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99% Invisible

Viva La Arquitectura!

99% Invisible

SiriusXM Podcasts and Roman Mars

Design, Arts

4.827.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2015

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On January 3rd, 1961, Che Guevara suggested to Fidel Castro that they go play a round of golf. They drove out to what was then the ritziest, most elite country club in Havana. It was empty—almost all the members had … Continue reading →

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

0:04.0

After the revolution in Cuba, the young Fidel Castro hired an official photographer by the name of Alberto Corda to

0:14.2

chronicle his new life as a national leader. Corda followed Castro and

0:19.1

Che Guevara taking pictures of them as they met world leaders,

0:22.8

went fishing, faced off in chess.

0:26.0

He even took that iconic image of Chee,

0:29.2

the one that's on millions of t-shirts.

0:31.2

That's common, I have troublemen.

0:33.0

But my favorite images that Corda captured are of Chee and Fidel playing golf.

0:39.6

It was January 3rd, 1961, two years after the revolution, when Shay suggested they go play around.

0:46.2

You know, figure out says, well, you know, I don't play golf and Shay did play golf.

0:49.8

He was actually pretty good.

0:51.4

And he'd been a catty back in Chile. Helping us tell this story is

0:55.1

John Loomis. I'm John Loomis, I'm an architect and an architectural historian.

1:00.4

So Chee and Fidel drove out to what was the Ritzius most elite country club in Havana.

1:07.0

All the members of the club, they practically have all left the country, but still here's this amazing place. The people who work here

1:13.8

are still keeping everything clean and neat and taking care of it.

1:16.8

And Chee and Fidel romp around the bucolic green acres in full military khaki and combat boots.

1:23.6

Che is still wearing that beret.

1:25.2

And Castro is choking up on a golf club as if he's never seen someone use a golf club

1:30.4

before.

1:31.4

They're just putting around and grinning while Alberto Cordes snapped publicity shots of them.

...

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