From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957 September
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 13
Image Count:
1
Description:
Taken in September of 1957, these images document a strategy of guerrilla warfare on which the rebels had, until that point, not generally relied. According to St. George, the strategy was to interdict traffic and burn the sugarcane fields in the immediate proximity of the highway. These sugarcane fields were located near Bayamo and the vehicles seized temporarily by the rebels include a bus, a taxicab and a truck. On this occasion, as St. George writes, the rebels "rode around, in and on [the vehicles] in great high spirits. Note this was a full year before the interdiction of all highway traffic within rebel reach became a matter of policy for Fidel; in consequence, none of the vehicles or civilians shown here suffered from their encounter with the barbudos." See also Print 24.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957 May
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 2
Image Count:
1
Description:
Various images of the surviving group of 18 guerrillas under the command of Fidel Castro Ruz who had landed on the southern shore of Oriente province as part of an invading force of 82 men on December 2, 1956. Calling themselves the 26th of July Movement, these men made their way into the mountains where the photographer first met them in May or June of 1957. Frame 5 shows Efigenio Ameijeiras, later first Chief of the National Revolutionary Police after 1959, sitting in a metal helmet at the center of a group of guerrillas and peasant recruits from the area. Frame 6 shows Luis Crespo (smoking with a towel on his shoulders) and to his immediate left, Victor Boronat, whom St. George describes as a recent middle-class recruit from Manzanillo, and to Crespo's immediate right Manuel Fajardo. Other rebels in Frame 5 unidentified. Frame 3 is the rebel lieutenant known as "El Negro" Pérez. Frame 4 shows Raúl Castro with peasant family resident in the area occupied by the guerrillas. Frame 2, at the bottom, shows Fidel Castro delivering a speech and inviting peasants of the area who are gathered around him to take an oath of loyalty and collaboration with the rebel cause. To Fidel's back in the front row, from right to left area: Efigenio Ameijeiras (with metal helmet), Ciro Redondo (in hat), Juan Almeida Bosque (black man with no hat), Manuel Fajardo (in hat with up-turned visor), Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Julio Díaz (curly hair with no hat), a man identified only as "Ciao," Luis Crespo (with towel around shoulders), and Ciro Frías. According to St. George, this photograph was taken in a location described as "a day's march from El Hombrito" in the Sierra Maestra mountains. See also Print 10.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957 September
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 25
Image Count:
1
Description:
Several frames showing a group of guerrillas celebrating the seizure of jeep of the brand "Fargo" from a local farming enterprise. Nearby sits a bus, although it is not clear whether the rebels have also commandeered it. A large family of peasants stands in final frame of top row, flanked by two armed guerrillas. Bottom row of frames show rebels in look-out posts. See also Print 12.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957 May
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 3
Image Count:
1
Description:
Frames 1 and 2 show a group of riflemen drilling with their rifles near El Hombrito. The two men in the center of the front row are Lte. Juan Ermus (also shown with photographer in Frame 4) and Lte. "El Negro" Pérez, whom St. George describes as one of a number of rebel officer Crescencio Pérez's "many direct and lateral kinsmen who joined guerrilla force during this period and largely proved its sturdiest recruits." Note the use of 19th-century-style peasant "mambí" hats by the new rural recruits to the left of group of soldiers. Frame 3 shows one of these same peasant recruits gathering firewood. Frames 5 and 6 show Fidel Castro with two members of the urban underground organization of Oriente. The man wearing the black beret and taking notes is Marcelo Fernández and the other with his back to the camera is Victor Boronat. In the background, Celia Sánchez, the chief coordinator of the rebel underground for the city of Manzanillo, observes the scene. Frame 7 shows "El Negro" Pérez standing and lighting a cigarette or cigar with Celia Sánchez behind him on the ground and the same two men, Fernández and Boronat, in the foreground.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1958 April
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 50
Image Count:
1
Description:
Various scenes of off-duty rebel soldiers relaxing and sleeping in a base camp. Last rows of frames show various rebels sleeping in hammocks by day. Folder contains one complete and one partial contact sheet; also contains small file card that reads: St. George #30275. Cuba-Third Trip to Sierra - Apr. 1958. On reverse reads: FBI. "How Much does FBI know about ---? [illeg]", McCall's, May, 195?. K. Kolle [illeg]
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957 September
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 55
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top frames show Fidel Castro consulting with members of his forces and a team of three guerrillas talking as they apparently keep watch. The third row of frames shows a large peasant family of several generations in which two of the adult men, probably members of local underground rural network of supporters and saboteurs, point rifles while posing with their relatives. The fourth row of frames depicts a truck requisitioned by the guerrillas and a group of guerrillas marching across a riverbed. The fifth row of frames shows Fidel Castro and others consulting a peasant man mounted on a white horse (also pictured in frame 23A in fourth row) and peasants as they prepare to contribute their labor to the digging of a trench, among other tasks. The sixth and seventh rows of frames depict a large group of peasants digging alongside a gravel road with pick axes and other implements, apparently in order to lay a live wire for the timed detonation of explosives along the road (the wire is clearly visible in Frames 27 and 28). In these pictures, as well as the bottom-most row of frames, the guerrillas are seen standing guard nearby while the peasants do the work. See also Print 56.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1958 April
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 58
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top images show peasants and guerrillas gathered on the side of a peasant house; in the foreground of Frames 9-10 is an unidentified man, possibly a foreign journalist, wearing an elegant linen suit (with cigarette in fingers). Frames 17-19 show a guerrilla wearing a "mambí-style" hat, cleaning his rifle. Frames 21-27 depict an unidentified, overweight journalist, probably foreign, interviewing peasant recruits to the guerrilla cause. Frame 23 shows Manzanillo's chief courier, Felipe Guerra Matos, with a moustache and broken leg in cast. This picture and subsequent images were probably shot at a rebel field hospital. In frames 24-37, Haydee Santamaría and Celia Sánchez sit disposing of dirty, used cotton bandages by burning them. Folder contains two duplicate contact sheets; see also Prints 51, 53, 61 and 66.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1958 April
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 65
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top frames show guerrillas preparing to launch a mortar from a hillside. The second row depicts a black man and white woman in civilian clothes in the midst of a discussion, possibly related to the radio the man is carrying. Bottom frames show Fidel Castro, Celia Sánchez and other unidentified guerrillas addressing a group of peasants.