Fidel Castro Influence

Looking back at the history of Cuba, there was a time when the country was quite prosperous. This was before Fidel Castro came into power. During the Batista government regime, Cuba had a strong economy and exported many goods. However, Castro started a rebellion and fought against the Batista and soon took over. Now, when people hear about Fidel Castro, they think about the negative aspects of his government regime: oppression, extreme socialist views, lack of food and other necessities for living, and the removal of people who went against his views. This paper aims to show that regardless of the negative policies Castro had in place, he played an important role in the arts for Cuba. His financial support of Alicia Alonso and her company, helped to foster an environment for people to learn about and build an appreciation for ballet and its contributions.
The process of the Castro government, much like any other large political movement, was a step-by-step process. In order to create an
As mentioned earlier, students who studied at Ballet Nacional de Cuba moved onto different career pathways. Ramiro Guerra, a well-known dance researcher in Cuba first started at Ballet Nacional de Cuba. He attributes Alonso’s company for sparking an interest for dance. He even went on tto create his own company in 1959, Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. This was the introduction to a new dance form found in Cuba: modern dance. Here, Guerra worked to take inspiration from the Afro-Cuban culture and blend them with modern dance movements (Angert 82). Castro regime also supported this movement as well. The government wishes to see continual growth in the arts and for dance is how a blend of indigenous styles coupled with other dance forms came about in Cuba (John 87). This lead to new dances being performed throughout that differed from the class ballet technique that Alicia Alonso brought to the