near a museum for modern art in Havana, there's a park display showing vehicles associated with the July 26 movement / revolution. there's like a little red and black painted armored vehicle that is the size of a riding mower, which has steel plating as an outer shell w/ little slats to fire out of, and a commercial delivery truck that is all shot up which i believe was used as troop transport.
but the centerpiece is the Granma (after which the official news paper of the Communist
Party of Cuba Central Committee is named), a cabin cruiser boat that was meant to accommodate 12 people. To see it and imagine more than 40 people is insane, let alone 80+.
if i recall che's memoirs correctly, he said something almost everybody had dysentery and was in poor health by the time they landed. and they were spotted by a plane belonging to the regime almost immediately, plus some informer turned on them and they lost some crucial weapons. the first week was an absolute shit show. also, che had asthma. if you haven't read his Reminiscences[/Episodes] of the Cuban Revolutionary War, it is wild. it's not really about politics, it's more of a log of engagements and events and not really something i would be into (not a big military history guy).
my takeaway is that Cuba under the animal and criminal Fulgencio Batista was deeply dysfunctional and everyone except a small rich minority hated it. on paper, Batista should have been able to smash the revolution. but the apparatus of state security was concentrated almost completely on suppressing revolution in the most populated cities and could not spare sending any leader with skills/brains into the mountains. instead suppression of the rural conflict was left up to the local hacienda style assholes and thugs who the local peasants hated more than they feared. the reprisals taken against these communities over the years may have been effective at maintaining the estate system, but the second someone felt there was an alternative, 99% of peasants/workers were either sympathetic, actively supporting, or joining. i think the rule was you could join formally if you brought your own weapon, which restricted the size of the revolutionary forces but led to them almost always having options for food, somewhere to send wounded troops, and guides etc.
near a museum for modern art in Havana, there's a park display showing vehicles associated with the July 26 movement / revolution. there's like a little red and black painted armored vehicle that is the size of a riding mower, which has steel plating as an outer shell w/ little slats to fire out of, and a commercial delivery truck that is all shot up which i believe was used as troop transport.
but the centerpiece is the Granma (after which the official news paper of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee is named), a cabin cruiser boat that was meant to accommodate 12 people. To see it and imagine more than 40 people is insane, let alone 80+.
if i recall che's memoirs correctly, he said something almost everybody had dysentery and was in poor health by the time they landed. and they were spotted by a plane belonging to the regime almost immediately, plus some informer turned on them and they lost some crucial weapons. the first week was an absolute shit show. also, che had asthma. if you haven't read his Reminiscences[/Episodes] of the Cuban Revolutionary War, it is wild. it's not really about politics, it's more of a log of engagements and events and not really something i would be into (not a big military history guy).
my takeaway is that Cuba under the animal and criminal Fulgencio Batista was deeply dysfunctional and everyone except a small rich minority hated it. on paper, Batista should have been able to smash the revolution. but the apparatus of state security was concentrated almost completely on suppressing revolution in the most populated cities and could not spare sending any leader with skills/brains into the mountains. instead suppression of the rural conflict was left up to the local hacienda style assholes and thugs who the local peasants hated more than they feared. the reprisals taken against these communities over the years may have been effective at maintaining the estate system, but the second someone felt there was an alternative, 99% of peasants/workers were either sympathetic, actively supporting, or joining. i think the rule was you could join formally if you brought your own weapon, which restricted the size of the revolutionary forces but led to them almost always having options for food, somewhere to send wounded troops, and guides etc.