The Miami New Times notes a special item in their “Night and Day” calendar of events this week that I thought id bring to everyone’s attention.
Iconic Imagery
Meet the man behind the dorm room poster
BY RAINA MCLEOD
We’ve all seen that photo of political, and now pop, icon Che Guevara — rockin’ that beret, hair blowing in the wind, eyes all steely and intense. But few know the man behind the camera, the man who told El Che: “One, two, three … say, ‘Socialist revolutionary!’” All right, Havana’s native son Alberto Diaz Korda might not have said those exact words, but he is the man behind the image. Because he was the personal photographer to Fidel Castro from 1959 to 1968, his lens was the official eye that captured the Cuban Revolution. Both politically unaffiliated and commercially successful, Korda has won praise for his portfolio that focused on society’s forgotten. He died in 2001, leaving behind an extensive body of work that revealed Cuba’s soul. This assortment of images, from political to fashionable, have been compiled into a graphic documentary named Kordavision. This visual jaunt through Korda’s 40-year career will be screening at the Frost Art Museum.
Yes, that’s right. FIU, the University that’s been primarily funded and run by Cuban-Americans, the one that sits prominently between SW 8th Street and Coral Way in Westchester, arguably the area with the densest Cuban exile population, the “research” university with a Cuban studies program, will be hosting an exhibit of the works of Alberto Korda, the staunch revolutionary photographer that is best known for his now heavily mass produced image of che guevara and his unending support for the castro dictatorship.
Because nothing is better for a community of people who exiled after having bore witness to atrocities committed in their home country by a group of murderous thugs, among them one ernesto “che” guevara, than to have the works of a man who idolized said murderous thugs on display for all to see and appreciate right in their own backyard.
So what if fidel castro and che guevara killed your father or uncle or brother of nephew. Who cares that these men tortured your family members and subjected them to unmentionable indignities. This is art! By a famous, world reknown artist!
I cant even begin to tell you how sick to my stomach this makes me.
Not just that FIU would be hosting such an event and portraying it as a seemingly innocent one, but that the University apparently is unfazed by the pain that such an event may cause to some in their community. Parhaps they meant to keep this a low key event for a select few, as it is not listed in the Frost Musuems event calendar.
I now truly regret ever having been a student at Florida International University.
I wonder how many photographs of firing squads will be shown at the Korda exhibit?
Maybe someone should mount an exhibit of those photographs across from where FIU is celebrating Korda’s hagiographic images of the Revolution.
These photographs are old, grainy and faded; we don’t know who took them, but they have something which Korda’s photographs do not — the truth.
Art without truth is propaganda.
So the PERSONAL photographer to Fidel Castro from 1959-1968, whose lens was the OFFICIAL eye that captured the Cuban revolution, was “politically unaffiliated.” I see. So anybody up to his neck in collaborating with a horrendous, totalitarian regime could also be “politically unaffiliated.” That’s an oxymoron, not to say BULLSHIT. Whom do these FIU people think they’re addressing, blithering idiots? Talk about insulting people’s intelligence. Truly contemptible.
First, they employ a Cuban spy, now this? I’m with you, Val – how disappointing that I worked there as I completed my Master’s degree in the late 90s. Tragic.
Korda was Castro’s Reni Riefenstahl.
Let’s see when FIU mounts an exhibit of the work of Hitler’s favorite photographer.
FIU is a den of communists – both in faculty and students. FIU is where creeps like Rick del laTorre and this chick Evelyn who wanted to bring performers from Cuba to play – FIU alums they were and they tried to steal the biscet site from me and tried to become my bosses. They where connected with that Free Cuba Foundation which I think is bogus too. All those characters have disappeared off the face of the earth – I think they where moles. I would stay clear of FIU.
Mandingo’s right. That’s why I dropped out and attended elsewhere in the 1980’s when I saw what they were about, long before the spy scandal and all that other mess. Didn’t know as much then as I do now, but even so, their colors shone in the light & they have never made an effort to conceal their delight for every leftist crap that comes in the disguise of educational progressivism.
Let’s see how has the nuts now to call them on it because the only reason these people get away with this sort of thing is that they never have to pay a capitalist price for it. Boycott it. Pull the plug on donations. Let’s do a Target number on this thing.
Maybe someone should mount an exhibit of those photographs across from where FIU is celebrating Korda’s hagiographic images of the Revolution.
That’s a great idea. Or even just portraits of Guevara’s victims. That could be tremendously effective.
Reminds me of the show, “The Producers” where they release “Springtime for Hitler” in a Jewish neighborhood..
Idiotas.
This is highly irresponsible of FIU.
While I don’t mind an exhibit of Korda’s work, purely from an artistic and historical perspective, I do (obviously) take offense at any political commentary or glorification of che, castro, etc. There is a more responsible way to present this, particularly in a way that is sensitive to the political and personal feelings of the majority of the student body and surrounding community.
Here’s the info from the newspaper. Even tough it says “Coral Gables, FL, it’s at the SW 8 ST campus. Call and tell them how you feel:
Frost Art Museum [Map]
FIU, University Park Campus
Coral Gables, FL 33199
305-348-2890
http://www.frostartmuseum.org
This who Alberto Diaz Korda is:
http://www.kordavision.com/gallery/005.html#
Not only is this a documentary of Korda’s work, but read this:
KordaVision offers a singular and exclusive moment in which director Sandoval reunites “El Comandante” with his old friends, Corrales, Liborio, Salas and Korda, the four major photographers who chronicled the Cuban revolution and Fidel’s travels to the United States and the Soviet Union. The powerful footage captures candid moments with Castro as they reminisce and as he impresses upon them and thanks them, for the importance of their photographic contributions to the identity of Cuba.
They are all going to reminisce with castro about their pictures!! WTF is this !!
Annie,
FIU did not employ only one Cuban spy, they had two on the payroll: Carlos Alvarez and his wife Elsa Prieto. These are self-confessed and convicted spies. This is the first time that Castro spies are uncovered at an American university. The university also is presided by a Cuban, Modesto “Mitch” Maidique.
So Korda supposedly left behind “an extensive body of work that revealed Cuba’s soul.” Give me a break. He willingly (and much to his material benefit, no doubt) served as a highly useful tool for the man who destroyed Cuba and did more harm to its people than anyone in history. I am sick of this self-serving bullshit, which I suppose is predictable coming from the Korda camp, but it is absolutely inexcusable coming from FIU.
Putting on this kind of show or event, which sounds clearly laudatory, is exactly the same as doing it for Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s propagandist (who also claimed, after the fact, that she was apolitical; she never admitted guilt). I seriously doubt this show or screening will be anything but a lovefest, as if Korda did nothing really wrong and is simply to be admired for his work. Talk about twisting reality.
FIU is also my Alma Mater. I still remember the times I had heated arguments with my professors due to “El Comediante en Jefe” and what they claimed was the “glorious Cuban revolution.”
I was told many a time that the children of Cuban-American parents should attend universities out of state in order to learn the TRUTH about Cuba because our PARENTS had BRAINWASHED us.