From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 11
Image Count:
1
Description:
Rebel recruitment meeting with local peasants also described in Print 1. Top frames are taken from the opposite vantage point as the bottom. Frame 4 shows peasants raising their hands in response to Fidel's request for volunteers willing to take the oath of loyalty to the cause. In Frame 3, standing next to Fidel Castro in the center are Luis Crespo (gesturing with his right hand) and Universo Sánchez; in the left foreground is Nano Díaz (with cigar in his mouth and cartridge belt across his chest). Frame 4 also shows in the left foreground from left to right, the young guerrilla known as "Pedrito," Efigenio Ameijeiras (in metal helmet), Luis Crespo (with hat and towel around his shoulders), and Raúl Castro (with sleeves folded up, wearing hat and no beard). Frames 5 and 6 are taken from the same vantage point as Print 1. Frame 5 shows two additional figures not included in Print 1: in far-right corner wearing a metal helmet is Efigenio Ameijeiras and next to him is Raúl Castro. See also Print 1.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 12
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top row of frames shows Fidel Castro's column on a break from marching and Fidel Castro, alongside Juan Almeida Bosque (looking down), as he greets two men: René Ramos Latour, known as "Daniel" and leader of the revolutionary underground in Santiago de Cuba (wearing hat and looking at piece of paper); and Humberto Sorí Marín (wearing sunglasses), the rebels' first Judge Advocate General and Minister of Agriculture. Latour was killed a year later in combat while Sorí Marín was eventually executed for counterrevolutionary activities against the leadership of Fidel Castro in Havana in 1961. The next frame in the same row shows Fidel Castro pointing at a young man with an inside-out cap on his head who is a captured government soldier. Behind him is a rebel recruit wearing a chauffeur's cap. The final frame in this row shows Fidel talking to two local peasants who happened upon the rebels' resting point, and shows Fidel unhitching his rucksack. Juan Almeida Bosque stands on Fidel's right. The second row of frames shows Fidel Castro talking to a peasant porter and then to another peasant serving as a local guide. Final frames in this row show Fidel with Celia Sánchez and Fidel talking with René Ramos Latour (hatless) and Juan Almeida Bosque, whose back is to the camera. The third row of frames shows Celia Sánchez bandaging Fidel Castro's finger, Fidel Castro pointing, a sleeping soldier and Luis Crespo serving as guard in an improvised look-out post. The fourth set of frames shows Crespo again, Fidel Castro aiming a rifle and rear guardsmen advancing cautiously along the footpath. The fifth row of frames features Guillermo García in the middle frame asleep on the ground with his helmet half-off, as well as a group of local male and female peasants making their way down the footpath. The sixth row of frames shows Fidel and unidentified rebels speaking to a peasant and Lt. Humberto Díaz Rodríguez, then serving as Fidel's personal aide and bodyguard, stopping a suspicious peasant whom Juan Almeida Bosque proceeds to frisk in the first image of frames in the seventh, succeeding row. Also in the seventh row of images is a frontal view of the suspicious peasant with Díaz Rodríguez as well as a questioning session led by Efigenio Ameijeiras as the chauffeur-capped recruit looks on. The final frame of this row shows Juan Almeida Bosque pointing a rifle. The eighth and last row of frames in this sheet shows two images of an unidentified guerrilla wearing a beret (whom St. George incorrectly identifies as Manuel Fajardo), a fifteen-year-old guerrilla named Joel Yglesias, and Julio Díaz. Fidel appears in the last frame (4) of the set. See also Print 23.
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
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 14
Image Count:
1
Description:
This sheet documents a principal rebel safe house in the city of Manzanillo that served as a key point in the supply and courier line for the rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains. The top row of frames show the bay of Manzanillo as well as the photographer shooting a picture of himself in the mirror as he waited to be picked up by the guerrillas chief courier. The second row of frames apparently shows this man to be Felipe Guerra Matos. The house and surrounding rice farm were owned by Ricardo Lorie, a wealthy landowner from Manzanillo, for whom Felipe Guerra Matos worked at the time. Also shown is the photographer in Frame 4 and Celia Sánchez. The remaining frames on the sheet show what St. George described as "the various 'reception committees' encountered by our rapidly marching group as it penetrated into the Sierra Maestra foothills. There is a group of rebel runners in peasant clothes, accompanied by a teniente [lieutenant]; three peasant boys who also served as lookouts and messengers; the first rebel perimeter patrol; the first rebel sentries among the rocks dominating the footpaths approaching guerrilla territory." See also Prints 14 and 38 (for duplicate of St. George photographing himself in mirror).
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 15
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top four rows of frames show a guerrilla patrol unit that includes four of the five "Pardo brothers" whom St. George characterizes as "celebrated guerrilla fighters of the Sierra, led here by Israel Pardo." Frame 25 of row five shows Raúl and Fidel Castro in cloud of cigar smoke; frame 26 shows Raúl Castro and Felipe Guerra Matos, the guerrillas' chief courier based in the Manzanillo area; frame 27 shows Felipe Guerra Matos, Raúl Castro and an unidentified peasant recruit; frame 28 shows the photographer taking nap on the ground and frame 29 shows Juan Almeida Bosque with Israel Pardo. Row 6 shows Juan Almeida Bosque with Israel Pardo and the photographer posing with the other members of the Pardo patrol. The final row of frames depicts another guerrilla patrol and duplicates the frame of a peasant hut being guarded by guerrillas that appears in row 1 of the same sheet. See also Print 13.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 16
Image Count:
2
Description:
Court-martial of several local peasants, accused of common crimes such as homicide, rape and robbery and in other cases, of being a double agent charged with treason against the Revolution by Fidel Castro and his fellow guerrillas. According to St. George, the trial lasted several days and involved the testimony of over 30 peasants. It took place in an area known as El Naranjo. In these images, Fidel is seen with the five-member revolutionary tribunal that he appointed and in which he occupies the central chair. Members of the tribunal are best identified in row two, frames 13, 14, and 15 (left to right): Humberto Sorí Marín (former president of the Inter-American Bar Association), Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos (front row); René Ramos Latour ("Daniel") and Celia Sánchez (second row). The accused appears with his back to the camera and his hands tied behind his back in the last frame of the second row and the first two frames of the third row. In the fourth row of frames, Raúl Castro is seen writing in his campaign diary as he sits perched in a tree overlooking the court-martial scene below. The seventh row of frames shows Universo Sánchez, now bearded, in the center of a group of rebels in a metal helmet; he is also seen sitting in the first row, first frame. See also Prints 18, 19, 23, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 37 and 41.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 18
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top-most set of two frames followed by five frames in another row depict Fidel Castro chatting with local peasants. Frame 21 shows Fidel Castro accompanied by Celia Sánchez and Camilo Cienfuegos in the foreground, in profile; Juan Almeida Bosque in the background, immediately behind Fidel. Frames 22 and 23 show Luis Crespo in hat with ear-flaps, smoking a cigarette. St. George identifies Lao Sardiñas in these images as well, although it is not clear whether he is the man in the metal helmet with his hand to his face or the bearded and hatted man wearing suspenders behind Fidel. Frame that is set apart shows two soldiers whom St. George identifies as "both Pardo brothers" holding fragments of a bomb dropped from a government plane. St. George adds that "Long talks with guajiros [local peasants], wherever they were encountered, were essential facet of Castro's strategy." See also Print 19.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 19
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top four rows of frames show Efigenio Ameijeiras in command of the "Pelotón de Retaguardia," or rearguard platoon commanded normally by Raúl Castro. According to St. George, it was "for specific tactical reasons, probably the single most important detached unit." All rebel soldiers who comprise the unit are unidentified. Fifth and sixth rows of frames show local peasants (esp. frames 28, 34, 35) who served as witnesses in the court-martial/trial of Carlos Ramírez, a man charged and convicted of rape, murder and robbery during St. George's stay with the rebels. In frames 29, 30, he is pictured to the left of the frame, next to another man whose hands are tied behind his back. In frame 31, Ramírez is seen by himself. Final row of frames shows Efigenio Ameijeiras (in metal helmet) with two members of the rear guard platoon on patrol. See also Prints 15, 19, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37 and 41.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 20
Image Count:
2
Description:
After holding a three-day court-martial, Fidel Castro's column of guerrillas prepares to carry out a series of executions of local peasants, some of whom are accused of common crimes like rape and murder, and others of whom are accused of treason against the Revolution; all those tried, according to St. George, were executed by firing squad during his stay. Top frames in the first row show Raúl Castro, chief coordinator according to St. George of the executions, apparently giving instructions to the men followed by two frames in which a Catholic priest St. George identified as "Father Yares" (possibly his nom de guerre) but whose real name was Padre Guillermo Sardiñas, an ordained Catholic priest, gives the prisoners last rites and Raúl Castro ties a blindfold around the second prisoner's eyes. The fourth image in the top row of frames shows the guerrillas observing the execution. One man, possibly Jorge Enrique Mendoza of Radio Rebelde, the guerrillas' clandestine radio station, can be seen to the left of the frame (with goatee), holding a camera in his hands. Camilo Cienfuegos stands to his left, on the other side of a tree trunk. The second row of frames shows a smiling Juan Almeida Bosque and several close-up shots of a rebel whom comrades nicknamed "Cantínflas" for his resemblance to the Mexican comedic film actor of the 1930s and 1940s. The third row of frames shows Padre Sardiñas with a third prisoner and then the prisoner immediately after his execution. The fourth row of frames shows Fidel Castro talking to the guerrillas, facing Raúl Castro. The fifth row of frames shows a duplicate of a photograph taken earlier in which two members of the Pardo gang exhibit the shell of a bomb dropped by government aircraft, also seen in Print 17. The bottom frames show the guerrillas following the execution of the man seen in row three of the frames on this sheet. See also Prints 15, 19, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37 and 41.
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
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 21
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top two rows of frames show a large group of unidentified guerrillas clapping and singing while two more guerrillas and an unidentified woman wearing civilian clothes and pants watch. The third row includes several images of a guerrilla drinking water from a common cup. Frames 16-18 show an unidentified guerrilla at his look-out post. Frames 19-21 depict the photographer, St. George. The last row shows unidentified guerrillas in frames 22 and 23 and then two close-up shots of a foreigner, possibly Robert Taber of CBS news, who coincided with St. George on one of his 1957 trips to the Sierra.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 22
Image Count:
1
Description:
Top row of frames document the skinning of an enormous majá, a native, non-poisonous snake of Cuba. The guerrilla standing on the ground, wearing fatigues and skinning the majá in the foreground as a crowd of guerrillas begins to gather, is Julio Díaz. The second row shows unidentified guerrillas at watch posts. The third through fifth rows of frames show Fidel Castro talking to local peasant scout (in white shirt) as Juan Almeida Bosque (far left) and other unidentified guerrillas look on. The third row also includes a profile shot of Fidel Castro looking out from the window of a peasant hut. Last row of frames shows unidentified guerrilla at look-out post, probably taken at sunset and two frames of Julio Díaz displaying the large majá before it was skinned to fellow soldiers.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 23
Image Count:
1
Description:
Various images of unidentified guerrillas at look-out posts, aiming their rifles. The third row of frames shows Felipe Guerra Matos sitting in a hammock and eating from a bowl inside a large open-walled hut. Successive frames in the same row show an unidentified guerrilla who appears to be peeling the skin from a small native snake with a knife in his right hand and a spoon in his left. Other frames show guerrillas guarding the campsite.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 24
Image Count:
1
Description:
Fidel Castro's guerrilla camp in the forests of the Sierra Maestra, near El Naranjo. Top frames show unidentified members of the civilian underground who have just arrived in the mountains. Third through sixth row of frames show unidentified man in a tattered light-colored shirt, possibly a worker captured for questioning from a nearby plantation or military outpost in conversation with Fidel Castro. Although his hands are behind his back in the final frames, they are not tied. Efigenio Ameijeiras (guerrilla in helmet) can be seen in final set of frames. See also Print 11.
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
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 27
Image Count:
1
Description:
In the first frame, Fidel Castro, Juan Almeida Bosque and other unidentified guerrillas stand over the burial sites of a recently deceased man. The placing of two pairs of men's shoes in the right-hand corner of disturbed earth would appear to show at least two graves, although only one lies within range of the camera's frame. The young guerrilla in the foreground appears distressed and Almeida Bosque and Castro's eyes follow him as he retreats from the graves. It is likely that these were the graves of the prisoners executed as a result of multiple courts-martial held in El Naranjo. The other two frames show Fidel Castro and Juan Almeida Bosque. See also Prints 15, 18, 19, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37 and 41.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 28
Image Count:
1
Description:
Various images of guerrillas. Top frame shows men in defensive positions followed by two more frames of Fidel and his men engaged in target practice. Bottom frames show a guerrilla on a requisitioned horse, carrying a message to the rebel unit and finally, a rebel posing with a telescopic rifle, possibly belonging to Fidel Castro since according to St. George, the column did not possess more than one such rifle at the time of his visit. See also Print 42; for the hand-over of the message to Fidel Castro, see Print 45.
From the Collection: Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Published / Created:
1957
Call Number:
MS 650
Container / Volume:
Box 1, folder 29
Image Count:
1
Description:
Two frames only. Left frame shows Efigenio Ameijeiras with unidentified guerrilla after frisking a suspicious local peasant (see Print 37), seen to the left, standing. In this frame, an unidentified guerrilla speaks to Ameijeiras while the latter takes notes in a small notebook. The next frame shows an unidentified guerrilla smoking and looking up. See also Print 37.
