From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 23-29
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 247-264
Image Count:
18
Description:
This collection of prints documents Fidel Castro's trip to Venezuela that began on January 23, 1959, with his arrival at Maiqueta airport in Caracas (see Book 3). Although revolutionary forces had just taken power in Cuba, Fidel Castro made his visit a priority and scheduled it to coincide with the first anniversary of the fall of Venezuela's ten-year dictatorship under General Marcos Pérez Jiménez on the 23 of January 1958 after a successful two-day general strike. One of the principal reasons for Castro's visit to Venezuela was to encourage support for multi-country cooperation in the organization, financing and training of invasion forces who could topple the remaining Caribbean dictatorships of Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti, the Somoza brothers in Nicaragua and Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic (where both Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and Pérez Jiménez of Venezuela had fled before seeking permanent exile in Franco's Spain). Such attempted invasions did take place over the next year and a half, although all of them failed. In this set of prints, Prints 1-7 show Fidel Castro giving formal speeches before a joint session of the Venezuelan Congress in the Chamber of Deputies (see especially Prints 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and holding public meetings with local officials at the Palacio de Miraflores (especially Prints 9, 10, 18). Frames 13 and 14 of Print 10 show Fidel Castro flanked by Colonel Pedro José Quevedo and Captain of the Venezuelan Navy Miguel Rodríguez on his left and Cuban Ambassador Pividal on his right. Print 15 depicts Fidel and Venezuelan hosts having dinner at a long banquet table in an unusually sparse room at an unidentified location: the room features walls made of wooden planks; against the wall behind the speakers' table hang both the Cuban and Venezuelan flags. In frames 17 and 22 of Print 15, Fidel Castro is seen in the middle of the table with Celia Sánchez to his left. The press is also a significant presence, crowding around the front of the table. Prints 16 and 17 show Fidel Castro holding a private, two-hour meeting with Venezuela's new President Romulo Betancourt, elected only a few months earlier in a race against the candidate who had headed the military opposition that toppled Pérez Jiménez, Wolfgang Larrazabal (see Contact Book III). The meeting with Betancourt took place in his personal residence, an estate known as Marítmar in Caracas, on Sunday, the last night of Castro's visit. In his accompanying notes for this Contact Book, St. George pays special attention to Fidel Castro's speech at the Aula Magna of the University of Caracas, a visit documented in Prints 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14. In this group, Print 13 shows administrators of the university presenting Castro certificate of "Honor al Mérito" (frames 13-18, 23-24) and guerrilla members of his entourage enjoying milk shakes at the university cafeteria as the uniformed cafeteria staff crowds around their table (frames 3-4). According to St. George's notes, Fidel opted to remove his military cap and wear a beret in deference to the university's recent victory in gaining guarantees of institutional and political autonomy from the Venezuelan state over the last year. The beret was, in fact, a gift from the Orfeón Universitario, a student singing group that hailed Castro's arrival. Present at Castro's talk was Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet. St. George also attests to the fact that Castro used the opportunity to announce his support for the training of a Dominican invasion force and introduced the Dominican-born captain of his rebel army, Enrique Jiménez, as its leader. Further images and direct citation of St. George's notes on this matter may be found in the description for Prints 34 and 37. See also Book 3, Prints 34 and 37.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 March 5
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 266-270
Image Count:
5
Description:
These prints document the arrival of the newly appointed United States Ambassador to Cuba, Philip W. Bonsal, at the Presidential Palace on March 5, 1959. Bonsal replaced Earl E.T. Smith whose close personal relationship and support for Fulgencio Batista throughout the dictatorship sullied his reputation among Cubans and made him the target of uniformly negative media attacks after the end of the Batista regime and the re-emergence of an uncensored free press in Cuba. After Smith resigned, Bonsal, who was fluent in Spanish, arrived in Havana on February 19, 1959, and presented his credentials to President Manuel Urrutia Lleó at the Presidential Palace on the occasion documented in this print (see especially 22-23). Frames 15-19 and 20-25 of Print 24 show Urrutia and Bonsal sitting and conversing together with Roberto Agramonte, a former professor of sociology at the University of Havana who had been the favored presidential candidate of the Orthodox Party in the 1952 election that ended with the staging of Batista's March 10th coup. Agramonte subsequently became Cuba's first Foreign Minister of the revolutionary government until he and several other ministers were removed from their positions by Prime Minister Fidel Castro on June 11, 1959, for unannounced reasons. The top row of frames in Print 24 shows Fidel Castro giving a press conference in an unidentified location with Teresa Casuso, his English-language translator and special assistant for public affairs for the first six months of the Revolution, at his side (see frame 4).
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 286-300
Image Count:
15
Description:
These prints relate to the trial by Revolutionary Tribunal of an unidentified U.S. citizen, possibly one of two CIA agents who regularly reported to Batista's intelligence network known as SIM [Servicio de Inteligencia Militar], under cover provided by the U.S. embassy. The accused is eventually deported to the United States rather than executed as were most Cubans tried for war crimes and atrocities by Revolutionary Tribunals in the early months of the Revolution. Despite rendering guilty verdicts, deportation remained the preferred option for revolutionary judges dealing with U.S. citizens accused of aiding in citizen surveillance, disappearances or other abuses on behalf of Batista rather than lengthy jail sentences or execution during this period. Prints 53 and 54 document the rendering of the verdict and the man's eventual release from La Cabaña fortress where the trial took place, his arrival at a hotel in Havana, and departure by what appears to be a private plane, apparently for the United States.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 7, folder 657
Image Count:
1
Description:
Images of the national congress of the Confederación de Trabajadores Cubanos [CTC], Cuba's largest labor union, held in November of 1959. Frames in the top four rows and bottom row of the sheet show Fidel Castro sitting at the front table on stage with Efigenio Ameijeiras to his right, Osmani Cienfuegos standing above Fidel and speaking in his ear, and David Salvador, Secretary General of the CTC until April of 1960 when his criticism of policies centralizing state control over unions led to his expulsion, initially on charges of corruption that later changed to accusations of counterrevolution. The man speaking before the microphone is an unidentified labor delegate. Frame 25 of the bottom row shows Violeta Casals, a famous radio-novela actress who lent her voice to the clandestine radio station known as Radio Rebelde during the war against Batista in the late 1950s. See also Contact Book 10.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 7, folder 664
Image Count:
1
Description:
Apparent arrival at the Havana airport of Fidel Castro, greeted by press agents (frame 8). Unidentified American man, possibly a U.S. official, wearing a business suit, appears in profile in Frame 9. Bottom images show tourists cavorting poolside at the Hotel Presidente in el Vedado, Havana. See also Prints 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960 May
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 7, folder 666
Image Count:
2
Description:
This folder encloses both a contact sheet and an empty envelope for holding negatives with a typed descriptive text. As confirmed by this text, images in the contact sheet show the aborted attempted landing of a U.S.-based Piper Apache aircraft, flown by Matthew Edward Duke, on a secret mission to Cuba in order to facilitate the escape of four former officials of the Batista regime who were probably facing trial and possible execution in Cuba for war crimes. According to St. George's notes typed on envelope enclosed, the crash took place on May 12, 1960.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960 May
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 7, folder 667
Image Count:
1
Description:
Frames 10-12 of the second row and images 3-9 of the fourth and fifth rows show an all-female militia called the Unidad Femenina Revolucionaria parading down San Rafael Boulevard in Centro Habana, towards Central Park where a number of citizens are gathered (Frame 12), probably for the commemoration of the anniversary of the death of José Martí on May 19, 1960. All other images show Fidel participating in Ernest Hemingway's famed May 1960 fishing tournament, staged in the Marina Barlovento, now known as the Marina Hemingway in Cuba. Frames 15-19, 20-24 show Fidel Castro on board the fishing vessel, Cristal, returning with his catch. Frames 30-34 show Fidel smiling as his fish are weighed. Later, Fidel would be proclaimed the winner of all the main fishing prizes and trophies given out by Hemingway. See also Prints 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 41, 63 and 64.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960 May
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 7, folder 671
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top frames show San Rafael Boulevard, in Centro Habana, parade route for Unidad Femenina Revolucionaria, all-female militia, and other pro-government groups. Parade seems to have culminated in Central Park, before the statue to José Martí, a traditional site for political protests and parades coinciding with national patriotic celebrations. This parade seems to have been in honor of either the birth of the Republic (Cuban Independence Day), May 20th, or more likely, the anniversary of the death of José Martí, May 19. See also Print 20.
