There are a couple of pretty good photo essays on Cuba from Life magazine up:
Note from Che Guevara to President Kennedy after the prisoner negotiations: “Thanks for Playa Girón. Before the invasion, the revolution was weak. Now it’s stronger than ever.”
No air cover was provided.
Sounds familiar.
My, this IS incredible – thanks for the photos!! My Dad was a fisherman in Cojimar where I grew up; he had his little boat docked at La Terraza pier, behind the restaurant where Hemingway used to hang out. When we fled way back, we boarded Dad’s little boat right in that spot. I was a lil kid, but remember it all well. 19 hours @ sea till we arrived at a Key West marina in the wee hours. I never knew who Hemingway was till I came to the US; for some unknown reason, the people close to us in town never talked about him. Thanks for the post, it made my day….. that old fisherman looks like Dad.
http://www.life.com/image/ugc1008272/in-gallery/33122/unpublished-old-man-and-the-sea
That’s a ‘freakin (Blue) MARLIN!–NOT a SWORDFISH, for heaven’s sake!
in the novel, The Old Man’s fish was also a (Blue) MARLIN!–NOT a Swordfish!
par for the MSM.
Unreal
http://www.life.com/image/3397212/in-gallery/25102/bay-of-pigs-invasion-and-aftermath
At the time, every one of these men was convinced he was heading to the paredon–heaven knows the Castroites were murdering hundreds for crimes much smaller.
Yet, to a man, they refused to sign a the commies’ “confession.”
“We will die with Dignity!!!” Snapped commander Erneido Oliva at this very microphone.
History records few such examples of mass valor.
They were brave; they don’t make them like that much any more. Imagine! – dying for your convictions.
If I remember correctly, like 7-10 of the 2506 were sent to El Paredon … does anyone know what the “charges” were?
Also I believe there was a disagreement in the top leadership of whether to use El Paredon. I believe Che & Raul wanted to execute all 1,400 of them, however Fidel knew they could serve a better PR and economic purpose by “graciously” appearing to give clemency.
Great nostalgic photographs of Cojimar. It captures so sadly a long-gone time. I can almost smell the brine of the sea. Too bad that like so many other things, fishing in Cuba is now illegal. Can’t have the masses be independent of the government by gathering their own sustenance or selling the bounty of the sea you know!