These two young University of Havana students were most likely quemados, “burnt out” survivors of multiple confrontations with Batista’s police and security services, whose escape from Havana’s daily dangers in the late 1950s leaders of the revolutionary opposition authorized in order to save their lives and to reward them for their brave service. Far from Havana and any large urban center, the military wing of the 26th of July Movement, led by Fidel Castro, enjoyed safe haven from encounters with the security forces of dictator Fulgencio Batista until the waning months of 1958. Set by leaders two years earlier, one of the rules of the 26th of July Movement was that nobody could simply “abandon” the urban front of the war against Batista and take off for the Sierra Maestra to join Fidel’s guerrilla. Consequently, when journalist Andrew St. George photographed them, he meant to document their rarity and importance to the cause of a free Cuba. Sierra Maestra, 1958. Andrew St. George Collection, Smathers Library, University of Florida.
