Cuban revolutionary (1924–2016)
This article is about the Cuban revolutionary. For other persons of the same name, see Ramón Castro (disambiguation).
Ramón Eusebio Castro Ruz[a] (KASS-troh, Latin American Spanish:[raˈmonewˈseβjoˈkastɾoˈrus]; 14 October 1924 – 23 February 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary, activist and farmer. He was the eldest brother of Fidel and Raúl Castro and a key figure of the early days of the Cuban Revolution.
Biography
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Ramón, the eldest of the Castro brothers, the son of Ángel Castro, a Spanish-born rancher, and his second wife, Lina Ruz, grew up on his family's large farm in Birán, Holguin province, in eastern Cuba. Ramon Castro, who studied agricultural engineering, spent his life tending crops and livestock. He oversaw Cuba's sugar production in the 1960s to help increase output, and he founded several state companies handling production and transport of food crops. He also participated in agricultural research. "Physically, he is stunningly like his brother Fidel, an enormous, heavy-set, gruff bear of a man, with a scraggly beard, a red face, a blustery manner, a ready teasing smile and bright dancing eyes," wrote American journalist, Sally Quinn, who in 1977 was rare in being offered a unique o
