In simple terms communism is the belief that everything belongs to "the community", so people own nothing much more than the clothes on their back, and the ruling government owns everything. In 1959, Fidel Castro took over Cuba and kicked out Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. President Kennedy saw what horrible things Fidel Castro was doing so he decided to launch an invasion. This invasion entitled “The Bay of Pigs” purpose was to overthrow the communist government and establish a democratic government friendly to the United States. This plan ultimately failed and Cuba has remained communist. With Fidel’s failing health issues, his brother, Raul has his leadership role and has been in control since 2008.
Cuba changing its ways to communism has not only had a huge impact on the world but it has greatly impacted my family. My great grandfather “Aurelio Baldor” founded the Baldor School in Havana, Cuba in 1932. With the arrival of communism in 1959, the school began experiencing some problems. Raul Castro had plans to arrest Aurelio and shut down the school but one of his top commanders prevented the arrest because he greatly admired Baldor for his achievements as an educator and for his creation of the Baldor Algebra textbook. Aurelio later sold the text book in order to buy school buses for the school. One-month later, that commander mysteriously died. His death gave my family the option to either leave Cuba or be forced into the military. They made the obvious choice and left their entire life behind in 1960. In 1960, Raul took over the Baldor School and changed it into a government run facility.
As of right now things are not looking to well for Cuba. On January 14, they changed their immigration policy. Cubans now don’t need an exit visa to travel abroad. Thanks to the new policy, the population is steadily decreasing. About 38 thousand citizens leave the island each year. Another factor that is hurting the population size is that the birth rate is low. Fewer women want to give birth to a baby on an island filled with poverty.
My grandparents have expressed that they don’t want anybody from our family visiting Cuba until they establish a democratic government. Hopefully in the near future, Cuba changes its ways of communism so I can visit the country that was my grandparents original home.
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