“At 11pm. on December 31, 1958, I decided to fly to Cuba. At daybreak, I was sharing the streets of Havana with hundreds of delirious Cubans. Within four days, I had found Fidel, and by January 10 this project was completed” – Burt Glinn
CUBA. 1959. Times of euphoia as Fidel CASTRO and his army tries to drive through the city of Ciefuego, on their way to liberate Havana.
On New Year’s Eve 1958, young Magnum photographer Burt Glinn was celebrating at a black tie party in New York. All the talk that evening was of corrupt Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, rumoured to be ready to flee for his life from Havana and said to have already backed his army trucks up to the treasury.
Glinn borrowed $400 from Magnum president Cornell Capa, grabbed his camera gear, raced to La Guardia just in time to make the last flight to Miami. He arrived just after dawn in Havana, Batista had fled, Fidel was still hundreds of miles away, nobody knew where, Che Guevara was on his way to Havana and nobody seemed to be in charge. As Glinn said “you just can’t hail a taxi and ask the cabbie to take you to the revolution”.
CUBA. 1959. Fidel CASTRO and his rebel army stop along the roadside during their march to liberate Havana.
The photo was taken in January 1959 during the first days of the Cuban takeover by Fidel Castro and his army. Students around the University of Havana took up arms to root out former Cuban leader Batista’s sympathizers in hiding.
CUBA. Matanzas. 1959. Fidel Castro on his way toward Havana.
“We neither slept nor ate regularly nor bathed on the nine-day trip to Havana. But those were great days. I did learn then that a good cigar can be life sustaining. But I also remember the wild hopes and the ominous portents that filled those few brief days. I only wished in all these years since then that Fidel had done the Cuban people better and that we had been smarter.
“I think I would trade all of these, my favorite pictures, and all of the great cigars I have had from Cuba, if we could
do it all over again. Only better this time.”
CUBA. Santa Clara. 1959. CASTRO sympathizers form an adhoc militia and secure whatever buildings are available.
Young guerillero recently in hiding speaks to his first civilian lady, Havana, Cuba, January 1, 1959
Fidel Castro, with his fellow revolutionaries, entering Havana on January 8, 1959. They are surrounded by crowds of people after their overthrow of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship. –
Revolutionaries in a car. La Havana, Cuba, 1959
CUBA. La Havana. 1959. On new year’s days, CASTRO sympathizers form an adhoc militia and secure whatever buildings are available.
CUBA. La Havana. 1959. The American photographer Burt Glinn with Fidel CASTRO’s march partisans.
CUBA. La Havana. 1959.
All pictures: © Burt Glinn. Cuba 1959: Photographs by Burt Glinn is published by Reel Art Press.
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