School boys at the newly constructed school at the former Moncada military barracks in Oriente
Found In:
Manuscripts and Archives > Andrew St. George papers (MS 1912) > Series II: Photographs > Cuba > Cuban Revolution and aftermath > School boys at the newly constructed school at the former Moncada military barracks in Oriente
10020867
Description
- Title
- School boys at the newly constructed school at the former Moncada military barracks in Oriente
- Creator
- From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
- Published / Created
- 1960
- Description
- These images are of young school boys during morning assembly at the newly constructed school at the former Moncada military barracks in Oriente. It was at this barracks that Fidel’s ill-prepared armed force attacked on the 26th of July 1953, resulting in a massacre of most of its members. Fidel’s subsequent guerrilla movement took the 26th of July as its name in honor of the dead and wounded from that famous attack. Although Fidel claimed that he would convert military barracks into schools, that conversion ironically entailed the creation of highly militarized schools such as this one. These photographs show the boys carrying their metal trays for breakfast and assembling to march, military-style, into the dining area. At this time, many of these boys would likely have come from poor, marginal families near the Sierra Maestra. This explains their disheveled appearance and the fact that at least one of them (a black boy) is not wearing shoes. One photograph is captioned: “II. MILITARY FEVER GRIPS CUBA. Barracks-type drill discipline is applied to all but the youngest children in Castro’s Cuba. Here peasant boys recruited from the Sierra Maestra region are shown in front of a school center, partly completed (right) but largely still under construction (left and right rear.) This school center, a surprisingly large and modern construction project among the roadless Sierra Maestra foothills (the nearest settlement is tiny El Cerro, and the nearest town of any size, Manzanillo, is a hundred miles away) will eventually house 20,000 farm children. The boys shown here, part of the first contingent of 500 already living and studying at the school center, spend their day under supervision of Cuban rebel army drill instructors, and - under Communist Chinese pattern the Cuban Army appears to be imposing on rural education - only half their day is spent in school; half is spent in work out among the canebrakes.”
- Provenance
- Purchased from Jean Szentgyorgyi by the Latin American Curator, June 2009; transferred from the Latin American Curator to Manuscripts and Archives, 2012.
- Extent of Digitization
- This object has been partially digitized.
- Language
-
English
Item Location
- Repository
- Manuscripts and Archives
- Call Number
- MS 1912
- Search for Additional Digitized Material in This Collection
-
- Manuscripts and Archives
- Andrew St. George papers
- Series II: Photographs, 1949 - 1972
- Cuba
- Cuban Revolution and aftermath
- THIS ITEM School boys at the newly constructed school at the former Moncada military barracks in Oriente
- Container / Volume
- Box 46, folder 9
View item information in Archives at Yale
View full finding aid for Andrew St. George papers (MS 1912)
Access And Usage Rights
- Access
- Public
- Rights
- The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.
- Citation
- Andrew St. George Papers (MS 1912). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
Identifiers
- Orbis Record
- 9060277
- Object ID (OID)
- 10020867