From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
Circa 1958
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 1
Image Count:
14
Description:
The images of guerrillas in Fidel Castro’s column are engaged in wartime activities and scenes of everyday life. The photographs show the preparation of hand-made bombs in a clandestine bomb shop run by a bearded veteran of the Spanish Civil War; guerrillas manning a look-out post from the mountains near El Cobre, Oriente while others are engaged in routine activities such as cleaning a rifle, repairing a uniform with a Singer sewing machine, relaxing with children in the guerrilla camp, enjoying a pig roast, and a man applying talcum powder to a young boy.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1960 January
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 46, folder 13
Image Count:
4
Description:
Dating from the early months of 1960, these photographs were taken when St. George accompanied Fidel Castro and Antonio Nuñez Jiménez, both directors of Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria (INRA), as they made an inspection tour of recently nationalized farms and plantations in the interior of the country. The images include a shot of several university-age students outfitted in militia uniforms as they await the arrival of a bus that will probably take them to a political education camp in the mountains. The students wear new boots and are carrying weapons as well as personal items, including multiple packs of cigarettes in the case of the boy and a fashionable fur hat in the case of one of the girls. Another image shows Fidel and his aide René Vallejo surrounded by peasants in a small town. Additional images show Fidel walking along a road at a state farm with others; Fidel addressing a group of peasants at the state farm’s social club for workers (volleyball net in foreground, Fidel’s head barely visible above the crowd); a young peasant with a rifle doing guard duty before the INRA Tienda del Pueblo; INRA officials in a corn field; Vallejo talking with officials at the foot of a ceiba tree; an unidentified construction site; peasants lounging on a tractor as the sun sets in the background; peasant driving an ox cart; Vallejo reviewing correspondence in a hotel room; and peasants on a cart in front of the Tienda del Pueblo.
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
Circa 1959-1960
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 43, folder 19
Image Count:
1
Description:
There is a close up image of Carlos Prío de Socarrás, former President of Cuba who was deposed by Batista’s March 1952 coup. Prío provided money for Fidel to mount his expedition to Cuba in 1956 from Mexico aboard the yacht Granma. Prío later returned twice in 1959 and 1960 to show his support for the regime. He later broke with the Revolution and died by suicide in Miami in 1973. A second picture depicts Carlos Franqui (with moustache), editor of Revolución, the organ of the 26th of July Movement as of January 1959 that later became the government’s official newspaper, with unknown man at his side. A third photograph depicts Vilma Espín as she is giving a speech at a conference in Mexico City. The photograph includes a caption by St. George on the verso: “STANDING APPLAUSE FROM ELITE LEADERS OF LATIN AMERICAN LEFT interrupts speech by Vilma Espín at Inter-American Anti-Imperialist Congress, a Communist-front rally she had helped organize in Mexico City. Standing at table, l—r, are Olga Poblete of Chile, Stalin-prize winner, author and top Chilean feminist leader; the Soviet Chief Delegate, Ambassador Vladimir M. Krimenko; Former President Lázaro Cárdenas of Mexico; General Felipe Yara, a famous revolutionary leader.”
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
Published / Created:
1959 March 6
Call Number:
MS 1912
Container / Volume:
Box 42, folder 11
Image Count:
5
Description:
Fidel Castro and U.S. Ambassador Philip W. Bonsal had their first face-to-face meeting on March 6, 1959, at Castro's villa in Cojímar. These photographs document that event. In one image an unidentified rebel officer is standing between Bonsal and Castro. Included are a number of pictures of Bonsal conversing with the Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations, Roberto Agramonte, possibly before Fidel arrived. There are photographs of others shown waiting and mingling in the same location.
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.
