Che Guevara's Face: How a Cuban Photographer's Image Became a Cultural Icon
Central Bank appeared gazing out across the audience He was 31-year-old Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch de la Serna who had been among those who had rushed to La Coubre to help the victims I saw him step forward with this absolute look of steely defiance as Fidel spoke Korda said later It was only a brief moment that I had I managed to shoot two frames and then he was gone It was only a brief moment that I had I managed to shoot two frames and then he was gone There was good reason for Guevara to be on stage with Castro They had been through much together Earlier that day Korda had taken photos of both men leading a funeral procession for those killed in the harbor Guevara and Castro wore military clothing and heavy boots and they walked together with other government leaders heads held high and arms linked like brothers Behind them people with bowed heads walked behind black hearses rolling along a wide seaside boulevard normally busy with cars
Cuban leaders from left Fidel Castro President Osvaldo Dorticós Che Guevara Augusto Martínez Sánchez and Antonio Nuñez-Jiménez walk arm in arm at the head of the funeral procession for victims of the La Coubre explosion Nearly the same age Castro and Guevara shared a vision Together they had helped topple a government under which Cuba’s many poor people had not had any power For Castro the La Coubre tragedy was proof that the United States not only disapproved of his new government and its freedom to defend itself but was willing to attack his small island nation Florida’s coast was just 90 miles 145 kilometers from its shores He found no comfort in the fact that American officials had denied responsibility for the disaster It is clear today that the U S Central Intelligence Agency began a sabotage
campaign against Castro’s government in the early 1960s but no proof of U S involvement in the La Coubre explosion has surfaced The cause of the blast remains a mystery Castro’s two-hour speech lasted until dark Korda rushed to his studio to develop his film hoping to deliver photographs to nearby newspaper offices that night As the film was developed a bearded Castro appeared many times The French philosophers appeared Sartre watching through thick glasses and de Beauvoir in a white head scarf Guevara standing alone appeared in just two photos his jacket zipped high and a beret over his long hair Carlos Franqui Revolución’s editor chose Korda’s photographs of Castro and the French philosophers for the next day’s edition of the paper But Korda pinned a print of Guevara to his studio wall where it remained for years yellowing with age and tobacco smoke
Guevara second from left who was a physician rushed to the scene of the La Coubre disaster in Havana
