Ángel Castro y Argiz
| Ángel Castro y Argiz | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ángel María Bautista Castro y Argiz December 5, 1875 Láncara, Lugo Province, Spain |
| Died | October 21, 1956 (aged 80) Birán, Cuba |
| Occupation | Spanish military, farmer |
| Children | 12 |
Ángel María Bautista Castro y Argiz (December 5, 1875 – October 21, 1956) was the father of Cuban leaders Fidel and Raúl Castro.
He was the son of Manuel de Castro y Núñez (Lugo Province, Láncara, c. 1853 – Lugo Province, Láncara, June 12, 1903) and wife (m. Lugo Province, Láncara, August 16, 1873) Antonia Argiz y Fernández (Lugo Province, Láncara, 1857 – Lugo Province, Láncara, November 16, 1887).
Ángel Castro was born in Láncara, Galicia, in a small fieldstone house typical of the poor Galician peasants of that time. When he was sixteen or seventeen, he was conscripted into the Spanish military, and came to Cuba during the second War of Independence. He was stationed in the tract of land between Júcaro and Morón.Juanita Castro, Ángel's daughter, has contradicted this claim to assert that their father was merely an economic migrant to Cuba.
Following their defeat in 1898, Ángel Castro returned with the army to Spain and his homeland Lancara. A cavalryman in the Spanish Army with no future he finally settled to emigrate to Cuba through the port of Havana in 1905, shortly after an uncle had done so. He arrived in 1906 with his brother Gonzalo Pedro "And without a cent he started to work,” Fidel remarked in one of many interviews later in life. At first Angel went to work in the nickel mines near Santiago de Cuba, where a capacity for hard labour led him to become a labourer for the Nipe Bay Railway Company that was building the Preston sugar mill. He made his way eastwards to the Oriente province where slaves worked in a hostile and mountainous region 500 miles from Havana. Working for a subsidiary of the American United Fruit Company directing the loading of sugar wagons had some compensations. At this time, American plantations in misiones were spreading throughout Cuba, and workers were being hired to cut down the hardwood forests and plant sugarcane. Castro organized a group of men and hired them out to United Fruit selling lemonade from a dealer's cart. Later he set up a shop in the town of Guaro selling equipment and supplies to the cane workers. The profits enabled him to leave the employ of United Fruits. He hired immigrant labour to load up wagons and fell timber. With the help of benefactor, Fidel Pino he opened a restaurant in Guaro fittingly called Progress, but it was not a success, and at last was forced to close. In 1910 he became the joint owner of a mine called The Desire, just one of a number of capital deals in land, livestock and timber businesses that made Castro's name in Cuba.
...
Wikipedia