From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1958 July
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 132
Image Count:
1
Description:
This print shows United States hostages held by Raúl Castro's forces in the liberated zone created by his recently opened Second Front "Frank País," preparing to be released. The hostages were taken as part of a defensive strategy developed in June 1958 when evidence emerged that the United States was continuing to ship military supplies (such as napalm) to Batista's air force through Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, despite the fact that the United States had declared an official embargo on further arms shipments in March of that year. In May, Batista's air force flew over one hundred flights that bombed and attacked the civilian population in the mountains that offered aid to the rebels. The four American men shown in frames 11-20 with their guerrilla captors were being interviewed by visiting foreign reporters. They worked for the nearby United States government-owned Nícaro Nickel Mining Company. See also Prints 1-6 and 8.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 14
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 210
Image Count:
1
Description:
Flown in from Oriente Province at the government's behest, family members of Jesús Sosa Blanco's victims are seen as they testify before the accused in public trial at Havana's national sports stadium on January 14, 1959. The stadium was selected as the location for the event because it had the greatest number of seats. Several of these witnesses are shown pointing to the men being held by guerrilla rebels and identifying them as their relatives' murderers. Frames 17-20 depict the entrance to the national sports arena as cars gather and people make their way inside. Frame 21 shows two women wearing black and holding a photograph and long newspaper article detailing the horrors of their relative's murder at the hands of Batista's police forces. The same women appear in images with much better lighting on Print 86, frames 17-20. See also Prints 69-75, 81-84, 86-91.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 14
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 211
Image Count:
2
Description:
Flown in from Oriente Province at the government's behest, family members of Jesús Sosa Blanco's victims are seen as they testify before the accused in public trial at Havana's national sports stadium on January 14, 1959. The stadium was selected as the location for the event because it had the greatest number of seats. Several of these witnesses are shown pointing to the men being held by guerrilla rebels and identifying them as their relatives' murderers. Frames 31-33 show a particularly elderly woman with head scarf as she testifies before microphones. See also Prints 69-75, 81-85, 87-91.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 14
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 212
Image Count:
1
Description:
Flown in from Oriente Province at the government's behest, family members of Jesús Sosa Blanco's victims are seen as they testify before the accused in public trial at Havana's national sports stadium on January 14, 1959. The stadium was selected as the location for the event because it had the greatest number of seats. Several of these witnesses are shown pointing to the men being held by guerrilla rebels and identifying them as their relatives' murderers. See also Prints 69-75, 81-86, 88-91.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 14
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 213
Image Count:
1
Description:
These images document the first internationally televised trial by revolutionary tribunal of Jesús Sosa Blanco, the captain of the military and intelligence force of the city of Holguín under Batista who had earned a grisly reputation for making civilians disappear and torturing prisoners. Top frames show a young man wearing a checkered shirt pointing as he testifies to the horrors committed by Jesús Sosa Blanco against a relative during the Batista years. The second row of images features two frames (9-10) in which the boy is being restrained from assaulting the defendant by several members of Castro's guerrillas. Frames 13-15 show a reporter talking to Fidel Castro's son, Fidelito, as he observes the public trials of batistianos. Frames 11-12 show Raúl Chibás with two unidentified guerrillas as they preside over the trial. The trial formed part of "Operation Truth" and took place at Havana's national sports stadium, selected because it had the greatest number of seats. See also Prints 69-75, 81-87, 89-91.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 14
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 214
Image Count:
1
Description:
These images document the first internationally televised trial by revolutionary tribunal of Jesús Sosa Blanco, the captain of the military and intelligence force of the city of Holguín under Batista, who had earned a grisly reputation for making civilians disappear and torturing prisoners. The trial formed part of "Operation Truth" and took place on January 14, 1959, at Havana's national sports stadium, selected because it had the greatest number of seats. In this print, a small child is seen testifying (frames 8-10, 13), as well as an elderly woman (frames 26-28). The mass number of press photographers is apparent in frames 14-25 and the defendant himself can be seen with hands cuffed, surrounded by armed rebel guards in frames 21-23. See also Prints 69-75, 81-88, 90-91.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1958 July
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 133
Image Count:
2
Description:
Images of the exterior and interior of a rebel safe house, probably in Raúl Castro's Second Front "Frank País," near Banes, Oriente. In frames 8-16, young girls and rebels are seen gathered around a table, apparently playing cards and drinking bottles of soda pop. St. George took these photographs while covering the capture and release of U.S. hostages by Raúl Castro's forces forLifemagazine. See also Prints 1-7.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January 1
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 134
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. Among the dignitaries who lent support on that day was the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Enrique Pérez Serante (frames 9-10). To the right of Fidel Castro in frames 33-36 (wearing glasses, bearded) is the longtime rebel underground leader for Manzanillo, Felipe Guerra Matos. See also Prints 20, 22, 31, 32, 39 and 41.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1958 July
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 2, folder 126-130
Image Count:
8
Description:
These prints document the arrival of large number of reporters (Prints 1-2) to the Second Front "Frank País," opened in the spring of 1958 by Raúl Castro and his large number of rebel troops in the area near Banes, Oriente, where the largest number of United States-owned properties were concentrated. The reporters were visiting on the occasion of the first direct negotiations between representatives of the United States government's consular office in Santiago de Cuba and members of the 26th of July Movement. Their meeting, as seen in Prints 3-5, was arranged in response to the seizure of forty-eight hostages, including twenty-eight marines, by Raúl Castro's forces in protest of the United States' continued supplying of Batista's air force with military weaponry, including napalm and other materials. Batista's pilots had flown over one hundred missions in the area, bombing exclusively civilian rather than guerrilla targets as part of a counterinsurgency campaign he called "Total War." Print no. 4 shows the reporters, including CBS newsman Robert Taber (frame 15, hatless man on the left), taking off from the United States naval base at Guantánamo and flying over the area. Print No. 5 shows Vilma Espín (frames 18-20) apparently showing off her shooting skills with an automatic weapon, as well as Raúl Castro (in cowboy hat) with reporters and U.S. consular agents (frames 4-12). See also Prints 6 and 7.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1959 January
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 3, folder 240-245
Image Count:
6
Description:
The former (now abandoned) estate of dictator Fulgencio Batista. In addition to the fabulous wealth and grandeur of the furnishings displayed in all the prints, Prints 115 and 116 are interesting for another reason: St. George visited the estate in the company of his wife (see Print 115) and his oldest son, who is seen laughing and standing in the niche created by the walls of a fireplace (see frames 20-24 of Print 116). St. George himself is visible in the great mirror hanging over the fireplace. Print 117 features exterior shots of the buildings and grounds (frames 2-16), as well as seating areas on the margins of a central table in frames 12, 29-31. Batista apparently lined a central patio of the house with marble busts of great historical liberators, seen in frame 8 of print 117 and frames 4-7 of Print 120. Print 118 shows the magnificence of Batista's wine cellar, as well as the magnitude of his wife's purse collection in frames 5-18. Frames 10-22 of Print 119 reveal the interior of Batista's personal office; on the wall behind the desk hangs a portrait of Batista himself as he appeared when he first ensured and then betrayed the 1933 Revolution against the first of Cuba's United States-supported dictators, Gerardo Machado. Print 120 also has a number of images of Batista's office (frames 23-25), as well as vistas of the marbled hallways and immaculate former bedchambers of the dictator. St. George provided the Cuban magazine Bohemia with many of these photographs for its early "Liberty Editions," published between mid-January and early February 1959.