodriquez, Miami Herald) – criticism of Michael Moore’s film‘s depiction of the Cuban healthcare system

BBC Witness has a “Cuban History Collection” of short audio reports from the news over the decades of Castro’s rule

Footage of 8-year-old Elian Gonzalez being seized by a US SWAT team to be returned to his father in Cuba, MSNBC News footage (YouTube)

Speech of Castro in 2001, celebrating the 45th anniversary of the landing of the Granma

2009 overview of US-Cuba relations in TIME Magazine

“Raul Castro may join Catholic Church, he says after Pope Francis Meeting” (Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN, May 2015)

US Obama’s 2014 address on the change of Cuba-US relations; President Trump announcing a rolling back of some of these policies

“No One Walks off the Island” – long-form article by Scott Eden in ESPN The Magazine about major-league baseball player Yasiel Puig’s convoluted journey from Cuba to the US through the shady world of organised crime

A massive thanks to Andrew Brogan and Crystal, two of the backers of our recent Kickstarter Campaign – thank you for making Season 2 possible. Thanks too to our sponsor Hairy Baby, who in addition to making the funniest Irish-themed t-shirts, have also produced the official 80 Days shirt for our supporters. Find it by clicking here. You can get 10% off anything on www.hairybaby.com by using our promo code “80DAYS”.

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By Luke Kelly, Joe Byrne, Mark Boyle

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