by Raimundo Urrechaga
HAVANA, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- In what has been a festive day in Cuba for over two decades, this Sunday marks the first time this Caribbean nation commemorates the birthday of its revolutionary leader Fidel Castro without him.
Castro passed away on Nov. 25 last year at the age of 90 after more than a decade away from power.
The Cuban revolutionary leader was born on Aug. 13, 1926 in the town of Biran, in northeastern Cuba, within a wealthy family.
He attended private schools before entering the University of Havana to study law in 1945. Five years later when he graduated, he had acquired political awareness which led him to develop anti-imperialist revolutionary ideas closely related to Marxist values.
In 1953, Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a a military failure against the then Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, but he was released due to a presidential pardon in May 1955.
After his release from prison, he founded the July 26 Movement and later on fled to Mexico to organize an armed insurrection.
In December 1956, Castro led the Granma yacht expedition with 82 men aboard to the shores of eastern Cuba where Batista's soldiers attacked them and only a few managed to regroup and head on to the Sierra Maestra mountains to continue the revolutionary struggle, thus giving birth to the Rebel Army.
On Jan. 1, 1959, Batista fled the country after his elite troops lost central Cuba, and the revolution led by Castro triumphed.
After becoming the head of the revolutionary government and armed forces, Castro undertook , Castro undertook a series of reforms including land reform, a nation-wide literacy campaign, the expropriation of American companies, nationalization of sugar factories, industries, banks and oil refineries, among others.
In 1961, Castro declared Cuba a socialist country and he led the struggle against a mercenary invasion organized by the United States in April 1961 through the Bay of Pigs in southwest Cuba.
As First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the nation, he worked to provide free education and health to the people and develop sports, culture and science.
Between 1979 and 1983, Castro held the status of president of the Non-Aligned Movement and in the period he sent Cuban troops to support the liberation of Africa.
He was also an active promoter with the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in the creation of regional integration mechanisms such as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America and the Petrocaribe energy alliance.
These agreements have allowed Cuban medical, educational, sporting and cultural staff to work in more than 120 nations around the globe in different time periods.
He had led Cuba for nearly half a century before stepping down in 2006 for health reasons. He was succeeded by his brother Raul Castro.
Subsequently, in Feb. 2008, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution presented his final resignation due to health problems and began a new stage in his political life, marked by the publication of his famous articles and sporadic public appearances.
