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History Will Absolve Me
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History Will Absolve Me (Spanish: La historia me absolverá) is the title of a two-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after he led an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba. The speech later became the manifesto of his 26th of July Movement.
Though sentenced to terms of up to 15 years for their roles in the attack, all of the rebels were released after an amnesty granted by Fulgencio Batista in 1955. Castro relocated to Mexico, before returning to Cuba on the Granma yacht in December 1956.[1]
The speech was secretly printed as a pamphlet by El Curita at Plaza del Vapor which was demolished in 1959 by the Castro government and made into a park named El Curita.[2]
Castro's first court appearance
[edit]
Castro made his first court appearance on 21 September 1953 in Santiago, as one of around 100 defendants arrested after the Moncada attack. Of these, 65 had in fact not taken part in the operation and included leading politicians — among them the nation′s last democratically elected president, Carlos Prío. Castro, a qualified lawyer, took on his own defense, as did two other defendants. All others were defended by a total of 24 attorneys. Castro based his case on the illegality of the Batista regime and the inherent right of the citizen to rebel against what he perceived to be an illegal government. When asked who was responsible for the attack, Castro replied that "the intellectual author of this revolution is José Martí, the apostle of our independence". Castro also took part in the court′s second hearing on 22 September, but missed day three (25 September) because the regimental chief had wrongly claimed him to be sick. Castro managed to have a handwritten note handed to the judge in court asking for special safeguards for his life that he said was under threat in prison. The court then decided to proceed with the main trial, instructed for the demands in Castro′s letter to be fulfilled and to grant his separate case a new trial at a later date.[3]
32 prisoners were found guilty but most were treated leniently. 19 attackers were acquitted along with the 65 civilians. The only two female participants in the attack, who had not been armed, received sentences of 7 months. Along with three others found to have played a leading role in the attack, Castro's brother Raúl was sentenced to 13 years on what was then called the Isle of Pines.[4][5]
Castro's speech and sentence
[edit]
Castro was brought before a different court on 16 October 1953 for sentencing. It was here that he reportedly made his four-hour speech justifying his actions and outlining his plans for Cuba. During the trial, public outrage at the treatment of the prisoners was seriously diminishing Batista's standing among the population. A local judge telephoned Batista's staff to complain that Batista was reviving the brutal era of former president Gerardo Machado, while a Santiago bishop called upon the courts to spare Castro's life and sought support from Cuba's upper class Catholic contingent. Though Castro was sentenced to join his brother in prison for 15 years, the trial elevated him to semi-heroic status on the island.[4]
Castro's speech contained numerous evocations of the "father of Cuban independence" José Martí, whilst depicting Batista as a tyrant. According to Castro, Batista was a "monstrum horrendum ... without entrails" who had committed an act of treachery in 1933 when he initiated a coup to oust Cuban president Ramón Grau. Castro went on to speak of "700,000 Cubans without work", launching an attack on Cuba's extant healthcare and schooling, and asserting that 30% of Cuba's farm people could not even write their own names.[6]
In Castro's published manifesto, based on his 1953 speech, he gave details of the "five revolutionary laws" he wished to see implemented on the island:[7]
- The reinstatement of the 1940 Cuban constitution.
- A reformation of land rights.
- The right of industrial workers to a 30% share of company profits.
- The right of sugar workers to receive 55% of company profits.
- The confiscation of holdings of those found guilty of fraud under previous administrative powers.
Historiography
[edit]Origins and historicity
[edit]Castro's defense speech was first printed in pamphlet form, titled History Will Absolve Me, and distributed around Cuba in 1954.[8] Witnesses of Castro's original defense speech, like Judge Nieto, and Lieutenant Camps, have claimed that Castro's original speech was nowhere near as long as what is recorded in the pamphlet History Will Absolve Me. Historian Antonio Rafael de la Cova suggests that the recorded material outruns the two hours in which it is alleged Castro used to give his speech.[9]
The journalist Herbert Matthews, who frequently interviewed Castro, claims that the origins of the pamphlet are incredibly difficult to deduce. According to historian Peter C. Bjarkman, the only solid evidence of the writing of the pamphlet comes from a letter from Fidel Castro to Melba Hernández, in which he states he will be writing a pamphlet detailing his goals. This pamphlet was to be written before the founding of the 26th of July Movement.[10]
Hitlerian inspiration
[edit]The final phrase of Castro's defense speech: "History will absolve me", is quite similar to Hitler's final defense during his trial for the Beer Hall Putsch, in which he similarly claimed his coup attempt would be absolved by history.[9][11]
Anti-Castro critic Humberto Fontova has alleged the similarity is due to direct inspiration, and that Fidel Castro was a youthful admirer of Adolf Hitler.[12] Historian Brian Latell suggests that Fidel Castro's similar words could possibly have been an accidental imitation, but that it was mostly likely conscious.[13] Biographer Diane Holloway directly claims that Castro's words were taken from Hitler.[14] Historians William Ratliff and Roger Fontaine claim that Castro was greatly enamored with Adolf Hitler in his youth, though they provide no evidence, and that his wording was directly taken from Hitler.[15]
The poet Heberto Padilla, who was a friend of Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution, claims the similar wording was due to Castro's photographic memory, and his memorization of Hitler's speeches. Padilla claims that the similar wording was conscious. Dr. Antonio Rafael de la Cova claims that neither Castro nor Hitler actually said the exact words that have been so often claimed to have been stated at their trials, but that they probably said something similar.[16]
See also
[edit]
Source notes
[edit]- ^ Thomas (1986), p. 111.
- ^ File:Parque El Curita.Dragones, Aguila. Havana.jpg
- ^ De la Cova (2007), pp. 203–211 and 259–266.
- ^ a b Thomas (1998), p. 550.
- ^ De la Cova (2007), pp. 261–264.
- ^ Thomas (1986), p. 64.
- ^ Thomas (1986), p. 170.
- ^ Quiroga, Jose (2005). Cuban palimpsests. University of Minnesota Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780816642144.
- ^ a b Rafael de la Cova, Antonio (2007). The Moncada Attack Birth of the Cuban Revolution. University of South Carolina Press. p. 230-1. ISBN 9781570036729.
- ^ Bjarkman, Peter (2018). Fidel Castro and Baseball The Untold Story. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. p. 9. ISBN 9781538110317.
- ^ Coltman, Leycester (2003). The Real Fidel Castro. Yale University Press. p. 91. ISBN 9780300133394.
- ^ Fontova, Humberto (2012). Fidel Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 9781596988224.
- ^ Latell, Brian (2016). History Will Absolve Me Fidel Castro. Rosetta Books. ISBN 9780795342769.
- ^ Holloway, Diane (2002). Analyzing Leaders, Presidents and Terrorists. iUniverse. p. 145. ISBN 9781469704593.
- ^ Ratliff, William; Fontaine, Roger. A Strategic Flip-flop in the Caribbean: Lift the Embargo on Cub. Hoover Institute. p. 6. ISBN 9780817943530.
- ^ Tellechea, Carlos (2023). The Inkwell. Gatekeeper Press. ISBN 9781662937736.
References
[edit]- De la Cova, Antonio Rafael, The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007. ISBN 1-57003-672-1
- Gott, Richard, Cuba: A new history, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004, pp. 150–152
- Skierka, Volker, Fidel Castro: A Biography. Cambridge: Polity, 2004. ISBN 0-7456-3006-5
- Thomas, Hugh, The Cuban Revolution. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971, 1986 (Shortened version of Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, includes all history 1952–1970) ISBN 0-297-78954-6
- Thomas, Hugh, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. ISBN 0-306-80827-7
External links
[edit]
The full text of History Will Absolve Me at Wikisource- History Will Absolve Me (The complete speech)
History Will Absolve Me
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Historical Context
The Batista Regime and Prelude to Moncada
Fulgencio Batista, who had previously served as president from 1940 to 1944, staged a bloodless coup d'état on March 10, 1952, overthrowing the democratically elected government of President Carlos Prío Socarrás just months before scheduled national elections.[5][6] Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution, dissolved Congress, and canceled the June 1952 elections, establishing a provisional military dictatorship that relied heavily on U.S. diplomatic and economic support.[7][8] The Batista regime quickly devolved into authoritarian rule marked by widespread corruption, electoral manipulation allegations from prior terms, and suppression of political opposition through police repression and censorship.[9] Economic policies under Batista stimulated growth in urban sectors like tourism and mining via foreign investment incentives, yet these benefits were unevenly distributed, exacerbating rural poverty and urban-rural inequality, with significant unemployment and reliance on U.S. markets for sugar exports.[10][11] Social conditions reflected deep disparities, including racial segregation in clubs and beaches, limited access to education and healthcare in rural areas, and infiltration of organized crime into Havana's economy, fostering public disillusionment.[9][12] Fidel Castro, a 25-year-old lawyer who had graduated from the University of Havana in 1950, was actively involved in opposition politics through the Cuban People's Party (Orthodoxo), a reformist group advocating anti-corruption measures and social justice.[13] Castro ran as a candidate for the House of Representatives in the aborted 1952 elections, positioning himself against Batista's influence.[13] Following the coup, with democratic avenues blocked, Castro shifted toward organizing armed resistance, recruiting supporters including his brother Raúl and other young professionals disillusioned by the regime's electoral fraud and repression, culminating in plans for an assault on the Moncada Barracks to spark a broader uprising.[8][13] This group, later formalized as the 26th of July Movement after the attack date, represented Castro's rejection of peaceful reform in favor of revolutionary action against perceived dictatorship failures.[14]The Moncada Barracks Assault
Fidel Castro organized the assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba as a bid to capture arms stockpiles and ignite a nationwide uprising against Fulgencio Batista's regime. Recruiting primarily young supporters, Castro gathered between 135 and 160 rebels, whom he trained in marksmanship and tactics at a farm in Siboney, 15 miles from the target.[15][16] The plan involved a simultaneous diversionary attack on a smaller garrison in Bayamo, but coordination faltered from the outset due to insufficient reconnaissance and overestimation of local support.[17] On July 26, 1953, coinciding with Carnival festivities to exploit reduced alertness among guards, the rebels approached in 26 cars, some disguised as wedding party members or medical students to seize a nearby hospital for treating wounded. Tactical errors compounded the failure: the group split prematurely, leading to disorientation; attackers mistakenly fired on a civil hospital and the wrong barracks building initially; and poor intelligence underestimated the active garrison size at around 400 soldiers, far outnumbering the lightly armed assailants equipped mostly with pistols and few rifles.[15][18] Within hours, the rebels were repelled, suffering immediate disarray and retreats into surrounding areas.[17] The operation collapsed with disproportionate rebel losses: while Castro's accounts claim only six combatants killed in direct fighting, government forces captured and executed dozens more in the aftermath, with estimates of over 60 total rebel deaths including post-capture killings. Batista's troops reported 19 soldiers slain, a figure rebels disputed as inflated to justify reprisals, though the regime systematically tortured survivors to extract confessions and deter sympathizers.[18][19] In response, Batista declared a state of emergency, suspended constitutional rights, and initiated mass arrests, concealing the extent of extrajudicial executions by attributing them to battlefield casualties.[18] Castro and his brother Raúl initially escaped but surrendered on August 1 after failed evasion attempts.[17]The Trial Proceedings
Arrests and Initial Legal Actions
Following the abortive assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, Fulgencio Batista's security forces arrested dozens of surviving participants in the attack.[17] The regime, which had suspended civil rights in response to the incident, conducted summary executions of some captives and held others without standard procedural safeguards, including prompt access to civilian courts or habeas corpus protections.[20] Fidel Castro evaded immediate capture by fleeing into the surrounding countryside but surrendered voluntarily several days later, reportedly on August 1, to prevent further reprisals against non-combatants.[15] Pretrial proceedings were marked by allegations of mistreatment toward detainees, with Castro asserting that survivors endured beatings and coercion to produce confessions implicating him as the leader.[2] The Batista government opted for military oversight in handling the cases, bypassing full due process norms to expedite suppression of the rebellion, though public pressure—stemming from Castro's status as a lawyer—compelled authorities to convene a formal trial rather than immediate execution. This approach reflected the regime's authoritarian control over judicial processes, prioritizing regime security over impartial legal standards.[21] The indictment encompassed over 100 defendants, but proceedings were delayed until late September 1953, extending pretrial detention amid continued reports of harsh conditions in Santiago de Cuba's prisons.[22] These postponements, while allowing Castro opportunity to compile extensive defense materials in secret, underscored procedural irregularities, as prisoners faced restricted communication and potential evidence tampering under military influence. Such delays deviated from principles of swift justice, enabling the regime to manage political fallout while consolidating control over the narrative.[17]Courtroom Defense and the Speech
During the trial for the Moncada Barracks assault, held in Santiago de Cuba, Fidel Castro insisted on representing himself, rejecting attorneys appointed by the Batista regime to ensure he could present his case unhindered.[2] He argued that external counsel would compromise his ability to speak freely, citing pressures from authorities to curtail his defense rights under Cuban legal traditions.[2] This self-representation allowed Castro, a trained lawyer, to directly address the court despite the politically charged atmosphere. The presiding judge initially denied Castro permission to read from a prepared written statement, citing procedural constraints, which compelled him to deliver the speech extemporaneously from memory.[23] Over the course of approximately four hours on October 16, 1953, Castro outlined his justifications for the assault, weaving historical and legal arguments into a critique of the regime's legitimacy.[21] The judge eventually permitted partial reference to notes after prolonged insistence, but the address remained largely improvised, adapting to interruptions and restrictions in the courtroom.[2] Castro concluded his defense with the defiant proclamation: "Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me," encapsulating his conviction that future judgment would vindicate his actions.[23] Spectators in the courtroom, including local figures and journalists, exhibited varied responses, with some displaying sympathy through murmurs and applause that underscored growing public discontent with Batista's rule.[17] This delivery effectively repurposed the trial as a public platform, amplifying Castro's narrative beyond legal proceedings and sowing seeds of opposition among attendees.[1]Verdict and Imprisonment
Following the conclusion of the Moncada trial in October 1953, Fidel Castro was convicted of sedition and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at the Presidio Modelo on the Isle of Pines.[17] His brother Raúl received a 13-year term, while other accomplices faced lighter penalties, such as three years for some who joined the attack belatedly, reflecting partial mitigation amid scrutiny of the proceedings.[24] The convictions stemmed from charges related to the armed assault on the barracks, though Batista's regime initially executed numerous captured rebels without trial, prompting public backlash that influenced the judicial outcomes for survivors.[15] Transferred to the Presidio Modelo shortly after sentencing, Castro and approximately 25 fellow Moncada participants experienced relative isolation in the prison's hospital wing rather than the standard panopticon cells designed for surveillance and austerity.[25] There, Castro organized educational activities, teaching illiterate inmates to read and write, while himself studying legal texts, history, and languages, including memorizing an English dictionary during a period of solitary confinement.[26] These efforts transformed the imprisonment into a period of ideological preparation for the 26th of July Movement. On May 15, 1955, Castro and other political prisoners were released under a general amnesty granted by Batista, yielding to mounting public and opposition pressure through amnesty campaigns that highlighted regime repression.[27] This shortened Castro's effective sentence to under two years, allowing his exile to Mexico and reorganization of revolutionary forces.[24]Analysis of the Speech's Content
Key Arguments Against Batista
Castro's primary indictment of Batista centered on the regime's illegitimacy, stemming from the military coup of March 10, 1952, which overthrew the constitutionally elected government of Carlos Prío Socarrás and preempted national elections scheduled for June of that year.[2][6] He argued that this "nocturnal armed assault" violated the 1940 Cuban Constitution, establishing a dictatorship "against the Constitution, over the head of the Constitution," and failed to restore democratic institutions like Congress or universal suffrage, instead allowing Batista to nominate himself president via cabinet decree.[2][7] Castro contended that Batista timed the coup to avoid electoral defeat, as public sentiment would not have supported the conspirators post-balloting, thereby subverting the sovereign will of the Cuban people.[2] The speech further portrayed Batista's rule as one of systemic corruption intertwined with foreign dominance, accusing the dictator of surrendering Cuban sovereignty to "great financial interests" and allowing over half of the nation's productive land to fall under foreign control, prioritizing external powers over domestic welfare.[2] This alliance, Castro claimed, perpetuated economic exploitation and political subservience, rendering the regime not merely illegitimate but antithetical to Cuban independence.[2] Castro emphasized the regime's brutality as evidence of its tyrannical nature, detailing widespread torture and extrajudicial killings, including the post-Moncada massacre of over 70 individuals in Santiago de Cuba through methods such as throwing victims from rooftops, eye-gouging, and prolonged beatings that turned barracks into "workshops of torture and death."[2] He contrasted this with the restraint of his own forces during the assault, noting that the attackers inflicted minimal casualties—killing none in initial combat and taking nearly 20 soldiers prisoner humanely—while 95% of rebel losses resulted from army atrocities after surrender, such as the execution of wounded fighters.[2] Historical records corroborate the regime's repressive apparatus, including the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities, which employed torture and political assassinations throughout the 1950s.[8][28] Finally, Castro framed the Moncada attack as a justified defensive uprising against despotism, invoking Article 40 of the 1940 Constitution to assert the right of citizens to resist tyranny through arms when legal avenues fail.[2] He drew parallels to the 1895 War of Independence, where outnumbered Cuban mambises confronted half a million Spanish troops often armed only with machetes, portraying his action as a continuation of that patriotic tradition rather than unprovoked aggression, undertaken to restore constitutional order amid Batista's "blood and terror."[2] This critique positioned the regime's corruption and violence as causal drivers of inevitable rebellion, absolving the attackers by condemning the underlying illegitimacy.[2]The Five Revolutionary Laws
In his defense speech delivered on October 16, 1953, Fidel Castro outlined the Five Revolutionary Laws as the core measures his movement intended to enact immediately following the seizure of power from Fulgencio Batista's regime, framing them as a restoration of democratic governance and economic justice rooted in Cuba's pre-1952 constitutional order.[2] These laws were presented not as radical ideological impositions but as corrective actions to reverse usurpations of power, redistribute resources equitably, and prioritize national interests over foreign monopolies, with Castro emphasizing their alignment with the 1940 Cuban Constitution's principles of popular sovereignty and civil liberties.[1] He argued that their implementation would depend on public support, positioning the revolutionary junta as a temporary steward until free elections could be held under restored constitutional rule.[2] The First Revolutionary Law called for the immediate return of political power to the citizenry by reinstating the 1940 Constitution as the supreme law of the land, pending any amendments ratified by the people themselves.[2] Under this measure, the revolutionary leadership would assume provisional legislative, executive, and judicial functions but refrain from altering the Constitution, thereby framing the takeover as a defensive act to enable genuine democratic processes rather than a permanent dictatorship.[1] The Second Revolutionary Law addressed agrarian inequities by granting permanent, non-mortgageable, and non-transferable ownership of land parcels up to five caballerías (approximately 160 acres or 67 hectares) to tenants, sharecroppers, lessees, and smallholders who had worked the land.[2] Compensation to prior owners would be provided by the state at a rate equivalent to ten years' rental value, based on self-declared tax assessments, aiming to empower rural peasants who comprised a significant portion of Cuba's population—over 600,000 individuals in precarious land tenure—without wholesale expropriation.[1] The Third Revolutionary Law sought to enhance workers' economic participation by entitling employees in large-scale industrial, commercial, and mining enterprises (excluding purely agricultural operations) to 30% of the companies' net profits, distributed proportionally among the workforce.[2] This provision extended to sugar mills and other key sectors, with Castro portraying it as a mechanism to align capital with labor interests, fostering productivity and stability in Cuba's economy, which in 1953 relied heavily on such industries employing tens of thousands.[1] The Fourth Revolutionary Law targeted the sugar industry, Cuba's dominant export sector producing over 5 million tons annually by the early 1950s, by guaranteeing small and medium planters—those established for at least three years—a minimum production quota of 40,000 arrobas (approximately 500 metric tons, with one arroba equaling 25 pounds) and entitling all planters to 55% of the sugar yield from their mills.[2] The state would oversee equitable distribution of quotas to prevent monopolistic control by large mills, which Castro claimed had disadvantaged thousands of independent producers.[1] The Fifth Revolutionary Law mandated the confiscation of all assets and properties acquired through corruption, embezzlement, or fraud by officials and their associates since Batista's coup on March 10, 1952, including gains by heirs or legatees. Special revolutionary tribunals would adjudicate claims, with recovered funds allocated equally to workers' low-cost housing cooperatives and national initiatives in public health, education, and charity, underscoring a restorative intent to repurpose illicit wealth for societal benefit without broader nationalization.[1]Rhetorical Style and Influences
Castro's defense speech utilized historical analogies to Cuban independence struggles, such as the 1895 war led by José Martí, positioning the Moncada assault as a rightful extension of anti-colonial resistance against Batista's usurpation.[2] Emotional appeals invoked widespread Cuban grievances over land inequality, unemployment, and foreign exploitation, framing Batista's rule as a betrayal of national sovereignty to elicit patriotic fervor.[29] Logically, Castro denounced Batista's hypocrisy by citing his 1933 sergeants' revolt—which mirrored the Moncada action in challenging a president—as evidence of selective application of constitutional norms.[2] The speech's defiant structure echoed Adolf Hitler's 1924 trial address following the Beer Hall Putsch, where both leaders subordinated judicial verdicts to anticipated historical absolution, proclaiming their movements' inevitable victory.[30] Castro's closing—"Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me"—mirrored Hitler's invocation of history's ultimate judgment over earthly courts, a tactic to recast failure as deferred triumph and the defendant as a providential figure.[30] Delivered as a memorized, extemporaneous four-hour oration from the dock on October 16, 1953, without written aids, the speech's oral style projected unscripted conviction and resilience, bolstering Castro's persona as an indomitable revolutionary archetype.[31] [32] This performative defiance, amid a hostile military tribunal, amplified the rhetoric's mythic resonance, distinguishing it from conventional legal defenses and aiding its role in galvanizing covert support.[33]