In early 1961, St. George photographed these young Cuban exiles who had recently been recruited for “Brigade 2506”, an armed force of about 1,500 men whom the CIA trained and financed to invade Cuba and ultimately, they hoped, to topple the government. As part of the plan, the CIA secretly developed what was supposed to be a transitional, pro-United States government under the name Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria [MRR], led by Manuel Artime. Today both the CIA’s plot and its abysmal failure as a military operation are better known by the location of the invaders’ landing site at the “Bay of Pigs”. As these images bely, MRR members ranged dramatically in age and experience. St. George interviewed some of them at a hotel that served as a “barracks” in South Miami.
