|
Ernesto Fernandez is one of my best friends in Cuba. He lives in Mirimar very near Sandra Levinson’s apartment and I see him and his wife Sonya on every trip. He has a different kind of history among art collectors. Many of his photos concentrate mostly on the life of everyday citizens of Cuba during the days of the Revolution’s beginnings. Some of the photos in the collection show very young Cuban farmers turned soldiers at Giron. Expecting an invasion, but not knowing where it would be, the Granma (the national newspaper) had sent Cuba’s foremost journalists and photographers to points all over the island.
Ernesto was asleep in the office of the Granma when word came that the invasion would be at Giron. He was sent immediately to cover the invasion of the American forces and was the first photographer on the scene. Some of his most important images are from those days. The idiocy of war is shown by two images in particular. One is a photo of Cuban soldiers walking on a dirt road next to a bombed and burned out school bus. The other is of another soldier sitting on the wing of a downed American airplane. Ernesto also traveled with the Cuban army to Angola. In one photo, there are two soldiers by a makeshift grave. Ernesto told me it was the grave of a young Angolan boy caught in the crossfire.
|
|
 
 |
|
