Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Hey Kids, Viva La Revolucion With Fidel And Che!

By Stephen J. Gertz

Front wrapper.

Madres y Padres! Los hijos falling asleep during El Líder's interminable orations? Are they missing out on the detailed history of the glorious revolucion? Is the ideology of sharing everything they own with everybody else here in our island paradise leading to counter-revolutionary sass? Are you dangerously harboring dissident tikes? State Security sniffing your kids' laundry?

Fear not! Album de la Revolucion Cubana is here!

The Coup of March 10th.

From the voyage of The Gramma returning Tios Fidel, Raul y Che to Cuba from exile in Mexico to spearhead the war against capitalist exploitation in 1956, all the way to Batista's fall, in 1959, every action-packed episode tells of the bravery y cajones of our comrades in the struggle.

Landing of  the "Gramma," the yacht that ferried Fidel,
Raul Castro, and Che Cuevara from Mexico to Cuba
on November 25, 1956.



But, you may ask, how can I acquire this great primer for pre-pubescent Fidelistas when I can't even buy little Juanny a pair of shoes?

Leaders of the Revolucion.

We have heard The People. Album de la Revolucion Cubana is free! Free, I tell you, a gift from The People to The People. Just buy cans of Felices Frutas - "Las Más Exquisitas Frutas Cubanas" - and the album and one of the 268 cards in the set are free! Free, I say! Simply buy 268 cans of Felices Frutas to collect them all for your kids, have them read and mount each in their proper place in the album, and their political credentials are in order!


Think of them as Cuban baseball cards, revolutionary propaganda division. Happy Fruits beget happy children free from the pernicious anxieties associated with opposition politics on the see-saw and jungle bars.

Triumph of the Revolution, Fall of Batista.

Our glorious heroes won the revolucion with guns. Album de la Revolucion Cubana will arm our beautiful angelitos with Marxist-Leninist spirit!


Act now! Don't delay! The future of the revolucion is in the hands of our children. Support our nascent canned fruit industry, support the Revolucion, and prepare our children for life in communal paradise. It's a three-fer for Cuba. Los Cubanos, do your duty!

Advertensia! Children caught defacing the portraits of our leaders in Album de la Revolucioin Cubana by erasing moustaches and beards will be detained for re-education in a reform facility.
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[CHILDREN"S PROPAGANDA]. PICART, J.M. and Mario Jimenez. Album de la Revolucion Cubana: 1952-1959. Habana: Editorial Echevarria, 1959. First edition. Oblong quarto (12 x 8 3/4 inches). 32 pp. 268 numbered picture cards, mounted in numbered space, with printed captions. Drawings by  Capdevila. Pictorial wrappers.

Distributed free to buyers of Felices Frutas. OCLC records a reprint by Habana: Revista Cinegrafico, 1960.
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Images courtesy of Aleph-Bet Books, currently offering this item, with our thanks.
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2 comments:

  1. I remember collecting these in 1959, I left Cuba in July 1959 so these came out right after the coup. I left mine behind in Cuba but I was able to pick one up on eBay a couple of years ago for nostalgia purposes. A leather bound edition fetched over $100k at Sotheby's.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a cool book. I'm surprised this isn't one of Lorne Bair's offerings.

    ReplyDelete

 
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