Lourdes Chateloin and Dulce, Cuban women who worked with Brigade #6
Description:
"Their orange Venceremos Brigade t-shirts are printed with crossed machetes and one red star for the one million arrobas of sugar cane cut by the first brigade (25 pounds = 1 arroba). At the end of our stay in Cuba, we were given shirts with 3 red stars. Because we had increased the Venceremos Brigade's output by another 2 million arrobas. Lourdes was from Jaguey Grande, a small town near Playa Giron or the Bay of Pigs. During the Bay of Pigs invasion she said that her town was napalmed. Although this had never been mentioned in the US I have no reason not to believe her account. Lourdes was a very open, warm hearted, and happy woman. Dulce (in curlers) grew up in Teaneck, NJ, and returned to Cuba with her family after the Cuban Revolution. The reverse migration of returning Cuban exiles was something I hadn't heard mentioned in the US either. Neither was the bombing of our cane fields which belonged to the Hershey Corporation before they were nationalized. I was walking out to our assigned cane field one very foggy morning with Jamie Lasalle when he grabbed my arm and yelled at me to stop. I looked down to find myself on the edge of a large bomb crater, about 10 feet deep. Cubans told us that US planes bombed the cane fields in the early years of the revolution."
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