From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 278
Image Count:
1
Description:
Images showing a group of four unidentified men, three standing on a staircase, one sitting on a bench below, as they converse in the interior courtyard of a motel. Frames 22-37 document the ascent of a group of five men, two wearing Cuban rebel army fatigues, up the stairs and into the first floor of the building. These photos may have formed a part of St. George's collection of images in this Contact Book documenting efforts at "exporting" revolutionary movements into similar Caribbean dictatorships during the early months of Castro's rule. See also Prints 29, 30, 31, 34, 35 and 37.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 279
Image Count:
1
Description:
This sheet features two sets of unrelated images. The top, second and bottom rows of frames show an office scene in which three men, one white, one darker-skinned and one black, all wearing business suits, complete and examine paperwork as a third man wearing a business suit (also black) stands with his back against the wall and two uniformed guards, each wearing different kinds of uniforms (one wearing a visible handgun), look on. A fourth by-stander in a light-colored jacket is visible in frame 45. The third row of images shows a blonde performer wearing an evening gown as she sings into a microphone at an outdoor club; a musician is shown sitting or standing next to her.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 280
Image Count:
1
Description:
Images of Fidel Castro's speech at the Aula Magna of the University of Caracas in Venezuela. According to St. George, a highpoint in Fidel Castro's speech was the condemnation of the decades-long dictatorship of the U.S.-trained and U.S.-supported Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, as well as the announcement of his support for the creation of an invasion force of Dominican exiles, to be led by Cuban volunteers and financed abroad. In his description for the print, St. George writes, "Three weeks after his triumph in Cuba, Castro visited Caracas, Venezuela, where he lit the fire under the first (and still his favorite) of the brewing revolutions: the planned guerrilla invasion against dictatorial Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo's Dominican Republic. On this strip is shown the historic moment as Castro launched the campaign: having inserted an unexpected and fiery outburst against Trujillo into an address in the Aula Magna of Caracas University, he ends it by picking of his own campaign hat (he has exchanged it for a beret while in the aula, in deference to college tradition) placing it on the lectern and tossing a five-bolivar note into it (Frames marked 1 and 2). He accepts the first contribution to his newly established fund for a Dominican guerrilla army from rear admiral Wolfgang Lazrrazabal, Venezuela's own (if beardless) military hero. (Frames marked 3 and 4). Then Castro triumphantly introduces his candidate for Commander-in-Chief of the Dominican rebel army, Enrique Jiménez. Frames 4 and 5, Jiménez to Castro's left. At this writing (early April 1959), Jiménez, now a Comandante, is running a top-security, barbed-wire training camp for future Dominican guerrilla warriors on the outskirts of Santa Clara, in central Las Villas province. Except for being Castro's handpicked choice, he's a relative newcomer to the Dominican exile command, where envious compatriots have dubbed him 'Fidel's Dominican Gauleiter.'" In this print, frames that St. George designates as having "marked" show his own handwritten enumeration over the image in colored wax pencil. See also Prints 1-18, 37, and Contact Book III.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 281
Image Count:
1
Description:
Images of a private meeting between two men, one of whom is apparently Colonel Hubert F. Julian, a U.S. registered arms dealer also known as "The Black Eagle." St. George reported that Julian was in Havana to broker arms deals as part of Fidel Castro's larger plan to train and finance invasion forces meant to topple the neighboring dictatorships of the Caribbean. See also Prints 29, 30, 31, 32, 35 and 37.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 282
Image Count:
1
Description:
Taken in the first days after the fall of Batista and the assumption of power by revolutionary forces, these images appear to show the peaceful transfer of power of a major military base, probably Camp Columbia, to revolutionary forces headed by Camilo Cienfuegos, especially in frames 6-17 in third and fourth rows from the top. In the second row of frames, members of the rebel army advance forward on the left side of the frame while soldiers from Batista's surrendering army stand at attention to the right. Camilo Cienfuegos is seen at the center of frames 12-14 in the third row and arriving by the plane Sierra Maestra in frames 3-5 in the top row.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 283
Image Count:
1
Description:
According to St. George's description notes on this sheet, the top and bottom frames depict a group of guerrillas trained and financed by Fidel Castro, with Ernest "Che" Guevara overseeing operations. The guerrillas' purpose was eventually to topple the remaining dictatorships in the circum-Caribbean area, including the Somozas in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Regarding frames 8-10 and 3-7, St. George writes: "Invasion group made up of Caribbean refugees and Cubans being trained in secret camp near Havana. Some of these men were part of the recent invasion of Panama [which occurred while Fidel Castro was visiting the United States in April of 1959; Fidel later denied responsibility]. Others participated in the abortive Nicaraguan invasion [of May 1959]. They are being trained by a Cuban Army Sergeant (front row middle in uniform)." Further documentation of the abortive revolutionary effort in late May 1959 in Nicaragua can be found in Contact Book X, Prints 1-29. All other frames in this print (19-30) depict a conversation between Louis Dejoie, a former Haitian senator (see most clearly on the far-right of frame 22, wearing a bowtie), talking to Jerry Hannifin, a Time-Life correspondent for Latin America. According to St. George, Dejoie was in Havana for secret meetings with Ernesto "Che" Guevara who ran operations for a covert guerrilla financing and training base out of a heavily guarded beach villa in Tarará, about 20 miles outside of Havana along the Vía Blanca. There, Guevara worked with a small team of six staff officers. "No signs or directories indicate this address and the phone switchboard number is not listed anywhere but day and night exiled politicians, soldiers of fortune, U.S ex-paratroopers looking for a war, officers on the run from former dictator bosses, inventors with new demolition gadgets, come and go here from Nicaragua, Haiti, Costa Rica, Santo Domingo, Mexico and often from such neighboring states as Florida and Texas. Castro calls Guevara his 'military coordinator'-Guevara says, 'I'm the man in charge of impossible projects.'" See also Prints 29, 30, 31, 32, 34 and 35.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 284
Image Count:
1
Description:
Taken in the first days of January 1959 after the fall of Batista and the triumph of revolutionary forces, these images document the reunion of Raúl Castro and his fiancée and underground revolutionary coordinator for the province of Oriente, Vilma Espín, at an airport in an unidentified city, probably the former air force base of Camp Columbia in Havana. Prints 9-12 show Vilma in the company of an unidentified older woman who embraces Raúl upon seeing him in Print 7. Print 39 shows an earlier phase in this event, when Raúl first descends the ladder from the military aircraft on which he has arrived, together with other rebels. See also Print 39.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 285
Image Count:
1
Description:
Taken in the first days of January 1959 after the fall of Batista and the triumph of revolutionary forces, these images document the reunion of Raúl Castro and his fiancée and underground revolutionary coordinator for the province of Oriente, Vilma Espín, at an airport in an unidentified city, probably the former air force base of Camp Columbia in Havana. Continued in Print 38, this print documents Raúl's first descent from the ladder of the military aircraft on which he arrived from the second front of fighting in Santa Clara province, together with other rebels.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 April
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 301
Image Count:
1
Description:
This print shows Fidel Castro making a visit to the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (see especially frames 23-25) and browsing at the items on display in the adjacent gift shop. Fidel Castro made the trip, together with a large entourage of well over a hundred people, on April 14, 1959, in response to the invitation of Jules Dubois, editor of the Chicago Tribune and then president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Fidel remained in the United States for more than two weeks, eventually touring cities on the eastern seaboard such as Boston, Princeton, New Jersey and New York City. For other images of Fidel Castro's trip to Washington and New York, see Prints 56-78 and Contact Book V; for other images of his visit to the Lincoln Memorial, see Prints 57, 58 and 68.
