That was when Cuba was known as the "Whorehouse of the Caribbean."
In later years, the Batista supporters in South Florida have tried to tell people that Cuba didn't have that name until long after they LEFT! Yeah, sure.
Fulgencio Batista, the violent, corrupt dictator, who was up to his nose in business with the Mafia, used his wife's brother to go around to the hotel casinos every night to pick up the payoffs. Mafia, and US celebrities couldn't stay away from Havana. It must have driven them insane seeing the people of Cuba emptying the casinos out into the streets, and burning their roulette wheels, etc.
[center]
Slum (bohio) dwellings in Havana, Cuba in 1954, just outside Havana baseball stadium.
In the background is advertising for a nearby casino.
Constantino Arias' photo titled Ugly American, showing a 1950s Batista-era tourist in Havana, Cuba.
Batista with U.S. Army Chief of staff Malin Craig in Washington, D.C., riding in an Armistice Day parade, 1938
Batista's soldiers executing a rebel by firing squad in 1956
Batista (left) with his first wife Elisa Godinez-Gómez on a 1938 visit
to Washington, D.C., greeting the Cuban ambassador, Dr. Pedro Fraga
"The Dictator from Cuba arrives. Washington, D.C., Nov. 10. Col. Fulgencio Batista, Cuba's Dictator, arrived in Washington today, he was met at the Union Station by General Malin Craig, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, who invited the Colonel to the Capitol, and Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, as well as a hundred Cubans who bowed to the Colonel as he passed thru Union Station, left to right. Sumner Wells, Batista, Craig, and the Ambassador from Cuba Dr. Pedro Fraga, 11/10/38" (Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection.) [/center]
Photos from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista#mediaviewer/File:Batista25355a_crop4.jpg
Edit history
= new reply since forum marked as read
