“History will absolve me.” (“La historia me absolver.”)

Recently, Fidel Castro generated worldwide news when he told a journalist for The Atlantic magazine that the Communist model he had imposed on Cuba “doesn't even work for us anymore.”

It was a sadly ironic comment given the tens of thousands of deaths and other human suffering caused by Castro’s efforts to create and maintain his Communist regime.

Yet, somehow I suspect “El Jefe” would still stand behind the famous quote he uttered 57 years ago on this date:

       “History will absolve me.” (“La historia me absolver.”)

Castro made this claim on October 16, 1953. They were the final words of a long speech he gave at the end of his trial for leading the attack on the Moncada barracks on July 26th of that year.

The Moncada attack was an attempt to start a revolution against Fulgencio Batista, the longtime Cuban dictator who had run Cuba largely to benefit himself, the Cuban elite, big international corporations and the American mobsters who controlled most of the island’s popular hotels, nightclubs and casinos.

The attempted coup failed. Seventy of the rebels involved were killed during the attack, or later. Others, including Castro, were captured by Batista’s soldiers.

Fidel and his surviving co-conspirators (which included his brother Raul) were put on trial in September. At first, the proceedings were open to the press and public. But the publicity generated more sympathy and support for Castro and his fellow rebels than for Batista. As a result, Batista ordered the final stages of the trial to be held in secret.

In his last statement to the court on October 16th, Castro delivered an amazing four-hour speech. He reviewed details of the Moncada attack, the political crimes and failures of Batista’s regime, the dismal conditions in which most Cubans lived and the legal and historical justification for rebellion against tyrants. He also outlined his vision for a future “revolutionary government” that would provide jobs, decent housing, health care and education to all Cubans.

He ended the speech, by saying:

“I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.”

There was no record of this speech at the time, since the press and public were excluded. And, as Castro expected, his words had no real effect on the decision of the judges. They found him guilty.

But the publicity the trial had generated made Batista fearful of having Castro executed. So, instead, the court sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

For Batista — and, depending on your viewpoint, for many other people — this turned out to be a huge mistake.

In 1955, faced with international pressure, Batista freed Fidel and exiled him from Cuba.

Fidel and brother Raul went to Mexico. There, with Ernesto “Che” Guevara and other followers, they planned the Cuban Revolution.

They called it the 26th of July Movement, in honor of the attack on the Moncada barracks.

To guide the movement, Castro reconstructed the speech he made at the end of his trial in 1953. It became the manifesto of the Cuban Revolution and well known to Communists elsewhere during the Cold War era as “the ‘History Will Absolve Me’ speech.”

In November of 1956, the Castro brothers and Che returned to Cuba. Their fast-growing 26th of July Movement mounted a guerilla war against the Batista government. By the beginning of 1959, Batista fled the country and Fidel Castro began what would become his own long dictatorship.

Whether historians of the future will, in fact, absolve Fidel for the results of the Cuban Revolution remains to be seen.

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Further reading…

OCTOBER 16 - Castro said “History will absolve me,” but it doesn’t seem likely

On October 16, 1953, Fidel Castro made a four-hour speech, but it wasn’t one of his long stem-winders to his followers.

It was a speech he gave as a prisoner, while being tried in court for leading a small group of rebels in an attack on the Moncada military barracks in Cuba on July 26th.

The remarks Castro made during his trial included his famous quotation: “History will absolve me.” (“La historia me absolver.”)

The Moncada Barracks attack was an attempt to start an insurrection against the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. It failed at the time and the men involved were either killed or captured by Batista’s soldiers. But it turned out to be the beginning of the “Cuban Revolution.”

The historical record makes it pretty clear why the revolution happened. Fulgencio Batista was a ruthless dictator. And, he got rich taking cuts and bribes from the U.S. corporations that ran most of Cuba’s major industries and from the American mobsters who ran most of the hotels and casinos in Havana. Meanwhile, most Cubans were poor, uneducated, ill-housed and disenfranchised.

In his remarks at his October 16, 1953 trial, Castro reviewed the many political crimes of Batista and his illegitimate presidency. The entire speech is famous among Marxists, but most books of quotations just give the “History will absolve me” line.

Batista made the mistake of not executing Castro after he was found guilty at the trial. Instead, Fidel was put in prison and then – in an even bigger blunder – Batista allowed him to be released in 1955, thinking he was no longer a serious threat.

The following year, Fidel, his brother Raul Castro, and Che Guevara began organizing disgruntled Cuban peasants into a growing revolutionary army. A few years later they succeeded in driving Batista out of the country (along with the American corporations and the mob).

For a brief time, it seemed like a victory for the Cuban people and potentially for democracy, since Castro had pledged to restore a democratic government.

Then, of course, Castro became a Communist, made himself the semi-godlike ruler of the country and brutally crushed any dissent.

History may absolve Castro for ousting the ruthless dictator Batista. But I doubt if any honest historical accounts absolve Castro for becoming a ruthless dictator himself.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to October 16:

• “I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where.” - The well known and often parodied lines from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Arrow and the Song,” which he composed on October 16, 1845.

• “Believe it or not.” - In 1918, artist and sportswriter Robert Ripley started publishing an illustrated feature about sports accomplishments and oddities in the New York Globe. He called it Champs & Chumps. After a while, he started including stories about non-sports-related oddities. Eventually, Ripley abandoned the sports angle entirely and, on October 16, 1919, his feature was retitled with the famed phrase we know today – Believe It or Not.