Final Essays: Cuba

Students will select one of two option to write a final essays assessing Cuba's past. After offering these two essay options, I realized that it could also be beneficial to combine both sets of sources for students who wont be overwhelmed by that amount of sources. I choose to share additional sources with students on an individual basis. 

Option 1 - 

History Will Absolve Me: 

How has history judged Fidel Castro’s record? 

After students have studied the unexpected success of Fidel Castro’s revolution against Fulgencio Batista’s professional and trained army, they saw how Cuba embraced and heralded as Castro a hero. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, support for Castro, especially against the Americans grew. But as time went on, and Castro’s relationship and friendship with the Soviet Union grew stronger, perceptions of Castro began to change. Fidel Castro famously announced in his 1953 trial after the attack on the Moncada Fort that he did not care how the court would judge him, because “history would absolve” him.

Students will be given a selection of supplemental documents to help them assess whether or not Castro was indeed absolved by the historians who studied him and his Cuba.

Option 2 - 

Is Cuba a Real Democracy?

What role should the government play in people’s lives?

Did the July 26th Movement achieve the goals it set out during the revolution?

Cuba’s 1959 revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, was motivated by a desire for change. Cuba has a corrupt leadership whose actions and decisions seemed motivated by greed that left the middle and lower classes by the wayside. Fidel Castro and the July 26th Movement fought to replace the old leadership with a new government that was dedicated to elimination social, economic, and racial inequalities in Cuba. Students will be given a selection of supplemental documents to help them determine whether or not they consider Cuba to be a real democracy.