From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1959 April
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 46, folder 2
Image Count:
2
Description:
These photographs were taken during Fidel Castro’s two-week tour of the northeast United States on invitation of the National Press Club. One photograph shows him sitting in a New York City hotel surrounded by 5 women. The notation by St. George on the back reads: “This unusual photo shows Fidel Castro with five women who played a significant romantic role in his life. From left to right: Conchita Fernández (no hat) in whose house he lived and who was his lady friend in Habana while Castro was finishing law school and beginning his political career; Tete Casuso (bangs, off-the-shoulder dress) in whose house he lived in romantic union during his year of exile in Mexico City in 1956; Isabela Montero, a fashionable Havana divorcee who was frequently seen with Castro in 1960; Celia Sánchez, with whom he lived and who served as his principal courier during the two years of jungle guerrilla warfare (1957-1958); and Nora Serrano, a Havana journalist, who often stayed overnight with Castro in the Habana Hilton in 1961-62 (wide-brimmed white hat).” The photograph of Castro responding to reporters questions with his translator Tete Casuso at his side includes this caption: “Seated next to Castro (right) is Tete Casuso, who was his paramour and in whose house Castro lived during his year of exile in Mexico. After rebel victory in Habana, Mme. Casuso was rewarded with post of Castro’s personal Pressechef and she traveled everywhere with Fidel. But fierce jealousies and deadly intrigues among ladies of what Mme. Casuso used to call ‘Fidel’s harem’ – Celia Sanchez, Conchita Fernandez, other, younger women – drove Mme. Casuso into exile in the mid-Sixties. She now lives in France.” Additional photographs show Fidel after placing a floral wreath at the foot of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC; giving a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors at the Statler Hilton in New York with Tete Casuso gazing at Castro; making a televised appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on April 19, 1959, with the show’s moderator Ned Brooks and interpreter Anthony Hervas (an identical photograph is in Box 8, folder 7); and giving an interview to an unidentified reporter.
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.
