List of Famous people born in Holguín Province, Cuba
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.
Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician who is currently serving as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the one-party communist state, succeeding his brother, Fidel Castro, in April 2011.
Aroldis Chapman
Albertín Aroldis Chapman de la Cruz is a Cuban-American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs and in the Cuban National Series for Holguín. Chapman bats and throws left-handed, and is nicknamed the "Cuban Missile" or the "Cuban Flame Thrower". Chapman pitched for Holguín domestically and internationally for the Cuban national baseball team. He defected from Cuba in 2009 and signed a contract with the Reds in 2010. Chapman made his MLB debut that season. He won the MLB Delivery Man of the Month Award as the best relief pitcher for July 2012, and has been named to four straight National League All-Star teams from 2012 to 2015. The Reds traded Chapman to the Yankees after the 2015 season, and the Yankees traded Chapman to the Cubs during the 2016 season. With the Cubs, Chapman won Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. He signed with the Yankees after the 2016 season.
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution. Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of the Sergeants, which overthrew the provisional government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada. He then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel and effectively controlled the five-member "pentarchy" that functioned as the collective head of state. He maintained this control through a string of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was himself elected President of Cuba on a populist platform. He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and served until 1944. After finishing his term, Batista moved to Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup against President Carlos Prío Socarrás that pre-empted the election.
Juanita Castro
Juana de la Caridad "Juanita" Castro Ruz is a Cuban activist as well as the sister of Fidel and Raúl, both former Presidents of Cuba, and Ramón, key figure of the Cuban revolution. After collaborating with the Central Intelligence Agency in Cuba, she has lived in the United States since 1964.
Ramón Castro Ruz
Ramón Eusebio Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and activist. He was the eldest brother of Fidel and Raúl Castro and a key figure of the Cuban Revolution.
Arnaldo Ochoa
Arnaldo T. Ochoa Sánchez was a prominent Cuban general who was executed by the government of Fidel Castro after being found guilty of a variety of crimes including drug smuggling and treason. Allegations from a former Castro bodyguard claimed that Ochoa was executed, and Interior Minister Jose Abrantes sentenced to a 20-year prison term, to cover up high level Castro brothers involvement in the drug smuggling trade.
Angel Espinosa
Ángel Espinosa Capó was a Cuban amateur boxer who dominated the 1980s at junior middleweight and middleweight and captured the 1986 World Amateur Boxing Championships. He never won an Olympic medal due to Cuba's boycott of the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics A hard-hitting Cuban with a southpaw stance one of the most feared in his era was known to have about 300 amateur fights.
Reinaldo Arenas Fuentes
Reinaldo Arenas was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright known as an early sympathizer, and later critic of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, and a rebel of the Cuban government.
Rafael Díaz-Balart
Rafael Lincoln Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez was a Cuban politician. Díaz-Balart served as Majority Leader of the Cuban House of Representatives and Under-Secretary of Interior during the presidency of Fulgencio Batista.