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Fidel Castro Activities
Suggested activities using this programme and the recommended websites: Activity 1: Castro: Hero or Villain? Work in pairs or groups. Use the TV programme, and the websites, especially
Importance of Fidel Castro
http://members.tripod.com/mustardgas/che5.htm
and
Cuban American Democracy Project
http://www.cadp-nyc.org/ - Divide your group or pair into two. One of you has to present the case that Castro is a hero. The other has to present the case that he is a villain.
- Compare your evidence. Which pair do you think has the most convincing evidence?
- Decide whether you agree with the following statement:
‘Deciding whether Castro is a hero or villain has more to do with who you are than the evidence available.’ Activity 2: How important was Castro? The crisis between the USA and USSR over Cuba is generally seen as the issue over which the world came closest to nuclear war. Castro claimed that the incident showed that Cuba was at the heart of world affairs. However, the programme indicates that during the Cuban Missile Crisis Castro was almost irrelevant, hardly consulted at all. Use the programme and the websites to examine the Cuban Crisis and see whether or not you agree about the importance or otherwise of Castro in the events of 1962. (This site will be especially helpful: Importance of Fidel Castro - http://members.tripod.com/mustardgas/che5.htm) Activity 3: Comparison: Mao and Castro In Programme 1 of this series, the programme featured Mao Tse Tung. He started life as a revolutionary, took power, ruled for many years and had a mixed record of success and failure in government. Use the two programmes and the recommended websites to do a comparative study of these two important figures. You could present your findings as two separate timelines of their lives, laid out as ‘Parallel Lives’.
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