From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 1
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 147
Image Count:
1
Description:
Taken on January 1, 1959, and stamped January 7, 1959, on the reverse side, this print documents the first victory speech given by Fidel Castro upon the fall and flight from Cuba of the dictator Fulgencio Batista. Having taken the reins of power in the city of Santiago de Cuba earlier that day, Fidel declared Santiago the temporary capital of the country and spoke for over three hours, well past midnight, to a huge crowd gathered in the city's central plaza. These images were taken from inside the building whose balcony Fidel used as a podium for his speech. See also Prints 9, 20, 31, 32, 39 and 41.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 148
Image Count:
1
Description:
Images of the rebel takeover of an unidentified provincial city in Oriente and its surrounding military establishments, including the bombed-out shell of a rural guard post whose façade reads "Cuartel General Borrero. Esc[uadrón] 16 G[uardia] R[ural]" (frames 29-33). The second row of frames show townspeople gathered on the street "Luis Varona" in the central part of the city; political posters advertising the candidates for Fulgencio Batista's recent fraudulent electoral "show" are still visible on the walls of buildings in the background. These images were taken in the first days of January 1959 as St. George accompanied Fidel Castro's motorcade on its way to Havana.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 151
Image Count:
1
Description:
This print shows rebel officers and soldiers lounging in the driveway and conversing with foreign reporters outside the house where Fidel Castro is granting an interview to a Cuban television reporter on route to Havana in the first days after the fall of the Batista regime in January 1959. The location of the house is probably along the national highway in Camagüey. In Frames 10-19, Humberto Sorí Marín is second from the left in the group of rebels, most of whom probably belong to Fidel's personal bodyguard unit, or esolta. Frames 20-23 show an unidentified American man, possibly a reporter, speaking to the rebels and leaning against the back of the car Fidel used in the motorcade to Havana. The final two frames (24 and 25) appear to show Raúl Chibás (on the left, wearing glasses and full beard) sitting next to an unidentified member of Fidel Castro's escolta, later joined by an unidentified older man wearing two-tone leather shoes. See also Prints 24 and 25.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 152
Image Count:
1
Description:
This print shows members of Fidel's personal bodyguard unit guarding the gate of a house at which he is staying along the national highway of Camagüey as his motorcade made its way from Oriente to Havana in the first days of January 1959. Frames 18-36 show Fidel speaking to other rebels and reporters along the tarmac of the Ignacio Agramonte Airport in the city of Camagüey. Shown standing near Fidel to his immediate left in frames 20, 22 and 23 is Armando Hart, a member of the revolutionary underground, whose father, a judge, famously objected to the prosecution of rebels on constitutional grounds and was dismissed from the bench by the Cuban Supreme Court in the summer of 1958. Armando's brother, also an urban revolutionary activist, was killed by a bomb some weeks before this incident. Armando himself later became the first Minister of Education, a post he held until he was promoted to Minister of Culture in 1976. See also Print 38.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 153
Image Count:
1
Description:
Four frames of two rebels guarding the exterior of a private home, presumably where Fidel Castro was granting reporters an interview in the first days of January 1959. One of the rebels appears quite old, with graying hair and wrinkled skin, an unusual combination among the very young rebel forces. See also prints 24-27.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 154
Image Count:
1
Description:
Images of Fidel Castro's motorcade as it made its way along the national highway in the victorious march to Havana. These images were taken as Fidel stopped his car (shown in frames 20, 29-34) to greet a priest, a nun and an opulently dressed lay woman (shown in frames 35-36). These latter frames were famously reproduced in the first of the three million "liberty" editions of the Cuban magazine Bohemia, published over a three-week period beginning the second week of January 1959. See also Print 30.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 155
Image Count:
1
Description:
Images of Fidel Castro's motorcade as it made its way along the national highway in the victorious march to Havana. Here Fidel speaks to a well-dressed civilian couple while surrounded by rebel soldiers. Australian pines line both sides of the road in the background. See also Print 29.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 158
Image Count:
1
Description:
Scenes from the highly symbolic rebel takeover in January 1959 of the Cuartel Moncada, the military barracks in Santiago de Cuba which was the original target of the failed assault by Fidel Castro's "Movimiento Centenario" on July 26, 1953. The event itself and the resulting massacre of the Centenary forces by Batista's troops led to the remaining rebels' imprisonment and exile and was the foundation of the future guerrilla movement led by Fidel Castro known as the "26th of July." Frames 26-32 show a surprising degree of fraternization between rebel officers and surrendering members of Batista's military.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 159
Image Count:
1
Description:
A number of random images dating from the first days of January showing nocturnal scenes of townspeople and reporters gathered in an unidentified location, possibly a roadside watering hole where they are seen eating and talking. The top row (frames 36-37) shows a Batista-era police officer standing behind a desk while talking to a long-haired man sitting in front of him, probably a rebel soldier. It is likely that these images were taken along the route of Fidel Castro's triumphant motorcade as it made its way to Havana.