1962 Jimenez Pictorial Map of the Cuban Revolution

This is a 1962 Antonio Núñez Jiménez pictorial map of the Cuban Revolution. Pictorial vignettes capture key events that were part of this critical event in world history. A large portrait of Fidel Castro looms over the island from the upper-right corner, while other members of the Rebel Army immortalized here include Camilo Cienfuegos, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and Fidel's brother Raúl Castro. Events of the Cuban Revolution, including the landing of the Castro brothers and their guerillas on the 'Granma', the student assault on the Presidential Palace, and the attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, which started all these events in motion, are illustrated in vignettes.

The Cuban Revolution

The seeds of the Cuban Revolution were planted by the March 1952 military coup led by Fulgencio Batista, who had been President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944. Fidel Castro, then a lawyer and activist in Havana, petitioned the courts to remove Batista on the grounds of corruption and tyranny. His legal arguments were ignored, which convinced Castro of the need for an armed revolution. He and his brother Raúl organized what they called 'The Movement' and had recruited about 1,200 followers by the end of 1952.

The Attack on the Moncanda Barracks and its Aftermath

On July 26, 1953, the Castros and sixty-nine of their followers attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, an event that is illustrated here in the lower right corner. This attack was easily repulsed by the regular army troops billeted in the barracks, with the survivors fleeing into the mountains. The exact number of casualties on the revolutionary side is unknown, but it is known that Abel Santamaría, Castro's second-in-command, was captured, tortured, and executed by the army that very day. Both Castro brothers and numerous members of 'The Movement' were captured in the following days. In the end, Fidel was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, and Raúl received a thirteen-year sentence. In 1955, the Batista government was forced by political pressure to release political prisoners, which, amazingly, included both Castros. Upon their release, the Castro brothers joined other exiles in Mexico, where they were training to overthrow Batista. It was in Mexico that Fidel met Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. The movement was also renamed the '26th of July Movement' after the attack on the Moncada Barracks.

Guerilla War

The 'Granma', a yacht carrying both Castro brothers, Guevara, Cienfuegos, and about eighty others, left Tuxpan, Mexico on November 25, 1956. The 'Granma' then deposited the revolutionaries on the Play Las Coloradas on December 2, 1956, an event commemorated here just above the attack on the Moncada Barracks. Three days after the landing, Batista's forces attacked and killed the vast majority of these men, with estimates saying that no more than twenty survived this initial contact with Batista's troops. While Castro and his men were regrouping in the mountains after suffering such devastating losses, a student group names the Student Revolutionary Directorate, stormed the Presidential Palace in Havana on March 13, 1957. Their goal of assassinating Batista met with utter failure, with their leader dying in a shootout and only a handful of participants surviving. On May 23, 1957, the Scottish revolutionary Calixto Sanchez Whyte, who had grown up in the United States and Cuba before being exiled for his role in the raid on the Presidential Palace, returned to Cuba aboard the 'Corinthia'. Unfortunately for him and his companions the 'Corinthia' shipwrecked and they were soon captured and executed by the army. He is remembered as a martyr for the revolutionary cause.

The Offensive

After Castro's guerillas rebuffed Batista's attack at the Battle of La Plata, the rebels launched their offensive. Beginning on August 21, 1958, Fidel, Raúl, and Juan Almeida Bosque directed attacks on four separate fronts and began winning victories. Separately, columns under the command of Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Jaime Vega marched westward and won battles as well. The final battle, the Battle of Santa Clara, took place on December 31, 1958, and the combined forces of Guevara, Cienfuegos, and other revolutionaries captured the city of Santa Clara. This defeat sent Batista into a panic, and he fled to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1958. The first president of the revolutionary government, Manuel Urrutia, Lleó, took office on January 3.

Cuba in 1962

As this map was published in 1962, we believe that some context for what was going on in Cuba at the time is important. In July 1961, the 26th of July Movement joined with other parties to form the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which envisioned a government on the model of eastern-bloc countries in Europe, which mean that it was a communist party. As this was during the Cold War, the Eisenhower administration imposed sanctions on Cuba on everything except food and medical supplies upon learning of this development. Faced with these sanctions, the Cuban government cut all diplomatic ties with the United States and began trading with the Soviet Union. This, of course, led to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, and then the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the Cold War came to nuclear holocaust.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Antonio Núñez Jiménez and published by the Cuban Ministry of Education in 1962. This is the only known example.