From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1960 September
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 46, Box 3
Image Count:
7
Description:
These photographs document Fidel Castro and his delegation’s September 1960 visit to New York City to attend a meeting at the United Nations where Fidel gave his famous speech announcing the upcoming Literacy Campaign of 1961. The Cuban delegates ultimately stayed at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem after a dispute with a Manhattan hotel. One photograph shows African American supporters demonstrating in Harlem and fighting off police; hand-held signs read “US Jim Crows Fidel Just Like US Jim Crows Us Negroes!” and “Fidel is Welcome in Harlem Anytime!”. Additional images show the police escort standing before the entrance to the Hotel Theresa; Fidel and Juan Almeida enjoying a dinner with the hotel staff before a mob of reporters at the hotel; Almeida talking to two waitresses at a nearby coffee shop; Almeida and other Cuban delegates, including Antonio Nuñez Jiménez, standing at the counter of the same coffee shop, apparently listening to someone or watching a televised broadcast; crowds of supporters standing before the windows of the hotel; members of the delegation looking down at them; and of a demonstration against Castro where protesters stood behind a barricade holding a large poster image of image of Camilo Cienfuegos and signs comparing Fidel to Hitler. In the foreground, next to a shouting demonstrator wearing a hand-painted T-shirt reading ‘Cuba SI’ (in English, Cuba Yes) is Luis Conte Agüero. Conte Agüero had been Castro’s close friend and informal public relations manager during his imprisonment on the Isle of Pines under Batista from 1953 to 1955. Conte Agüero left Cuba in 1960; at the time, he was a journalist and television personality. An identical photograph is in Box 8, folder 7.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1957-1958
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 4
Image Count:
22
Description:
There are images of guerrillas from Raúl Castro’s column requisitioning vehicles and stopping cars on the highway for the payment of “tolls” in 1958. Also included are images of the temporary takeover of a small village called Matías by guerrillas under the command of blond officer Manuel Boronato. The guerrillas are shown at a small company store, enjoying (for the first time) a juke box, as well as local nighttime activities, such as a vigil held in honor of the Virgin of Charity, with peasants of the region. There is one print of a group of armed rebels listening to a woman playing the piano that was taken in the first week of January 1959 according to note on the back of the print. There is also one print of Batista’s helmeted forces appearing to attack a rebel hideout.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1958 October - December
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 3
Image Count:
9
Description:
These images document the rebel forces’ policy of taxing the owners of local coffee estates in Oriente on the production and processing of each 100-pound bag of coffee. In one photograph Manuel Boronato, a blonde rebel officer, is shown overseeing the drying of beans, while in another a black officer and a group of armed female guerrillas appear to be involved in the weighing and taxing of each bag. Also included are photographs of a field hospital for treating local peasants and wounded rebels as well as a school for peasant children in a zone liberated by the forces of Raúl Castro in the summer of 1958. Most images were taken between October and December 1958 on St. George’s last trip to Cuba before the triumph of the Revolution in January 1959.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1959 March 5
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 12
Image Count:
1
Description:
These photographs document U.S. Ambassador Philip W. Bonsal presenting his diplomatic credentials in a formal ceremony to Cuban President Manuel Urrutia and his revolutionary cabinet.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1959 May
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 19
Image Count:
8
Description:
These photographs focus on Ernest Hemingway with Fidel Castro at Hemingway’s May 1959 fishing tournament. The images include two shots of Mary and Ernest Hemingway in profile as they watch the boats returning with their catches. In one photograph, Castro is pictured holding all the top trophies for having caught the biggest fish. Similar and identical ones are also in Box 8, folder 22.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 17
Image Count:
1
Description:
This is a photograph of Col. Alberto Bayo, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War. The caption on the verso reads: “The man who initiated Che Guevara into guerrilla warfare, former Spanish (Loyalist) Colonel Alberto Bayo (beard, civilian clothes) is shown here in Havana. Bayo trained Che in Mexico in 1956, went to prison briefly for his pains, then became important figure in new Cuba.”
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1958
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 46, folder 1
Image Count:
4
Description:
The peasants represented in these photographs are engaged in everyday activities such as winnowing corn, standing in line at a local dry goods store, and horseback riding. These peasants probably lived near the 26th of July columns commanded by Fidel and Raúl Castro. One image shows a typical hamlet of peasant homes in the plains region of Oriente, probably near Raúl Castro’s column outside the highlands in a newly liberated zone when St. George visited his camp. Images date from Fall 1958.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 8
Image Count:
12
Description:
This folder includes images of “Operation Truth,” a campaign on the part of the revolutionary government to show American critics that the Cuban people supported the trial and execution of all intelligence and security forces of the Batista dictatorship that was responsible for committing atrocities against its opponents. A highlight of the campaign was the trial of Captain Jesús Sosa Blanco, commander of the military garrison in Holguín, Oriente Province, and one of the most despised batistiano officials on the island in Havana's National Stadium; the trial occurred on January 14, 1959, before 18,000 spectators and members of the international press corps. There are images in the folder showing a million-plus rally in support of revolutionary justice held before the Presidential Palace. There is a portrait of Elena Escardo, under arrest in Santiago de Cuba. The verso of this portrait describes her as a “Mexican actress, torrid romantic interest of Masferrer in the late Fifties; here shown under arrest in Santiago after Masferrer fled and Castro took over. She was shot as a suspected spy.” There is another photograph showing two rebels standing before a large mound of earth. The caption reads: “WIDE WORLD PHOTOS. MASS GRAVE OF EXECUTED. SANTIAGO, CUBA.... This mound of earth covers the mass grave of 71 Batista followers reported executed yesterday by Cuban rebels. Rebel officers say four of those executed were found guilty of crimes at a Sunday night military tribunal. Rebel Capt. Frank Fiorino, (left) an American from Norfolk, Va., is one of the two men standing by the grave. January 13, 1959.”
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1957 June and Nov, 1959
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 2
Image Count:
9
Description:
There are portraits of individual guerrillas including Fidel Castro, Felipe Guerra Matos (in 1957 and January 1959), as well as the later infamous Manuel Piñeiro, better known as Barba Roja. Piñeiro was chief of Cuba’s domestic intelligence service, commonly known as G2, during the 1960s and later a top official in the Sovietized Ministry of the Interior after 1968. There is a composite and retouched photograph with founders of the first 26th of July guerrilla column in the Sierra Maestra, probably from June 1957. Included in this photograph are an unknown rebel, Che Guevara (second from left), Universo Sanchez (third from left), Raul Castro (fourth from the left), followed by Fidel Castro (on Raul's left), Crescencio Perez, and Andrew St. George on the far right with his hand on his left hip. The third man on the right on his haunches is Juan Almeida Bosque. A cropped version of this photograph is in Box 8, folder 2. One picture shows Fidel with a young couple at his side and bearded guerrillas. The woman is wearing a fashionable scarf in her hair and full make-up while the man is relatively well-shaven. On the back of this image, St. George includes a caption that says “Pura Pradier, a young Habana musician and concert singer (center) was often seen with Castro after rebel victory. Here she is shown with him on mountain maneuvers.” There are individual images of Fidel and other unidentified guerrillas, including a young woman inspecting a hand gun and a black Cuban with glasses posing with a rifle.
