Pictures taken during his 1973 visit to Kolkata
Exhibition will mark 50th anniversary of Cuban Revolution
KOLKATA,21 December, 2008: All city residents for whom Fidel Castro epitomises the revolutionary spirit will have the opportunity to feast their eyes on some rare photographs of the iconic leader that were taken during his first visit here in September 1973.
The exhibition will be held at Nandan West Bengal Film Centre from December 27 to December 30.
Organised by a city-based cultural foundation called Prabha Khaitan Foundation in collaboration with Nandan and the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba, the exhibition will commemorate the 35th anniversary of Mr. Castro’s visit to the city as well as the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.
Addressing a press conference organised to announce the exhibition, here on Thursday, film director Gautam Ghose said: “Fidel Castro was a hero of our youth and he still is. I clearly remember his brief visit to the city 35 years back when we rushed to the airport just to have a glimpse of him.”
Mr. Castro visited the city in September 1973 on his way back from Hanoi. It was a brief visit and he had interacted with several Left leaders, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) patriarch Jyoti Basu, and leaders of various women’s organisations.
A total of 35 photographs by the late photojournalist Satya Sen during Mr. Castro’s visit, will be exhibited.
“The exhibition will highlight the long and deep relationship between India and Cuba. It will also be the first relevant activity we will hold to celebrate, in India, the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution,” Dallamy Diaz Munoz, second secretary (press and culture), Embassy of the Republic of Cuba, said at the press conference.
Mr. Ghosh pointed out that the city had also hosted the revolutionary leader Che Guevera in 1959, not many people are aware of it.
