Bourgeois intellectuals (i.e., Trotsky) usually are prominent in Socialist revolutionary circles. Castro is a case in point:
His father wasn't Cuban--he was a Spaniard from Galicia who fought for his country in the War of 1898, then returned to Cuba. He became the largest non-corporate landowner in Oriente Province--the sweat of his indentured cane cutters from Haiti paid for Fidel's education at Cuba's finest Jesuit schools, and for his law degree.
Castro married Mirta Diaz Balart in 1948. Her father, Rafael, was Cuba's highest-powered lawyer, as well as mayor of Banes, the HQ city of United Fruit, the symbol of capitalist exploitation in Latin America. One of Rafael's clients was Fulgencio Batista, the once and future dictator of Cuba. Batista, then in exile in Daytona Beach FL, sent the happy couple a $1k wedding gift, which they put together with the $10k Rafael gave them for a months-long honeymoon in the US. There, Castro bought a new Lincoln Connie so he and his bride could ride around in style. He also reputedly had a pitching tryout with the Yankees. (The thought of this future nonstop denouncer of "Yanquis" wearing Yankee pinstripes boggles the mind.)
Castro and his brother Raul were imprisoned after their failed attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953. But Batista released them in a general amnesty on Mothers Day, 1955. They split for Mexico City. Fidel phoned Mirta constantly, begging her to send their son, Fidelito, for a visit. She relented, but as soon as the boy arrived in Mexico City, Fidel announced he would never send him back to live with her and her "fascist" family (Rafael was then Cuba's Interior Minister). In a remarkable parallel to the Elian Gonzales affair, Rafael used his clout to convince the Mexican government to send Fidelito back to Cuba. Castro was surrounded by Federales, who snatched Fidelito and sent him back to his mother. Ironically, the leader of the effort to keep Elian Gonzales in America was one of Miami's two Congressmen--Lincoln Diaz Balart, who is Castro's nephew.
