The Cuban Revolution: Years of Promise

by Teo A. Babun Jr., Victor Andres Triay

With vivid, unfiltered, photographs, an insider tells the story of the Cuban Revolution as it unfolds. Teofilo Babún Sr., a wealthy Santiago de Cuba businessman and logging camp owner, sensed that the small skirmish near his sawmill involving a ragtag band of guerrillas and the Cuban military was the beginning of something historic. Babún befriended Fidel Castro, the leader of the rebels, and negotiated access for his company photographer to Castro’s inner circle. Years later Babun’s son, Teofilo Jr., would come across these photos among his father’s belongings, and he now makes them available in this eyewitness account of the Cuban Revolution. The photographs of José “Chilin” Trutie capture everything—the Revolution’s soldiers and firing squads, President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 address in Miami to Cuban exiles, and Brigade 2506, the liberation army that sought to overthrow Castro. These images, most of them never before seen, vividly document the inner life of a revolution with candid images of rebels dining together, jeeps moving through rustic, muddy camps, and Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara walking side by side in a reflective moment. Trutie and his camera also catch the tragic side of revolutionary activity—burning sugar mills, jungle hospitals, and corpses with pockets turned inside-out, lying in open graves. These raw photos, combined with the narrative text of Teo A. Babún Jr. and Cuban-American historian Victor Triay, offer a one-of-a-kind perspective on the complex story of the Cuban Revolution. 

128 pages, Hardcover

First published November 29, 2005

Reviews

[Jose · Rating 1 out of 5]

The reason I give The book The Cuban Revolution:Years of Promise,By Teo A.Babun(Teofilo Jr.Antillean Shipping,Antillean Marine)and Victor Andres Triay(I Love his books,and The Bay Of Pigs/2506 Book is a must.)Is the introduction of the book states that "Cubans were tired of The Gangsterism of the past Decade"in part,which Is inaccurate,The political Gangsterism as later ascribed to Fidel in the book is where the true Political gangsterism comes from.Sure the 1940 Cuban Constitution is given credit,but the fact that Eduardo Chibas was somehow a reformer(He was a rabblerouser and delusional,shot himself on air on the radio live because he failed to produce evidence on a Autentico Politican.)and The Orthodoxo Party as Reformers(Fidel's party,and infiltrated by The Communists,where as the Autenticos kicked out Communist Elements and Cleaned up the CTC of it's influence,Prio and Grau are not mentioned,was corruption a problem?As it was and still is In Chicago and Most of the World,The Gangsterism was mainly out of the University and Los Tigres de Masferrer.Under Prio Cuba had Democratic Freedom as well the Central Bank,a Improving Economy,Good Relationships with Labor unions and on and on.So my problem it is not right For the author who compiled the book from Teo Sr. cozy connection with The so-called rebels to leave out these facts.(Read Professor Charles Ameringer's Autentico:The Cuban Democratic Years as well as 3 Days in March By Chao.)The Photography is excellent but it is sad knowing what happen in hindsight and the many betrayals,Huber Matos was and is a person guilty from what I hear of a lot of atrocities,Batista was bad but Compared to Fidel as Cubans say he's a baby.The Subtitle "Years Of Promise" makes me cringe and the Notion that Fidel's coup was a result of Batista is speculation,Fidel would have done a Coup whether or not Batista had done what he did. And I am Anti-Batista as well as AntiCastro.Nonetheless as a photographic history lesson of how a Nation was duped and even Businessmen such as Babun and Bacardi and many others who were the supporters of the so-called revolution.

[Jaime · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very partial anti-Castro and anti-communist account of the first years of the Cuban revolution that covers from around 1952 to 1962. However, it provides a relevant narrative of a particular social memory as well as great pictures of those years.

The project started with Teo Babún finding old photographs of the revolutionary "years of promise" and organizing a historical narrative around them. The pictures were part of Tofi Babún's personal archive. He was a Cuban industrial from Santiago de Cuba who helped the 26 de Julio movement since 1957, smuggling the equipment with which Radio Rebelde would start its emissions from Sierra Maestra. After the Revolution's success and disillusioned with the communist direction that Castro's regime had taken, Babún left to Miami with his family. In 1961, one of his sons would be part of the Cuban brigade that invaded the Bay of Pigs.

As a historical document, the book is not just very biased but it also passes as certain many assertions that are disputable if not rumors. This makes it hard to take seriously other claims that are, in fact, verifiable. However, it provides a particular memory: that from middle-class urban Cuban early supporters of the revolution who became disillusioned with it after its victory because they felt betrayed by Castro's embracement of communism and anti-democratic practices. Although the book does not theorize about what a Revolutionary Anti-Communist Democratic Cuba could have looked like in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the narrative of the disenchantment helps to understand the political directions that the Miami based Cubans took since the 1960s.

Finally, pictures are a central component of the book and its narrative. As part of a private collection, they are not spectacular but familiar, although many important actors of the revolutionary years are depicted. Along with politicians, rebels, supporters, and just inhabitants of Cuba (and then Miami), there are a large number of corpses depicted, almost always individually and from a close and disturbing perspective.