From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 80
Image Count:
1
Description:
Between El Corojo and Santiago, rebels move down to sea: a strategic breakthrough. Shown here are rebel activities in area under Cdte. Rene de los Santos' command: vehicle checks (frames 19-25); checkpoint has jeep, rear guards (frames 26-29); captured vehicles are repaired in Caballo Loco's service station. See also Prints 3 and 5.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 81
Image Count:
1
Description:
A key rebel rear-area command post: the Seccion del Café (note flag on frames 13-14) under Capt. Ernesto Alona Sabas (shown on phone in frame 12). This rebel department supervised coffee harvests as far as rebel authority reached and collected taxes: it was one of the guerrilla army's earliest systematic governmental functions. Other key personalities are Cdte. Luis "El Guajiro" Crespo (frames 5-6); the seldom-photographed Cdte. Calixto Garcia (frames 28-30): Cdte. Garcia is officer with sombrero and gunbelt standing to left of weapons carrier; and Capt. Waldo Gonzalez Roig (frame 16). Note officer on frame 18 (beret) is one of rebel army's three principal surgeons: unidentified here.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 82
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top three rows of frames show monitoring set at RR12 identified on Print 4. Lower four rows of frames record the passing of the secret "defection team" of Cdte. Raul Chibas and Jose Quevedo noted on Print 7. On frame 31 Cdte. Chibas is shown in center (sombrero, eyeglasses); on next two frames photographer is shown with rebel radio operator Maria-Luisa Sabas. On frame 22 rebel radio personnel and the Chibas Team are shown in joint group. Standing in left rear is Cdte. Chibas (glasses); before him are rebel radio operator Maria-Luisa Sabas and one of the early Castro movements' key woman figures, Melba Hernandez (Mme. Jesus Montane) wearing scarf over head. Kneeling on extreme right is photographer's travel aide, Lt. Hanibal Hidalgo. This sheet adjoins Prints 3 and 7.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 83
Image Count:
1
Description:
The principal figure is Cdte. Rene de los Santos, whose command post was above Santiago. Frames 31-33 show the roadblock of Cdte. de los Santos' post on one of the seaside back roads leading toward Siboney and Santiago. Frames 5-7 show a typical puesto guerrillero de sacamuelas, i.e. improvised rebel dental station manned by a lay "dentist." Dental therapy of the sacamuelas station was invariably limited to extraction. Children in additional frames are Cuban rural child types.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 84
Image Count:
1
Description:
Glimpses of two rebel command posts - small, temporary ones - on the approaches to La Plata, Fidel Castro's headquarters. Frames 4-12 show the station (and bomb shop) of Cdte. Luis "El Guajiro" Crespo at Naranjo. Cdte. Crespo is shown on frame 4 et seq. giving therapeutic massage to a small crippled child whom he had adopted as a mascot. Frames 11-12 show crew of Crespo's station: Crespo is sitting front center and next to him (right, beard) is El Gallego Maestro, as this truly masterful dinamitero was known. Frame 15-17: Capt. Mario Hidalgo, chief of the other small rebel post shown.here.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 85
Image Count:
1
Description:
This is the bomb shop at Cdte. Luis "El Guajiro" Crespo's station (shown on Print 14). Frames in bottom row show welder cutting up bomb shells to make casings for small rebel bombs. The bomb shells are, of course, the remnants of aerial bombs dropped on the rebels by the Batista Government's Air Force: for some reason - perhaps technical, perhaps negligence or sabotage, perhaps owing to the peculiar topography of the jungle - an extraordinary number of such bombs failed to explode on landing. Frames 21-30 show Crespo seated outside bomb shop (with his crippled ward) making rebel hand grenades from sheet iron and TNT obtained from government's dud bombs. These hand grenades - thousands were fabricated at the guerrillas' four main bomb shops during the civil war - had to be lit to be detonated: the granadero lit a cigar going into combat and touched the glowing end of it to the fuse of one of these handmade grenades whenever he wanted to toss one at the enemy. Frames 10-20 show Crespo and the master bomb maker El Gallego Maestro manufacturing bombs.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 86
Image Count:
1
Description:
Frames 11-33 show Cdte. Raul Chibas touring the perimeters of the rebel-controlled area in the Maffo-Matias-Bijagual-El Corojo-San Pablo de Yao area, looking for potential defectors from government forces. Frames 5-10 show the peloton of Capt. Henrique Boronat searching a suspicious house.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 88
Image Count:
1
Description:
A potpourri of scenes of "behind rebel lines" daily life in the Santiago-Bayam zone. Frames 4-6 show Lt. Vilo Acuha testing homemade rifle-grenade launcher. (Acuha, then a Dcte., died with Che Guevara in Bolivia.) Frames 14-22 show a typical behind-the lines elementary school run by guerrilla command. Rebels began rural "alfabetizacion" program during this period. Frames 27-32 show three captured Batista Army officers who had decided to join the rebels. Cdte. Jose Quevedo is center: Capt. (fnu) Duran is left. The numberless, lower right-hand corner frame shows Cdte. Humberto Sorí Marin, then Rebel Army Judge Advocate General, with Capt. Ernesto Aloma Sabas, chief of Seccion del Café (beard). See also Print 11.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
undated
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 89
Image Count:
1
Description:
Cdte. Juan Almeida Bosque, shown here in Frame 23 (Negro officer with beard and sombrero). In Frame 18, et seq. he is shown interrogating a very fat young woman (Frame 19) suspected of being a government informer. Frame 9: group of rebel radio and administrative staff including Melba Hernandez (extreme right, curlers, scarf), one of two women protagonists of Mocada attack on July 26, 1953.
