Book III Prints 92-114: Fidel Castro trip to Venezuela

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Manuscripts and Archives > Cuban revolution collection (MS 650) > Series I: Andrew St. George Photographs, Films, and Papers > Photographs > Contact Book III > Book III Prints 92-114: Fidel Castro trip to Venezuela


10018218

Description

Title
Book III Prints 92-114: Fidel Castro trip to Venezuela
Creator
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Contributor
From the Collection: St. George, Andrew, 1924-2001
From the Collection: Stone, David C.
Published / Created
1959 January 23-27
Description
Fidel Castro's trip to Venezuela. Castro had been invited by Rear-Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, former president of the governing junta that had taken power in 1958 after the overthrow of the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez. The Venezuelans wanted Fidel to visit their country on the first anniversary of that event, January 23, 1959. Castro complied, although in doing so he missed his brother Raúl Castro's long-anticipated wedding to fellow rebel Vilma Espín on January 26. Print 92, motorcade from airport to lunch meeting with Venezuelan officials in Caracas, January 23, 1959; photographs appear to be taken from inside Fidel's car. Prints 93, 96, 101, 108, lunch meeting of Fidel Castro with Venezuelan officials and Rear-Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, Caracas, January 23, 1959. Prints 94, 95, 102, 104, 106, Fidel meets with anti-Trujillista exiles from the Dominican Republic in Venezuela. Photographs clearly show the Dominican flag as well as Venezuelan flags (especially Prints 94, 95, 104). Print 102 shows Fidel leaving the lunch meeting and his motorcade driving to a meeting with Dominicans and being assailed by bystanders along the way. Print 104 shows a truck carrying Fidel arriving at a guarded facility (appears to be a privately owned plant of some kind because of signage that warns against entering the "empresa" grounds) for private talks with the Dominicans, passing through the gates and moving away from the crowds. Prints 97, 98, 103, 107, 110, 111, 113, 114 depict the massive crowds that greeted Fidel Castro from the moment he arrived at the Caracas airport through the course of his visit and speech in an open-air plaza (see especially Prints 113 and 114). In addition, Prints 99, 100 and 112 are significant for their depiction of the intimacy that Chief of the Cuban Air Force, Pedro Díaz Lanz, enjoyed at that time with Fidel Castro. Díaz Lanz was a pilot who became a revolutionary hero when he and Huber Matos brought badly needed weapons and supplies to the guerrillas in April 1958 with the help of the President of Costa Rica. In Print 99, Díaz Lanz and his wife prepare to accompany Fidel to Venezuela as fellow passengers on a commercial aircraft. Charged with nepotism and other corruption, Díaz Lanz deserted his post in early July 1959 and flew to Miami where he accused the revolutionary government of harboring Communists and claimed to have left for that reason alone. Díaz Lanz became a hero to the batistiano exiles who made much of his "defection," widely seen in Cuba as a betrayal. Print 105 shows St. George and other reporters covering Fidel's Venezuela trip.
Provenance
Purchased from Andrew St. George in 1969 and from David C. Stone in 1970. Gift of Adolfas Mekas, 2010. Transferred from the Latin American Collection Curator, 2016.
Extent of Digitization
This object has been partially digitized.
Language
Multiple languages

Item Location

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives
Call Number
MS 650
Search for Additional Digitized Material in This Collection
Container / Volume
Box 3, folder 217-239

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Access And Usage Rights

Access
Public
Rights
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Citation
Cuban Revolution Collection (MS 650). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

Identifiers

Orbis Record
614150
Object ID (OID)
10018218

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