On August 13, 1926, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born to an island held under the grip of a US-backed dictatory and impoverished after decades of colonialism and exploitation. By the end of his life, he had led a revolution to its triumph and helped establish Cuba as a beacon of sovereignty in the face of imperialism. One hundred years after Fidel’s birth, we commemorate his life, not just for the extraordinary person he was, but as a testament to the international movement he helped advance.

For a hundred years of life, a hundred posters, each an expression—of admiration, of revolutionary creativity, but also of a commitment to the example he led as a fighter in the struggle for the liberation of all working people. Fidel rejected attempts to memorialize himself as an individual, but the example of his life was impossible to ignore. He delivered the message of the oppressed to millions around the world, and so the world remembers him as a symbol of humanity’s true capacity to fight, win, and build socialism.

Featuring essays from Pulitzer Prize-winner Alice Walker, Cuban designer Pepe Mendendez, writer Abel Prieto, and Manolo De Los Santos, as well as poetry from Nancy Morejón, this book is a memory and a promise to the struggle for a better world.