NEW101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: History Will Absolve Me, Moncada Barracks, The Communist Manifesto
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Lecture Seven – Revolutionary Options: Cuba
Fidel Castro’s 1953 Speech – after the assaults on the Moncada Barracks
•Manifesto a plan or program for the kind of changes that should take
place in post-Barista Cuba
•Most famous manifesto is the communist manifesto
•Fidel Castro’s 16 October 1953 speech – History Will Absolve Me
•This speech was an opportunity to publicize the problems of the state
•“Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.” He is putting
the Cuban political and military on trial and the Cuban people to be the
jury
•Nelson Mandela is another example of a political prisoner putting the
SA apartheid system under trial and bringing forth the injustices to the
international community
•What is the second most singular point to history that makes in this
document?
•He makes historical references twice in this document
•“Cuba is the land of Marti” he ends the document with a quote from
Marti
•Marti is significant because he is seen as the father of Cuban
independence he insists on the independence of Cuba “true Cuban
patriot”
•Jose Marti was born in 1853 the attack was done on 1953 on the
anniversary of Jose Marti’s birth
• What does this speech do? Analyze the first paragraph – he identifies
“the people” and their struggles analyze the problem and how big it is
and how easily it can be overcome with the closing line
•Emphasis on the numbers was quite strategic
•