American President Fidel Castro

I've seen a couple AHs that have Cuba annexed into the United States. This raises an interesting question: could Castro have become the president in a timeline like this? Keep in mind that I know very little about his family history, when his family emigrated to Cuba, etc. Is this possible, or is it an ASB scenario?
 
I've seen a couple AHs that have Cuba annexed into the United States. This raises an interesting question: could Castro have become the president in a timeline like this? Keep in mind that I know very little about his family history, when his family emigrated to Cuba, etc. Is this possible, or is it an ASB scenario?

Just a few points..

Assuming that during the American control/occupation from 1898 to 1901, the movement for independence is somehow derailed, and Theodore Roosevelt fully annexes Cuba in 1901 with the promise of quick admission as a state, and that he keeps his promise, and so Cuba becomes a state in 1908, together with Oklahoma, while Puerto Rico (after Cuba's precedent) becomes a state in 1912, together with New Mexico and Arizona, bringing the number up to 50 already before WW I.

According to Wikipedia, Castro's father came first to Cuba during his service in the Spanish Army - the returned to Spain after the war, but definitely tool up residence in Cuba in 1899. So this would be before the PoD.

If he has the same kids with the same wifes as IOTL, Fidel, born 1926, now in the State of Cuba, is a natural born citizen of the US. So there is no legal problem against it. How his life would go, and how permanent US control over Cuba would alter the wider history of the world, remains an entirely different question...

But, of course, AH purist's would argue that Fidel Castro would never have been born, or at least not as the same person, because with Cuba a state of the Union for more than 18 years, many details in the personal lives of his parents would be different, and therefore, the chances that they still have the exact same kids, is approaching zero... (This is called the butterfly effect)
 
Ignoring absolute alternate history purists, it is possible if Cuba were a state. However, Castro (if he were to exist) would be a totally different person. If there is no corrupt government to compare to the old Cuban regime of the 50's, Fidel would have grown up without the hatred of a tyrant burning in him, so he would probably not be as radical. You must also remember that he took Cuba communist not so much out of ideology but because the US was putting heavy pressure on him and the Soviets offered to alleviate it. So you have a far less radical person. And an interesting point would be he could be a defender of Hispanic rights in the United States and sort of parallel Martin Luther King. So from there, he could have become President (with or without the whole Hispanic Martin Luther King thing), but it would be relatively difficult for a person of color to get to that office in the 60's or 70's or even 80's.
 
I see it as possible, but putting aside all of the above comments on turning into the Hispanic MLK, i don't think he would go into politics.
it doesn't seem likely, but then again, who knows?
for all we know he could become the greatest baseball player in american history.
 
I but it would be relatively difficult for a person of color to get to that office in the 60's or 70's or even 80's.

Don't think that he would necessarily be seen as "a person of color". As the son of European immigrants, in an already long established state, he would simply be 'white'. And there could be a clear distinction between 'old' Spanish-Americans (those in states admitted with a large hispanic population) and the 'new' hispanic's - mostly relatively recent immigrants from independent latin-american countries.

So, if Castro still joins politics, but thanks to T.R., Cuban mainstream is pretty pro GOP - he becomes a member of the House in 1954, and enters the Senate in 1962.

If the rest of the world (with the exception of the no Cuban-missile crisis, obviously) goes much like OTL, the long serving GOP Senator from Cuba could then become Ronald Reagans VP - balancing the ticket - and would follow him in 1988 - serving two terms until 1996...
 
Don't think that he would necessarily be seen as "a person of color". As the son of European immigrants, in an already long established state, he would simply be 'white'. And there could be a clear distinction between 'old' Spanish-Americans (those in states admitted with a large hispanic population) and the 'new' hispanic's - mostly relatively recent immigrants from independent latin-american countries.
But the Spanish are still Hispanic. All that is required for a 50's America to take aversion to him would be an accent.

So, if Castro still joins politics, but thanks to T.R., Cuban mainstream is pretty pro GOP - he becomes a member of the House in 1954, and enters the Senate in 1962.

If the rest of the world (with the exception of the no Cuban-missile crisis, obviously) goes much like OTL, the long serving GOP Senator from Cuba could then become Ronald Reagans VP - balancing the ticket - and would follow him in 1988 - serving two terms until 1996...

But that assumes that Cuba would not switch ideologies when the Republicans did. The Republicans started as a progressive faction, became conservative in 1912, became slightly conservative Social Liberals in the 50's-ish era, and became conservative again after that. So if the GOP can do things like lose the black vote and gain the Southern in that time, I believe that it would lose the vote of any Hispanic states at some point (probably with FDR, as was the reason the GOP lost the black vote if I'm not wrong), and hence lose a possible politician like Fidel. Or, he could have become a Nixon/Ford type Social Liberal Republican and the rest of the hispanic states likewise if they don't go Democrat. With that, I doubt he would be a supporter of the Reagan wing of the GOP.
 
But the Spanish are still Hispanic. All that is required for a 50's America to take aversion to him would be an accent.



But that assumes that Cuba would not switch ideologies when the Republicans did. The Republicans started as a progressive faction, became conservative in 1912, became slightly conservative Social Liberals in the 50's-ish era, and became conservative again after that. So if the GOP can do things like lose the black vote and gain the Southern in that time, I believe that it would lose the vote of any Hispanic states at some point (probably with FDR, as was the reason the GOP lost the black vote if I'm not wrong), and hence lose a possible politician like Fidel. Or, he could have become a Nixon/Ford type Social Liberal Republican and the rest of the hispanic states likewise if they don't go Democrat. With that, I doubt he would be a supporter of the Reagan wing of the GOP.
Unless of course for some reason (and perhaps a bit of irony) he becomes a staunch anti-communist.
 
But, of course, AH purist's would argue that Fidel Castro would never have been born, or at least not as the same person, because with Cuba a state of the Union for more than 18 years, many details in the personal lives of his parents would be different, and therefore, the chances that they still have the exact same kids, is approaching zero... (This is called the butterfly effect)

That's when the twitch effect comes in handy.
 
Taking into account the butterfly effect, having Fidel Castro as POTUS, or at the very least, Fidel Castro as we all know and love, would be almost impossible in a Cuban annexation scenario simply because the POD is over 2 decades prior to Castro's birth and directly affects his parents.

The only way I could see a man who is biologically identical to OTL's Fidel Castro becoming POTUS is if somehow prior to his birth (but after his conception) his mother immigrates to the US. Perhaps his father is killed in an accident or something...Anyways Castro is born in the US and becomes a US citizen and eventually chooses to pursue law and then politics before being brought onboard a Presidential ticket to "balance the ticket". Then either the POTUS dies and Castro is inaugurated or he runs and wins in his own right following 2 successfull terms.
 
Since the closest comparison to such a scenario is probably Puerto Rico, it's possible that Castro could wind up as the Governer of his "State," or a Senator.

Imagine a Senator Castro sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the Reagan era!
 
Perhaps, as a parallel to his OTL revolutionary tendencies, consider if the leadership of Cuba were to be corrupt. Either there's a political machine in control of the state, or the state is still dominated by the business and patrician classes, and the state is the poorest in the Union. He runs as an outsider challenging the system at the same time as the old guard begins to lose its grip on power, and wins.
 
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