A good program for "fans" of Castro to watch was on PBS recently ...

[eppur_se_muova]

https://www.aptonline.org/catalog.nsf/vLinkTitle/CUBA+THE+FORGOTTEN+REVOLUTION

CUBA: THE FORGOTTEN REVOLUTION tells the virtually unknown story of Cuban revolutionaries Frank Pais and Juan Antonio Echeverria — a school teacher and architecture student, respectively - whose names seldom appear alongside their more famous contemporaries, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Through archival stock footage and exclusive interviews with Cuban revolution participants and observers, family members of the men, Americans who fought alongside Castro and Guevara, and a former CIA agent, we learn how these young men, who worked largely independently from each other, played critical roles in the eventual overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldíva. Scholar Lillian Guerra, of Yale and Florida State University, explains: "It is as if we told the tale of the American Revolution as solely Washington's story, leaving out Franklin, Jefferson, Adams and others." New scholarship and recently accessed footage challenge the prevailing view — in part manufactured and perpetuated by Che Guevara — that Castro's army of 200 guerillas single-handedly defeated tens of thousands of Batista's professional soldiers and liberated the people of Cuba. In actuality, Pais and Echeverria's city-based insurgencies in Santiago and Havana held the key to generating popular support for resistance and undermining the authority of Batista and his secret police. Both Pais and Echeverria rivaled Castro in popularity and power during the height of the Revolution yet neither man lived to see the movement succeed. A close associate reportedly gunned down Pais in the street; Echeverria died in a daring raid on the palace. The film highlights the complexities inherent in revolutions and examines the shaping (and reshaping) of the final historical record. After Castro assumed power in 1959, he harnessed the power of the emerging medium of television to advance a narrative that effectively expunged Pais and Echeverria — and others responsible for the outcome — from Cuban history.
DISTRIBUTOR: American Public Television
APT PROGRAM SERVICE: Exchange
PRODUCER: WTIU
PRESENTER: WTIU

RIGHTS:
Contract period: 04/05/2015-04/04/2019School Rerecord
Web Streaming - Full length rights
UNDERWRITING +

CONTACTS +

SHOP
The program will offer a DVD or BluRay for $19.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling at https://indianapublicmedia.org/shoptiu/products-page/featured/cuba/ or call 1-800-662-3311.

[eissa]

1. THANK YOU!

There were so many aspects that led to the success of the Revolution: the bravery of the rebel fighters, the students who rallied their peers and organized resistance, civilians both inside and outside of Cuba who raised funds and drew attention to their cause, and so many others. The majority of the revolutionaries fought for a free and democratic Cuba, not to replace one tyrant with another.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Another individual worth learning about, who helped Castro win, but later turned against him ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Morgan
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/comandante/

Castro had him shot for rebelling against encroaching Soviet-style socialism.

There's something of a parallel with the Russian Revolution, which was initially won by a coalition of which the Communists were only a part. The Communists then took over the new gov't and began infighting among their various factions. Lenin succeeded in killing off his rivals, most memorably Trotsky, who was assassinated in Mexico. So while the masses may have had much to celebrate initially in the fall of a repressive Tsarist regime, they eventually found it replaced by a more competently and relentlessly vicious repressive regime.

[eissa]

3. Yes, I've read up on him

and his contributions in not only the Revolution's success, but also saving Castro's life when Trujillo tried to have him taken out.

But my own personal hero is Camilo Cienfuegos, the true heart of the Revolution. He fought for all the right reasons, and paid the ultimate price for it.