Biography of Fidel Castro… San Martín de Porres… Alexander the Great…

Biography of Rigoberta Menchú

(1959/01/09 - Unknown)

Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Guatemalan indigenous leader, Nobel Peace Prize in 1992

He was born on January 9, 1959 in Chimel, village of the municipality of Uspatan. Granddaughter of Maya. His father, Vicente Menchú actively participated in raising the awareness of their neighbors. He worked as a child in the field as well as their parents.
He received primary school education in several Catholic boarding schools. He witnessed the murder of his brother for 16 years by the landowners who wanted to take the Indians from their lands. At 19 he began military Committee of peasant unity (CUC), while the army carried out its "scorched earth" campaign against the people suspected of belonging to the armed opposition. When he was about 20 years old learned the Spanish, until then he spoke quiche and its dialects.
On January 31, 1980 his father died burned at the Embassy of Spain in Guatemala, where had been locked together with 37 people to protest against the indigenous situation during the RAID police conducted. His mother was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by paramilitary groups. He left the country and took refuge in Mexico at age 21 was where received in Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruíz García. The following year he returned to Guatemala but soon had to take refuge in Nicaragua and then again in Mexico.
In recognition of his work and to the civic message and social justice that represents, was honored in 1992 with the Nobel Peace Prize. With the financial resources that received this award established the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation, with headquarters in Guatemala and offices in the city of Mexico and New York. Also received the Premio Principe de Asturias in 1998
His book my name is Rigoberta Menchu, and I was born the conscience, was published in 1983, and since then has been reprinted several times and translated into many languages. Rigoberta published in 1998: the granddaughter of the Maya with the collaboration of the Guatemalan writer Dante Liano and Italian journalist Gianni Minà. In September 2003 in Mexico City presented his second children's book, 'The glass of honey', which brings together Mayan legends about the origin of the world. Menchú explained that the book, written together with the Guatemalan Dante Liano, is a reflection of its "family and community environment".
In February 2001, the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) Dr. invested it 'Honorary'.
In September 2002 the two majority groups of the European Parliament, PPE and PSE, reproached the Nobel Prize of the peace Rigoberta Menchu statements in which showed his disagreement with the legal measures taken against the environment of ETA.
In 2006, he participated as a "Goodwill Ambassador" of the (Unesco) of the Government of Oscar Berger. On 12 February 2007, it announced that it would present to Guatemala's 2007 presidential elections, by the coalition of WINAQ and encounter for Guatemalaparty; It was fifth with 3.09% of the votes. On May 7, 2011 the WINAQ alongside other parties proclaimed as presidential candidate for the presidential elections of September 11, 2011 in the broad front of Guatemala.

Biography of Fidel Castro

(1926-08-13 - Unknown)

Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
Cuban politician

"In all, time is an important factor; the revolution will not be in one day, but rest assured that the revolution will make it, rest assured that for the first time, in truth, the Republic will be entirely free and the people will have what deserves."
Speech by Fidel Castro in La Plaza de La Revolución, Havana, on January 2, 1997.
He was born on August 13, 1926 in a farm in the Municipality of Mayarí, in a province in the East of Cuba called Biran.
It was the third of seven children (four boys and three girls) taken into second marriage by Ángel Castro y Argiz, a Spanish sugar mill owner who emigrated from Galicia to Cuba during the war between Spain and United States.
He attended good Catholic schools in Santiago and Havana. Member of party of the Cuban people in 1947 and doctorate in law by the University of Havana in 1950. He married Mirta Díaz Balart in 1948 although they divorced in 1954. (His son Fidel Castro Díaz Balart, born in 1949, to served as the head of the Atomic Energy Commission of CubaCastro).
Became the leader of the movement group (his political ideas were considered nationalist, anti-imperialist, and reformists), clandestine anti-Government faction whose actions culminated in the assault on the Moncada barracks (in Santiago) on day 26 of July 1953 alongside other 134 guerrillas, made by which was jailed after Fulgencio Batista seized control of the Cuban Government in 1952 and established a dictatorship in his country. He defended also at the trial, whose allegation became a discourse (history will absolve me), which was later to become an important political slogan for the revolutionaries. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he was amnestied in 1955, and on exiled himself in the United States and Mexico, founded there the July 26 movement.
In 1956 he returned to Cuba with a strength of 82 men, of which 70 died in combat just landed. Castro, his brother Raul and Ernesto Che Guevara, were among the 12 survivors. The July 26 movement was gaining popular support, mainly in student areas (Directory March 13), and in December 1958, with the backing of the Popular Socialist Party, advanced toward Havana, Act that would climax to the Cuban revolution. Batista fled on January 1, 1959, thus succeeding the popular revolution.
Castro demonstrated a broad political, convinced power which had a historical duty to change the nature of Cuban society. Seeing the collapse of his army, and unable to count on the support of the United States, Castro declared himself Prime Minister in February 1959, a position he held until 1976, he assumed the Presidency of the Council of State, which according to the constitutional reform of that year included the head of the State and the Government. Failed in their attempt to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with the United States, he negotiated agreements on weapons, credits and food with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and carried out purge of his political rivals. Nationalized Cuban resources, faced a deep reform based on the collectivization of property and established a Socialist state party only (the United Party of the Socialist Revolution, which in 1965 would be called Cuban Communist Party and whose general secretariat would assume Castro), which led to a large number of Cubans into exile. United States saw with disgust how the new regime was upon businesses of U.S. ownership and in 1960, quashed trade agreements kept, Castro said the first Havana Declaration, reaffirming the Cuban sovereignty against U.S. imperialism.
United States backed a group of Cuban exiles, in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow him, known as the Bay of pigslanding in 1961. Since that time, he lined up openly with the USSR, depending more and more on its economic and military aid. In 1962 he came close to producing a nuclear war, when the USSR placed in Cuba nuclear warheads of mid-range, in the face of U.S. opposition. The Cuban missile crisis ended after negotiations between us President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. The President has in its history allegedly 637 attacks frustrated take away life, both inside and outside of Cuba.Durante the next few decades, Castro achieved recognition in the Third world, thanks to its leadership of the Movement of non-aligned countries (who chaired between 1979 and 1981). At the end of the 1980's, when the USSR began their process of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), Castro maintained his regime. However, with the beginning of the process of disintegration of the USSR and the COMECON (Council for mutual economic aid) in 1990, Cuba's economic problems worsened. In 1993, in an attempt to reach an mixed economy, Castro approved limited economic reforms that legalized some private companies. In October 1995 he participated in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in New York and gives a speech to the General Assembly. In January 1998 he received Pope John Paul II in Havana.
Among his written works are: history will absolve me (1954), we have to think in the future (1975), thought political, economic and Social, the economic and social Crisis in the world: its impact on the developing (1983), José Martí mastermind (1983), External debt (1985), Fidel Castro and Religion (1986), ideology, conscience and labour politician (1991).
He has received the following awards: Lenin's peace (1961), Dimitrov (1980), order of Lenin (1972 and 1986), order of the October Revolution (1976), award Muammar al - Gaddafi of Human rights (1998) and a hundred more national and international awards.
Father of Alina Fernández Revuelta, the daughter who was with Nati Revuelta. Firm opposition to his father, accused the leader of having failed as a father to her, and of having failed the Cuban people as a leader in his book: The memoirs of the daughter rebel of Fidel Castro. The content presents a personal account of the life of the author, of his relations with his father and comments critical of the development of the revolution led by Castro since January 1959.
For the first time in 47 years, Fidel Castro delegated in August 2006 and provisionally, the positions of first Secretary of the Communist Party, President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief of the armed forces in his brother Raul, second man of the regime. The reason, an intestinal crisis that forced him to undergo surgery, according to an official statement signed in his own handwriting. The 19 February 2008, in a letter that published the 'Granma'newspaper, declared that it would not be presented or would accept the post of President and Commander in the meeting of the National Assembly of the Popular power of February 24 of that year.

Biography of San Martín de Porres

(1579/12/09 - 1639/11/03)

San Martin de Porres
Peruvian Dominican friar

Probably he was born December 9, 1579 in Lima.
Son of the Spanish gentleman Juan de Porres, Member of the order of Alcántara, and Ana Velásquez afro-panamena. He was baptized in the same baptismal seven years later it would be Santa Rosa de Lima, in the Church of San Sebastian.
Martin learned the trade of Barber, who included surgeon and general medicine although he devoted his life to help the most disadvantaged. Monk at the monastery Dominic of the Holy Rosary. After long and strenuous efforts, he was awarded the religious habit in 1603. Giving vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. San Martín de Porres subjected to severe penance and intense hours of prayer, slept and ate little. His service as a nurse stretched from his Dominican brothers to the most abandoned people who could be found in the street.
His Holiness was manifested through the love he showed for each other and the high purity of his life, especially in the care that always dispensed to the poor and the sick, nurse and gardener herbalist, Fray Martin cultivated medicinal plants that eased their sick.
Martin de Porres died in Lima November 3, 1639. It already enjoyed in life of Fame of sanctity. Proof of this was his funeral mass. The whole city turned to see him for the last time. His body was taken procession to his grave on shoulders of Feliciano de la Vega (Archbishop of Mexico), Pedro de Ortega Sotomayor (dean of the Cathedral of Lima) and then Bishop of Cusco, Juan of Peñafiel (judge of the Royal Court) and Juan de Figueroa Sotomayor (Alderman of the cabildo and later Mayor of Lima), among other masterpieces present saving at the time of burial.
He was canonized in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican by Pope John XXIII in 1962 becoming the first mulatto in being canonized by the Church. The miracles approved by the Church for his canonization took place in Asunción (Paraguay) and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands). Her feast is celebrated on 3 November. The Peruvian Government declared him Patron of Social Justice.

Biography of Alexander the Great

(0356/09/20 - Unknown)

Alexander III the great
King of Macedonia (336-323 BC)

Born September 20, 356 BC in Pela, ancient capital of Macedonia.
Son of Philip II, King of Macedonia, and Olympia, Princess of Epirus. Aristotle was his tutor.
In the summer of the year 336 BC, his father was murdered and ascended the throne of Macedonia. It marched over Thessaly, where supporters of independence had gained control, and restored the Macedonian domain. It re-established its position in Greece and a Congress of States at Corinth elected him Commander of the army of the Greek for the war against Persia.
In 335 BC, he led a brilliant campaign against the THRACIANS rebels near the Danube River. Upon his return to Macedonia, it cracked down in one week to the Illyrians and Dardanelles near the Lake small Prespa and then headed toward Thebes, which had rebelled. It swept away the city and only respected temples and the House of the poet Pindar, enslaving some captured thirty thousand inhabitants. It began in 334 BC war against Persia, after crossing the Hellespont with an army of about 365,000 men in Macedonia; its officers were Macedonians, including Antigonus (later Antígono Monoftalmos), Tolomeo ( Ptolemy Ilater), and Seleucus (Seleucus I later).
In the River Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy (today Turkey), he attacked an army of 40,000 Persian and Greek hoplites. They defeated the enemy and only lost 110 men. It continued to advance towards the South and met with the main Persian army, under the command of Darius III, on Isos, in the Northwest of Syria. According to tradition, the army of Darius was estimated to 500,000 soldiers. The battle of Isos, in 333 B.c., ended with the victory of Alexander. Although he cut the withdrawal, Darius fled, abandoning his mother, wife and children Alexander, who treated them with respect due to its Royal family.
Shot, a very fortified seaport offered a stubborn resistance, but took it by assault in 332 BC after a siege of seven months. It captured Gaza and moved to Egypt, where he was received as a deliverer. These events facilitated the control of the coastline of the Mediterranean. In 332 BC, the City of Alexandria, which became the literary, scientific and commercial center of the Greek world he founded at the mouth of the Nile River.
Cyrene, the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Cyrenaicain North Africa, surrendered to Alexander in 331 BC, extending their domain to all the territory of Carthage. In the spring of the 331 BC he made a pilgrimage to the great temple and Oracle of Amun-re, the Egyptian Sun God whom the Greeks identified with Zeus. It was believed that the first Egyptian pharaohs were sons of Amun-re, and Alejandro, the new leader of Egypt, wanted God to recognize him as his son.
Departed to the North, reorganized its forces in shooting and went to Babylon with an army of 40,000 Marines and 7,000 horsemen. He crossed the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and met with Dario at the head of the Persian army, Darius suffered a defeat in the battle of Arbela (Gaugamela) October 1, 331 BC fled just as it did in Isos and a year later was assassinated by one of his own aides. Babylon surrendered after Gaugamela, and the city of Susa, was conquered. He later moved to Persepolis and after done with the real treasures, burned the city.
He crossed the Indus River in 326 BC and invaded the Punjab, reaching the river Hifasis (today Bias); at this point the Macedonians rebelled, refusing to continue. He then built a fleet and fell sailing the Hidaspo towards the Indus, reaching its delta in September of the 325 B.c. The fleet continued toward the Persian Gulf. He crossed the desert from Susa in 324 BC
He arrived in Babylon in the spring of 323 BC, but died May 18, 323. C.possibly typhoid or a liver collapse. After two years of disputes, a hearse funeral home was prepared to move it to the Greek city of Ege (Macedonia). In the meantime, his body remained preserved thanks that was submerged during that time in honey.
Alejandro expressed his desire to be buried in Alexandria or Siwa, Egyptian city located to the Northwest of the country. When everything was prepared for his transfer to Macedonia, Ptolemy, Governor of Egypt and friend of Alexander attacked the procession and seized the body of their King willing to enforce their desire on the site of his burial. He first sent the corpse to Memphis where he was buried after the Macedonian manner (Pausanias) and was subsequently taken to the city of Alexandria.