Sixty years ago, a groundbreaking news report from the heart of Cuba’s Sierra Maestra shook the international press and shattered one of the Batista regime’s most repeated lies: Fidel Castro was not dead. He was alive—and leading a guerrilla front in eastern Cuba. This revelation came from American journalist Herbert L. Matthews, whose articles began appearing in The New York Times on February 24, 1957.
The interview, the result of a daring journey into rebel-held territory, marked a turning point in international awareness of the Cuban revolutionary movement. For weeks, under strict censorship, Cuban and foreign media had reported that Fidel Castro and the Granma expeditionaries had perished after their December 2, 1956 landing. Matthews’ report proved otherwise and brought the Cuban cause into the global spotlighting.
Escorted by Cuban revolutionaries, Matthews reached a farm deep in the Sierra Maestra, where he met the young rebel leader. “Getting me into the Sierra Maestra to interview Fidel Castro involved terrible risks for dozens of men and women in Havana and Oriente,” Matthews would later recall.
Fidel’s statements were clear and powerful: “The government is using arms supplied by the United States not only against us, but against the Cuban people.” He affirmed the group’s strength: “We’ve been fighting for seventy-nine days, and we are stronger than ever.”
The Batista regime attempted to discredit the story. The Defense Minister called the interview a fabrication, and General Martín Díaz Tamayo declared it impossible to cross military lines. But the publication of a photograph of Matthews with Fidel on February 28, 1957, confirmed the authenticity of the meeting.
From that point on, the Sierra Maestra was not only a battlefield, but also a communications platform from which the rebels projected their message to the world. Other media outlets began to take interest in what was happening in Cuba beyond the official press. In March, Bohemia magazine published the first images of Fidel and his guerrilla comrades. In April, journalist Robert Taber and cameraman Wendell Hoffman filmed a report from Pico Turquino—the highest point in Cuba—showing the strength of the revolutionary movement.
Matthews’ first interview with Fidel not only broke the media blockade, but also marked the beginning of a rebel communication strategy that combined military action with a clear political and ethical message.
Sixty years later, we commemorate that moment as a milestone in courageous journalism and a testament to the power of truth. From the mountains of the Sierra Maestra, a message of dignity, resistance, and future began to reach the world.
HERBERT L. MATTHEWS, American journalist for The New York Times, first correspondent to visit the Sierra Maestra, February 1957:
“(…) Just a few weeks after the Granma landing, the continued presence of Fidel and his men in the Sierra Maestra became a symbol for building militant opposition: a small armed force and a movement of civic resistance. (…) All of Cuban youth sided with Fidel Castro, and thousands of young people suffered police persecution, torture, and death.
Many people who want to understand what is happening in Cuba today must keep this in mind: it was a revolution of young people, and it is Cuban youth who give meaning and content to the current social transformations.
The Revolution that followed the victorious rebellion is classical in its aims, but with uniquely Cuban characteristics.
There is nothing more important to be said about the Cuban Revolution than this fact: the overwhelming popular support it enjoys.
This must be clearly understood: the process cannot be reversed, and Cuba will never be the same as before.”
Bohemia Magazine, Havana, November 15, 1959