“Holds many surprises for the reader who has seen the Cuban reality . . . only through the distorting prism of propaganda.
”
—
The New York Times Book Review,
1967
On
December 31, 1958
, Lee Lockwood, then a young photojournalist, went to Cuba to cover what looked to be the end of Batista’s regime. He arrived the day before Fidel Castro took power and spent a week canvassing the island before finding the victorious leader. Castro immediately took to Lockwood and over the next decade invited him back many times, granting him
special access to his inner circle
and
free rein to explore the island
without the usual restrictions imposed upon American journalists.
In 1965, Castro granted Lockwood a
rare, in-depth interview
but then missed appointment after appointment. Days turned into weeks turned into three interminable months, as Lockwood, like many journalists before and since, waited for Castro. But it was worth the anticipation, climaxing in a
marathon seven-day interview
that covered everything from
racial issues in America to the Cuban Missile Crisis
. It remains to this day one of the
most penetrating portraits of the Cuban leader
.
Originally published in 1967, Lockwood’s interviews and observations are republished by TASCHEN alongside
hundreds of photographs
covering both the weeks Lockwood spent traveling with Castro and the years he documented Cuba’s transformation throughout the ’60s. From
military encampments in the Sierra Maestra mountains to Havana street life and political rallies
, many of these color images have
never been published before
. A foreword and afterword by
Latin America expert Saul Landau
contextualize Lockwood’s work.