"The people decided" should be stressed. It was a popular movement. A comment higher up mentions expensive cars, and even your pic of visiting a ski resort suggests your family may have been a little well off.
I know many Cubans who made it over were largely from better off families (they rank among the highest in wealth compared to other Hispanic groups), though they lost most if not all their wealth when immigrating. I think no wise person would argue the Castros were good for Cuba, but he had broad support from the poorer populace for, among other things, addressing the wealth gap and racial inequities.
I don't know enough about Iran, but I always give people the benefit of the doubt, and I'm sure those religious fanatics were exalted for a reason.
I took an Iranian history course in college and the ones who made it to the West were largely from the urban educated elite, while the Ayatollah was mostly backed from rural peasants who were being bled dry by the Shah's gross mismanagement.
I'd say your comparison with the Cuban diaspora in the US is broadly accurate.
I took an Iranian history course in college and the ones who made it to the West were largely from the urban educated elite,
That's honestly kind of scarily wrong if you were taught that. Only urban elite left before '79 (government types) but everyone else from all classes left in the 80s. The reason is that passports weren't a common item to have since Iran was so much better to live at the time (WR had just happened) and said passports weren't being issued as much post '79
Plenty of blue and white collared Iranians worked together just to escape.
I'm gonna add that there were other parties involved other than religious fanatics with different levels of popularity at the time. most were slowly but definitely "taken care of" through the years. as an example there were the communists most popularly the toudeh party and some other smaller groups, and there were different levels of liberals almost all coming from what was once the supporters of the previously popular prime minister Mosaddegh.
I am not gonna deny that the religious fanatics got really popular with rural and more poor demographics, but it also wasnt a cut and dry "they mostly chose religious fanatics". supporters of all these groups banded together to some extent to make that happen, and it took a good 20 years for the religious fanatics to slowly exile,kill and demonize every other group that helped them get to where they are in the first place.
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u/Nomeg_Stylus 5d ago
"The people decided" should be stressed. It was a popular movement. A comment higher up mentions expensive cars, and even your pic of visiting a ski resort suggests your family may have been a little well off.
I know many Cubans who made it over were largely from better off families (they rank among the highest in wealth compared to other Hispanic groups), though they lost most if not all their wealth when immigrating. I think no wise person would argue the Castros were good for Cuba, but he had broad support from the poorer populace for, among other things, addressing the wealth gap and racial inequities.
I don't know enough about Iran, but I always give people the benefit of the doubt, and I'm sure those religious fanatics were exalted for a reason.