A New Year, A New Cuba

HISTORY This Week

The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios

Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New Year's Eve, 1958. Cuba's president, Fulgencio Batista, is throwing his annual New Year's Eve party at his home in Havana. It's usually a blowout. But this year, the vibes... aren't so great.

Government officials and Cuban elites drink champagne and pick at arroz con pollo as the clock ticks closer to midnight. But there's a palpable anxiety in the air. They aren't just counting down to the end of the year - they may be counting down the final minutes of Cuba as they know it. A revolution is underway, and rebel forces, led by a young Fidel Castro, have taken city after city throughout 1958. As the year comes to a close, Havana – the last stronghold of Batista's government – is in their crosshairs.

How did the country revolt against a ruthless dictator? And what happened in the final weeks of 1958 that brought down Batista's government and ushered in a new Cuba?

Special thanks to Lillian Guerra, professor of Cuban and Caribbean history at the University of Florida and author of Heroes, Martyrs, and Political Messiahs in Revolutionary Cuba; and Julia Sweig, author of Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know.

To see the coded advertisements and underground pamphlets from the 03C Movement: historythisweekpodcast.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone, Stuckoo, you here.
0:02.0	And I'm Gabi.
0:03.0	And we are the hosts of History of Everything, a podcast, which you can probably guess by the name, is, well, I mean, it's about everything.
0:11.0	Do you want to know why people thought potatoes were evil and would give you syphilis?
0:15.0	Are you curious about all the stories of the terrible and stupid ways that people have kicked the bucket over the years?
0:20.0	Do you want to hear tales about all of the different badasses of history and the lives
0:24.9	that they had brought to life? Well, if so, then look no further. History of Everything is
0:29.9	just the right podcast for you. It's available on Spotify, Pandora, and anywhere else that you get
0:34.5	your podcast from. Join us for some fun and just see how weird and wacky history can be.
0:40.3	The History Channel, original podcast.
0:44.8	History this week.
0:47.0	New Year's Eve, 1958.
0:51.7	I'm Alana Casanova Burgess.
0:55.7	To put it mildly, the vibes are not good at this New Year's Eve party, which isn't normally the case.
1:02.9	This is Cuban President Fulgencio Batista's party, and in years past, it's been a blowout.
1:11.4	It's at the president's home within a military base in the capital, Havana, and some of the
1:16.0	most powerful people in Cuba are invited, or at least they're powerful for now, because
1:22.2	this government, the rule of Fulgencio Batista is collapsing.
1:34.0	Batista hasn't actually arrived at the party yet.
1:35.3	Not a good sign.
1:39.6	In the meantime, some guests wander over to the buffet table where military aides in crisp white uniforms
1:43.0	serve arroh compojo on fine China.
	...

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