BackTHE UNITED STATES AND CUBA: 50 YEARS OF UNRESOLVED CONFLICT
January 15-February 15, 2009
Cuban Art Space / Center for Cuban Studies
  1. Constantino Arias, 1950s, University of Havana student demonstration
  2. Constantino Arias, 1950s, Hotel Nacional
  3. Osvaldo Salas, Fidel in Central Park, 1955. On a fundraising mission for the 26th of July Movement.
  4. Alberto Korda, “David and Goliath,” 1959. Fidel at the Lincoln Memorial.
  5. Life magazine cover, January 19, 1959
  6. Roberto Salas, Fidel waving from window of Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, 1959.
  7. Adrián Rumbaut, Untitled, 1995. Mixed media/canvas
  8. Ernesto Fernandez, January 1, 1959
  9. Lee Lockwood, January 1, 1959, release of political prisoners
  10. Collage of photographs of Fidel Castro in the United States. The center photo was taken before the Revolution when he was in the U.S. raising money for the 26th of July Movement. The other photos are from his April 1959 visit to New York and Texas.
  11. Osvaldo Salas, “Con Hemingway,” 1960.
  12. Liborio Noval, military parade,1960.
  13. Kdir (Kadir López), “Tome Coca Cola,” 2008.
  14. Deena Stryker, May Day, 1964, Plaza de la Revolucón, Havana.
  15. Raúl Corrales, women’s militia unit, 1960
  16. Lee Lockwood, “Revolución es sacrificio,” 1960. Voluntary teachers  from Minaas del Frio marching toward the 26 de Julio celebration in the Sierra Maestra.
  17. Raúl Corrales, “Caballería,” 1960. Take-over of the United Fruit Company lands.
  18. Roberto Salas, in front of the U.S. Embassy on the day the United States breaks relations with Cuba, January 3, 1961

    19. BAY OF PIGS (PLAYA GIRON) AND LITERACY CAMPAIGN, 1961

  19. Daily News, April 19, 1961
  20. Ernesto Fernandez, combatants during the Bay of Pigs invasion.
  21. Raúl Corrales, the sinking of the battleship Iowa during the Bay of Pigs invasion, 1961.
  22. Girón: First Great Defeat of Imperialism in America (Girón later became the name of the publication of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR)
  23. Silkscreen poster celebrating the victory of the Bay of Pigs, made in Santiago de Cuba under the direction of the Committee on Revolutionary Orientation (COR, which later became DOR, Departamento de Orientación, the propaganda arm of the Central Committee)
  24. Collage of New York Mirror, April 21, 1961, August 8, 1960, and the Herald Tribune, April 25, 1961.
  25. Ernesto Fernández, capture of Bay of Pigs invaders, 1961
  26. Silkscreen poster for the Literacy Campaign, celebrating the first National Congress on Literacy, August 30-September 2, 1961.
  27. Raúl Corrales, Fidel speaking at the corner of 23rd Street and 10th during the Bay of Pigs invasion. This was the first time that Fidel referred to the revolution as socialist when he said that “What the Yankis cannot stand is that we are building socialism under their very noses.”  April 15, 1961
  28. Literacy campaign workers gather with giant pencils in the Plaza de la Revolución at the end of their year of teaching illiterates, December 1961
  29. Life magazine, May 10, 1963 assessing the Bay of Pigs two years later
  30. “Como en Giron,” 1985 silkscreen poster from Santiago de Cuba, exhorting people to see production as a battle, the same as in Girón.

    31. THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS (THE OCTOBER CRISIS)

  31. Saturday Evening Post cover, December 8, 1962
  32. Mayito (Mario García Joya), Mobilization in Havana during the October crisis, tanks along the Malecón, close to the Hotel Riviera, October, 1962.
  33. Life magazine cover, November 2, 1962
  34. Daily News, October 26, 1962
  35. Raúl Corrales, People mobilizing during the October crisis, 1962
  36. Photograph of crowd taken during the speech given by Fidel Castro on February 4, 1962 that became known as the Second Declaration of Havana, calling for all Latin American peoples to rise up against U.S. imperialism. It was in direct response to Cuba’s expulsion from the O.A.S. at the insistence of the U.S. [also the LPs of Fidel Castro giving the speech, and the text of the speech]
  37. Osvaldo Salas, “Tres Hermanos,” 1963. Raúl Castro, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, at the Havana airport.
  38. Osvaldo Salas, Fidel speaking in Santiago de Cuba, 1964
  39. Luc Chessex, stadium with “Por la unión antiimperialista de América Latina,” a battle cry following the Second Declaration of Havana.

    40. SOLIDARITY WITH SOUTHEAST ASIA/ANGER AT U.S. INVOLVEMENT

  40. Alberto Blanco, Vietnam solidarity offset poster for OSPAAAL
  41. René Mederos, offset poster for OSPAAAL, 1971. Evil Nixon.
  42. Lázaro Abreu,”Nixon’s Peace,” OSPAAAL. Vietnam and Cambodia.
  43. Support for Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, OCLAE (Latin American Students Organization). Really evil Nixon.
  44. Anti-CIA poster, “Against Imperialist Penetration in Universities,” OCLAE.
  45. Photographs taken when imperialism and Nixon were burned in effigy.
  46. John Plank, “We Should Start Talking to Castro,” The New York Times magazine, March 20, 1969. Photos show huge solidarity posters against the war in Vietnam.

    47. CUBA’S SOLIDARITY WITH OTHER COUNTRIES, INCLUDING U.S. RADICALS, AN OFT-CITED REASON FOR UNWILLINGNESS TO LIFT THE EMBARGO OR OPEN DIPLOMATIC OR TRADE RELATIONS WITH CUBA 1960s

  47. Words of Che Guevara against the exploitation of human beings by capitalists.
  48. Alfredo Rostgaard, “Santo Domingo: 1965, OSPAAAL. In 1965 an invasion and subsequent occupation of the Dominican Republic by U.S. troops removed Francisco Caamaño, democratically elected after Trujillo’s overthrow. President Lyndon Johnson, preparing to unleash large scale war in Vietnam, said openly that the object of the invasion was to prevent a “second Cuba.” This was the true face of the “Alliance for Progress” agreed upon with the O.A.S. shortly before.
  49. Luis Martinez-Pedro, “Hasta la Victoria siempre,” Che in solidarity with Central and South America. This was part of a Che exhibit sponsored by Casa de las Americas, in which Cuba’s best graphic designers took part.
  50. Alfredo Rostgaard, The third anniversary of Tricontinental, 1969. OSPAAAL.
  51. “Apartheid,” World Day of Solidarity with the People of South Africa, 1967, OSPAAAL.

    52. 1970s and 1980s

  52. One of the many posters in solidarity with Chile, following the coup in Chile, generally considered to have been fomented by the CIA. “We are willing to give our own blood for the Chilean people,” 1973.
  53. Olivio Martinez, Day of World Solidarity with the struggle of the people of Angola, N.D.
  54. Alberto Blanco, Nicaragua has won and will win, 1983.
  55. World Youth Festival, 1977, held In Havana. “For Anti-imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship.”
  56. Ricardo Cordoba, World Conference of Solidarity with the Arab People, 1979.
  57. Rafael Enriquez, Puerto Rico Independence, OSPAAAL. The Puerto Rican independence movement has long been supported by Cuba, yet another point of contention between the U.S. and Cuba. The U.S. has made P.R. a completely dependent commonwealth, yet does not grant Puerto Ricans the right to vote in presidential elections.
  58. “We Demand Justice,” 2006, on the 30th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of a Cubana airliner over Barbados in October, 1976, killing all 73 persons aboard, including the entire Cuban fencing team. The terrorists are free and living in Miami. [also, a photograph taken by Sandra Levinson of the crowd at the Plaza de la Revolución for the official “duelo”]
  59. Photographs taken of protests at the Peruvian Embassy in April, 1980, which led to the Mariel boat lift, also shown, when tens of thousands of Cubans abandoned their country for the U.S.
  60. Rafael Enriquez, “El Salvador, the people live in every fighter,” OSPAAAL.
  61. Mario Ferrer, Demonstration protesting take-over of the Peruvian embassy by those who later left for the U.S. through the port of Mariel.
  62. Huge march in front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana over the Mariel boat lift in April-May 1980.
  63. Photos showing demonstrations in front of U.S. Interests Section over Mariel in 1980 and over the bombing of Panama in December, 1989.
  64. Rafael Enriquez, Grenada. In October, 1983, President Reagan launched Operation Urgent Fury and U.S. troops invaded Grenada to win their first conflict since before the Vietnam War. Thousands of troops, an invading fleet of 23 warships, and huge air support attacked the tiny island and justified the invasion with lies: that the Grenadians were building an airport for military purposes tied to Cuba, that 800 U.S. students were trapped on the island and had to be rescued, and that the Cubans were keeping huge caches of arms in Grenada. All false.
  65. Gianfranco Gorgoni, Plaza de la Revolución, one million people protesting the invasión of Grenada, 1983.
  66. Angela Davis in Havana being interviewed by journalist Marta Rojas, on the right. (Date might by 1969)
  67. Assata Shakur (Joanne Chessimard) in Cuba, collage of October 12, 1987 New York Times, Fall 1988 Covert Action Quarterly
  68. Alfredo Rostgaard, Angela Davis, for OSPAAAL
  69. Photographer unknown, street worker with portrait of Gorbachev for Soviet leader’s visit to Cuba in 1989.
  70. Collage of articles about Gorbachev’s visit: Newsweek, April 17, 1989; Guardian, April 19, 1989; Village Voice, May 1, 1990
  71. Poster of Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul, commemorating their meeting in Rome, November 16, 1996, with a quote from Fidel: “In this world hegemony, arrogance and egotism should cease.”
  72. Collage of articles about the Pope’s visit in January 1998. Cuba had hoped that the Pope’s visit would open the way to improved relations with the United States, especially because the U.S. press was in Havana in full force. However, the very day that the Pope arrived, the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke and all of the news anchors and leading journalists were called back to cover what was considered a far more important story.

    73. ELIAN GONZALEZ AFFAIR: THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF HOW THE POLITICAL BECOMES PERSONAL, OF HOW U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AFFECTS ONE CHILD

  73. “Free Elian” poster from a march in Havana, 1999-2000
  74. Albor Ruiz articles from Havana, “Havana Mothers March,” Daily News

    75. 74a.   T-shirt from mothers’ march, “We will save Elián.”

  75. Scrapbook about Elián, November 26, 1999-June 29, 2000.
  76. Life magazine cover of Fidel Castro, March 15,1963
  77. Lee Lockwood, women’s militia, early 1960s
  78. Victor Manuel Navaratte, World Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, OSPAAAL, using the famous “Uncle Sam Wants You” image
  79. Alberto Korda, contact sheet of Fidel playing chess: Fidel, an excellent chess player, has played chess, at least metaphorically, with ten presidents of the United States!
  80. Undated photograph of Fidel – we just liked it!
  81. Painter Raúl Martínez’s pop images became inextricably identified with the Cuban Revolution. An abstract painter before, and a member of “el grupo de los once,” painters who rebelled against the traditional Cuban painting, his painting changed radically after 1959 because, as he put it, “I want to be able to communicate with all the people, I want my work to be accessible to them.” Here he does both the front (Fidel) and back (José Marti) covers of the magazine Revolución y Cultura.
  82. Raúl Martínez, hand-painted photograph of a CDR bulletin board (Comité de Defensa de la Revolución). The CDRs are neighborhood committees formed in September 1961 following a series of acts of counterrevolutionary sabotage. Today their primary work is education.
  83. Osvaldo Salas, woman militia member at beginning of the 1960s.
  84. Lee Lockwood, July 26, 1964 in the Plaza de la Revolución, Havana.
  85. Photo album of Fidel Castro, 1935-1979, from the personal collection of journalist and author Marta Rojas in Havana.
  86. Photo album of undated photographs of Fidel Castro, also from Marta Rojas’ collection.
  87. Album covering the Bay of Pigs and the Missile Crisis.

[in addition, the exhibit includes a number of cartoons from U.S. and Cuban newspapers and magazines]