Although Kodak produced its first color film in the early 1940s, most photographers only reluctantly used it, in part because mid-twentieth-century readers were accustomed to magazines with articles whose texts did not “compete” with accompanying photos unless they were explicitly designed as “picture stories.” Many editors never fully trusted St. George because they were predisposed to favor native English speakers to write their articles. St. George nonetheless produced full-color covers for Life magazine’s first January 1959 coverage of the 26th of July Movement’s takeover of the state. Images like these represent rare, never-before-published shots in the color of New Year’s Day, 1959. Here, Fidel Castro meets with longtime underground activist and fellow lawyer Armando Hart, backed by anti-communist and former Orthodox Party member Luis Orlando “Pupo” Rodríguez, Fidel’s personal bodyguard, holding a semi-automatic weapon. A second portrait shows Fidel and soldiers riding on a jeep at the crack of dawn, just before jumping into an eight-day “caravan of triumph” from Santiago to Havana.
