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Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
Sat Jul 2, 2016, 12:28 AM Jul 2016

AP PHOTOS: Fidel Castro's birthplace sees rise in visitors

AP PHOTOS: Fidel Castro's birthplace sees rise in visitors
Jul 1, 12:04 AM EDT



BIRAN, Cuba (AP) -- At the end of a dirt road lined with fields of sugar cane, royal palms and tropical fruit trees, a cluster of wooden houses painted in brilliant yellow, blue and white draws thousands of Cuban and international tourists a year. It's the birthplace of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his brother, President Raul Castro.

Their father Angel planted and sold sugarcane and timber as well as raising cattle on 46 square miles (119 square kilometers) of land in Biran, deep in the lush green hill country of Holguin province in eastern Cuba.

Visitors who roam the complex, often in sweltering heat, can see the crib where Fidel Castro was born, the bedroom he shared with his brothers and the cockfighting arena where his father's birds fought.

For decades, the place was largely ignored by the Castros and their government. It was the first farm expropriated under Cuba's move toward collectivized agriculture and once was due to be flooded by a reservoir, though that was never built.

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CB_CUBA_FIDELS_HOME_PHOTO_GALLERY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-07-01-00-04-22

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The father built a school house on the plantation for the children, and a railroad to carry agricultural products from the fields, possibly to a nearby port. As already mentioned, this plantation was the first property to be given to the revolutionary government.

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