University Daily Kansas
Page 5
Friday, Jan. 6, 1961
A heavily armed militiaman smiles at the camera as he stands before a new bloc of houses on one of the cooperatives that are springing up in Cuba. He smiles, but he stands ready to ward off the attack that he and many of his fellows believe may be launched against the new regime.
Castro's Cuba; The Pot Boils
Cuba. In the peaceful past, the name conjured up pictures of a carefree resort bathed in winter sunshine, where a tired tourist could find relaxation in any number of ways.
Today Cuba is a scare headline, a focus of tension in the Caribbean, a name on the lips of every American. Cuba is not just Cuba anymore; it is Castro's Cuba, a nation in ferment on every social, economic and political level.
It is a land of arresting contrasts. The band in the glittering Hotel Riviera plays almost till dawn for fun-loving patrons. In the shadows outside the hotel, guns stand silent and ready, waiting for an attack that may never come.
The Castro government almost daily scourges the United States for imperialism, for aggression, for colonialism, for any and all of the charges in the lexicon of international diplomacy. But the people of Cuba turn out in astonishing numbers to greet American visitors, with brass bands playing and a smile on every face
The landscape is dotted with architecturally exquisite lowrent housing for workers; but most rural workers still live in conditions beyond the pale of decency.
The people want peace and order now more than ever; and yet on the front of a bus one can see a crudely lettered sign: "Terrorists to the Wall."
Cuba boils with change. Until the caldron cools, few can know what truly lies within.
Text by Bill Blundell
Photos by Karl Sparber
of social barriers and the demand for social reform that is sweeping Cuba. More and more of these buildings are going up.
Supermodern apartments rise in East Havana. Built for the workers, who will occupy them at a nominal rental, they are testimony in brick and glass to the leveling
Poverty and disease still walk side by side with progress in Cuba. These campesinos (agricultural workers) are pictured in front of their thatch-roofed behio. These bohios have packed dirt floors. There is no plumbing, no running water. Under such conditions, parasitic diseases flourish.
(These photographs were taken during the Christmas holidays, just before the United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba.)
An American who fought with Castro in the Sierra Maestra, John Mitchell now serves the regime as the manager of a cooperative.