Lee Lockwood: Castro's Cuba. 1959–1969

From 1959 to 1969, photojournalist Lee Lockwood documented revolutionary Cuba and Fidel Castro with unprecedented access, including a seven-day interview marathon with Castro. This volume combines Lockwood’s striking photographs, perceptive observations, and excerpts from the legendary Lockwood-Castro conversations.

Face-to-face with El Comandante

A telling portrait of Cuba's defining decade and its charismatic leader

“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. A foreword and afterword by Latin America expert Saul Landau contextualize Lockwood’s work.

The authorLee Lockwood (1932–2010) was an American photojournalist for publications including Life, Newsweek, The Times, Bunte Illustrierte, and Jours de France. Best known for his award-winning work on Fidel Castro and North Vietnam, he also covered the peace and civil rights movements in the U.S. and was a founder of the Center for Cuban Studies in New York.The contributing authorSaul Landau was Professor Emeritus at California State University, Pomona, and a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. An author, commentator, and filmmaker, his films include the 1968 documentary Fidel!Lee Lockwood. Castro's Cuba. 1959–1969. 45th Ed.Hardcover, 15.6 x 21.7 cm, 1.10 kg, 488 pages

ISBN 978-3-7544-0128-6

Edition: English