26th of July Movement
DAY OF THE WORLD SOLIDARITY WITH THE CUBAN REVOLUTION (July 26), 1970
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This design promotes 26 July as a day of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. The revolutionary 26th of July Movement led by Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in 1959.
WORLD SOLIDARITY WITH THE CUBAN REVOLUTION, 1980
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Víctor Manuel Navarrete’s design uses an image of ‘Uncle Sam’ from a 1917 US army recruitment poster. In the U.S.A., Uncle Sam was a widely used character representing the government and national pride. OSPAAAL’s designers often distorted images of Uncle Sam to criticise or mock the U.S.A.
GIRON - 30th ANNIVERSARY - SOCIALISM OR DEATH, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. In 1961, a military group sponsored by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency invaded Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. Eladio Rivadulla Pérez used a press photograph of Castro jumping from a tank for his commemorative poster design.
Content warning: weaponry
