Revolutionary Consolidation and the Emergence of the BFS

Abstract

A man with a necklace of bullets and a farmer’s hat tilted on the back of his head stands with his legs apart gazing at the rifl e he holds as a banner pole for a Cuban fl ag. Whoever holds the other end has been cut out of the photo. Another Cuban flag is propped up behind fi ve men with creased uniforms and moustaches, squashed onto a sofa between two majestic lampshades. Next to them a soldier slumps over a hotel chair under a military cap and sunglasses. The two Cuban flags seem to demark the stage for a theatre performance by a rabble of young men, their faces vibrant with smiles or anxiety, their rifl es fl ung about them like extra limbs. But this is no theatre. This is the Rebel Army planting itself over the shiny chessboard tiles of the luxurious Havana Hilton hotel in the fi rst days of 1959.