The Ten Million

1969 · The Revolutionaries · Work 1120 of 1,871

The yard of a large sugar mill in eastern Cuba at noon in July, halls of corrugated iron, two tall smokestacks, white steam from the roofs, an inclined cane conveyor, cane wagons heaped with cut cane on a narrow-gauge track, a raised platform of bare unpainted timber with two plain microphones, on it the man, a Cuban man of about forty-three, face slightly fuller, full dark beard, in an olive green field uniform with open collar, one hand raised, facing the crowd and the camera, in the foreground cane cutters in straw hats and sweat-darkened shirts seen from directly behind, faces turned fully away.

Who
Fidel Castro (1926–2016) led the Cuban Revolution and ruled Cuba for almost five decades. Born on 13 August 1926 near Birán in the east of the island, the son of a prosperous sugarcane farmer from Spain, he studied law in Havana. After Batista's coup of 1952 he led the failed attack on the Moncada barracks on 26 July 1953, was imprisoned, went to Mexico after an amnesty in 1955 and in December 1956 landed with 81 men from the Granma. From the Sierra Maestra his guerrillas wore down the army; on 1 January 1959 Batista fled. Castro became head of government, nationalised commerce and industry, expropriated American companies and bound Cuba to the Soviet Union. The Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and the Missile Crisis of 1962 followed. He made education and health care free for all, but also built a one-party state without a free press, in which all opposition was ruthlessly suppressed and dissidents were jailed; many Cubans left for the United States. In 2006 he handed over power for health reasons, in 2008 the office as well. He died on 25 November 2016.
The moment
On 14 July 1969, at the Antonio Guiteras sugar mill in Puerto Padre, then in Oriente province, the harvest began that was to give Cuba ten million tons of sugar. Castro gave the closing speech of the opening ceremony. His first sentence: "Comienza hoy la zafra de los 10 millones", today the harvest of the ten million begins. Among the mill's workers were, according to the local press, some ten thousand cane cutters. He spoke at length about machines. The mill, "el central mayor de nuestro país", was to grind 1,300,000 arrobas of cane a day once its last roller tandem was installed. He explained the harvesters, the complicated Libertadora and the simple Henderson, a bulldozer with blades in front. In future fewer than a tenth of the workers of 1970 would bring in the harvest, with machines; the machete would be kept as a "glorioso recuerdo", a glorious memory. Afterwards he cut cane himself near San Ramón until 16 July. The picture shows him on a timber platform in the mill yard, the cane cutters seen from behind.
The other side
The machines failed. Of 1,498 harvesters, only 149 were in effective operation up to the end of March 1970, and only about one per cent of the harvest was cut mechanically. So the state brought in people: at the peak some 350,000 cane cutters, all but 80,000 of them civilian and military volunteers from other sectors; the army cut a fifth of the harvest. On 19 May 1970 Castro said: "no haremos los 10 millones", we will not make the ten million. The result was about 8.5 million tons. On 26 July he listed the losses himself: 25 per cent less milk, 38 per cent fewer steel bars delivered, 36 per cent fewer rail passengers. The responsibility, he said, lay with all of them, "y la mía en particular", and mine in particular.

What the sources leave open: Where in the mill the ceremony took place, at what hour and what Castro wore is not recorded; the yard, platform, chimneys and clothing are typified. The number of cane cutters comes only from the local press. No harvester appears in the picture because none is documented for this yard. The face follows a photograph by Warren K. Leffler of April 1959.

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Sources