Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (1901-1973) was a Cuban political and military leader. Army general in the 1930s, "strong man" and elected president in the 1940s, and dictator in the 1950s, he dominated Cuban politics for more than 2 decades.

Fulgencio Batista was born in Banes, Oriente Province, on January 16, 1901, the son of a poor railroad laborer. After attending a Quaker missionary school, he worked in a variety of menial jobs. At age 20 he joined the Cuban army.

The military afforded Batista an opportunity for rapid upward mobility. Ambitious and energetic, he studied at night and graduated from the National School of Journalism. In 1928 he was advanced to sergeant and assigned as stenographer to Camp Columbia in Havana. At the time, Cuba was going through a period of considerable turmoil. The growing economic depression added to public misery, and the overthrow of Gerardo Machado's dictatorship in 1933 released a...