Cuba declares Castro birthplace national monument

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HAVANA - Cuba has made the rural homestead where Fidel and Raul Castro were born a national monument, state media reported Tuesday.

Fidel Castro has written of his happy childhood memories in the countryside but has shown little attachment to the 13,000-hectare property in eastern Holguin province that once belonged to his father. It was the first farm expropriated after he took power in 1959 and collectivized agriculture.

The graves of Angel Castro and Lina Ruiz - Fidel and Raul's parents - are located on the grounds near the village Biran.
 

The property once featured a cockfighting ring, movie theatre and a saloon where Raul briefly tended bar. The original complex of red-roofed houses was destroyed in a fire, but has been rebuilt.

Freya Matos, a specialist with the National Monuments Commission, told Cuba's AIN news agency 32 hectares of the site, including 11 buildings, would formally be declared a national monument in a ceremony Thursday.

Matos did not say why the commission decided to bestow historical status on the homestead now, especially since it has been a museum for years.

Cuban state media called it "a symbolic site of our contemporary history."

Cuba has 11 other national monuments, including historic sugar mills, universities and museums.

Fidel Castro was born Aug. 13, 1926. Raul came along five years later. The younger Castro succeeded his ailing, 82-year-old brother as president nearly a year ago.

Fidel Castro spent only his early childhood living at the property before he was sent to boarding school in the eastern city Santiago

http://travel.canoe.ca/Travel/News/2009/02/03/8254726-ap.html