From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 4, folder 370-376
Image Count:
8
Description:
These contact sheets document the trial by Revolutionary Tribunal in Cuba of two U.S. fighter pilots who had served in World War II and who organized a counterrevolutionary guerrilla force, apparently under the cover of the CIA, for the purpose of toppling the Castro-led government in September of 1959. The focus of their operations was Lajas, a small village in the municipality of Consolación del Sur near the mountain range known as la Cordillera de los Organos, province of Pinar del Río, in the fall of 1959. Prints 1 and 2 show the men in clear close-up. Frames 18-22 in the first row and all frames in the third, fourth and fifth rows of Print 1 depict Peter Lambton, standing to the left of his government-appointed lawyer and a member of the revolutionary militia who is apparently questioning him before a microphone in the presence of the tribunal (see Prints 2, 3, 4, 4a, 5, 6, 7). Frames in the second row (unnumbered except for no. 29) depict Austin Young. Austin Young was originally arrested and confined to La Cabaña fortress in Havana on March 27, 1959, for helping members of the Batista regime accused of war crimes, such as torture and corruption, escape to the United States rather than stand trial and face probable execution in Cuba. A short time later, Young was deported to the United States as an act of good will on the part of the Cuban government. Accompanied by Peter Lambton, Young later resurfaced under the false name of "Russell Gardner" on September 13, 1959, in Varadero, Cuba, where they entered the country for the purpose of recruiting and coordinating a guerrilla unit among former batistianos and peasants worried about the possibility of losing their land to a government they feared was Communist. Young, Lambton and a Cuban national named Pruna Bertot, who had also faced imprisonment in La Cabaña but escaped from prison seven days before the former's arrival in Cuba, comprised the leadership of the counterrevolutionary conspirators in Cuba. Pruna Bertot appears in Print 7, frames 27, 28, 29, to the left of Young, Lambton and an unidentified man wearing glasses with a slight moustache. Print 7 also shows a peasant rendering testimony before the tribunal, a black man wearing a long-sleeved shirt standing before a microphone; it is not clear whether he was a witness presenting evidence or one of the accused. The name of their organization was "The Cuban Democratic Legión." It counted on the support of such former Batista military officers in the region of Pinar del Río as Juan Cruz Padrón and his brothers. Local peasants in the region were responsible for reporting these subversive activities to regional authorities, who promptly arrested Young, Lambton and a total of eight guerrilla recruits. At the trial, Young and Lambton were found guilty of conspiring under the cover of the CIA to topple the Cuban revolutionary government and sentenced to thirty years in prison, although they were later released into United States custody following negotiations over the failed CIA-directed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Other Cuban conspirators received sentences of between 3 and 25 years.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 4, folder 391-394
Image Count:
4
Description:
Images of Fidel Castro's visit to a state-owned farming cooperative in the Sierra Maestra of Oriente province organized by INRA, the Instituto de Reforma Agraria. Founded in May of 1959, INRA confiscated lands belonging to former members of the dictator Fulgencio Batista's corrupt government or brutal intelligence forces through much of 1960. During this time, INRA came under Fidel Castro's leadership, the most powerful institution in the country, exercising greater authority than even the executive or the cabinet ministers. In Print 23, a "Tienda del Pueblo" is seen in the background. Tiendas del Pueblo were government-owned and subsidized dry goods stores that supplied peasants on cooperatives with cheap basic goods and foods; in many cases, they replaced company stores where peasants had previously redeemed coupons they received for their labor rather than cash and purchased goods from their employers at greatly inflated prices. Prints 23, 24, and 25 show Fidel Castro's party on their expedition as they relax in a tight group on the ground. Frames 7-11 of Print 22 show René Vallejo, director of Agrarian Reform for INRA in Oriente Province. Frames 13-15 of Print 25 and frames 33-36 of Print 23 show an unidentified former guerrilla veteran of Fidel Castro's column in the Sierra Maestra, whom St. George photographed repeatedly during the war, sitting to Fidel's left-hand side.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 October
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 4, folder 406-407
Image Count:
2
Description:
Images of Fidel Castro addressing a mass rally of Cubans whom he called out on October 26, 1959, to express support for his decision to arrest Commander Huber Matos for resigning his military post and to charge him with treason and attempting to conspire against the revolutionary government. Matos was later sentenced to twenty years in prison. The rally was also called in order to show popular support for the recommissioning of Revolutionary Tribunals to try internal enemies of Cuba for counterrevolution and to protest recent incursions into Cuban airspace by Florida-based planes that had been carrying out bombing, leafletting and other violent raids on Cuba in order to topple the government in those days. These images show the balcony of the Presidential Palace which served as a speakers' dais. See also Prints 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 46, 47, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 and 70.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 October
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 4, folder 412-413
Image Count:
2
Description:
Images of Fidel Castro addressing a mass rally of Cubans whom he called out on October 26, 1959, to express support for his decision to arrest Commander Huber Matos for resigning his military post and to charge him with treason and attempting to conspire against the revolutionary government. Matos was later sentenced to twenty years in prison. The rally was also called in order to show popular support for the recommissioning of Revolutionary Tribunals to try internal enemies of Cuba for counterrevolution and to protest recent incursions into Cuban airspace by Florida-based planes that had been carrying out bombing, leafletting and other violent raids on Cuba in order to topple the government in those days. All speakers addressed the crowd from the balcony of the Presidential Palace. Frames in the second row from the top of this print show Raúl Castro also addressing the crowds. See also Prints 35, 36, 37, 46, 47, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 and 70.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 October
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 4, folder 426-428
Image Count:
3
Description:
Images taken from the balcony of the Presidential Palace at a mass rally called by Fidel Castro on October 26, 1959, and organized by government-affiliated labor unions to express support for Fidel Castro's decision to arrest Commander Huber Matos for resigning his military post and to charge him with treason and attempting to conspire against the revolutionary government. Matos was later sentenced to twenty years in prison. The rally was also called in order to show popular support for the recommissioning of Revolutionary Tribunals to try internal enemies of Cuba for counterrevolution and to protest recent air raids by counterrevolutionary exile groups, largely comprised of batistianos, based in Florida. See also Prints 35, 36, 37, 38, 43, 44, 47, 46, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, and 70.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960 February
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 5, folder 543
Image Count:
1
Description:
Cuba's national symphony as they play in honor of the visit of Anastas Mikoyan. Bottom frames show Mikoyan and Vilma Espín during intermission. See also Prints 97 and 99.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960 February 5
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 6, folder 549
Image Count:
1
Description:
Televised press conference with Anastas Mikoyan and his Soviet translator, held the day before the announcement of a historic, new trade agreement between the Soviet Union and Cuba. See also Prints 29, 41, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 80, 83, 92, 93, 101 and 102.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960 February
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 6, folder 550-555
Image Count:
6
Description:
Fidel Castro's televised presentation on the merits of the new $100,000,000 trade deal signed with the Soviet Union earlier that week. Fidel is shown before the maps and charts that he brought along to illustrate the advantages the Soviets offered Cuba. The name of the television program was Ante la prensa. See also Prints 103, 104, 105.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1960 February
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 5, folder 453
Image Count:
1
Description:
Based on St. George's own submission notes enclosed in this file, these images show the Minoffs at the casino at the Hotel Caprí, entirely deserted of all tourists, which is located on the famous street called La Rampa that connects the central area surrounding the University of Havana to the Malecón, or sea wall. The only people sitting in the casino besides the Minoffs and the dealer are two off-duty showgirls from the nightclub at El Caprí and what he calls a "b-girl," or free-lance and high-class prostitute. Other images in the prints show a group of foreigners lounging alongside the pool at the Hotel Nacional. See also Prints 1, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 37, 41, 42 and 94.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 December
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 6, folder 556
Image Count:
1
Description:
René Vallejo, apparently providing an interview to Jay Mallin, a reporter accompanying St. George. Vallejo was the director of the Instituto for Agrarian Reform for the province of Oriente. Film submission sheet enclosed with the contact sheet states that Mallin used the interview in an article he dispatched to unidentified source and that Andrew St. George was working for Magnum Photos, Inc.
