Portraits

Raul Ballate Perez at the May 1st workers day march in Cueto, Cuba. I had seen him around town but never really met him. But he was at the front of the parade with the other military folks when I spotted that old tattered homemade red and black armband that read "M-26-7". That is the 26th of July Movement, the official name for the Revolucíon that ousted Batista in 1959. Since the rebel forces had no uniforms, that armband was their identification. Some also wore handmade red and black bandanas as he had on. I asked him to come by the house sometime. He arrived the next morning.

Raul is 88, still smokes unfiltered cigarettes, and I found never turns down a beer or glass of rum in the morning. At noon after the parade he did eventually said he needed to go home and rest. He had already marched one and a half hours in the local parade.

He joined up with Raul Castro after the Batista police burned down his family home and fought with the "second front" for the entire Revolucíon. His weapon was a Thompson submachine gun which originally belonged to his best friend who was killed standing next to him.

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Bob Michaels said:
Raul Ballate Perez at the May 1st workers day march in Cueto, Cuba. I had seen him around town but never really met him. But he was at the front of the parade with the other military folks when I spotted that old tattered homemade red and black armband that read "M-26-7". That is the 26th of July Movement, the official name for the Revolucíon that ousted Batista in 1959. Since the rebel forces had no uniforms, that armband was their identification. Some also wore handmade red and black bandanas as he had on. I asked him to come by the house sometime. He arrived the next morning.

Raul is 88, still smokes unfiltered cigarettes, and I found never turns down a beer or glass of rum in the morning. At noon after the parade he did eventually said he needed to go home and rest. He had already marched one and a half hours in the local parade.

He joined up with Raul Castro after the Batista police burned down his family home and fought with the "second front" for the entire Revolucíon. His weapon was a Thompson submachine gun which originally belonged to his best friend who was killed standing next to him.
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Bob, I really admire the way you always provide a background story to accompany your photographs. It’s one thing to just snap a picture of a stranger and post it up (I would know), it’s another thing to take the time to get to know your subject and put together a shot story on him or her. And, your images are consistently exceptionally good. Please keep up the good work, I always enjoy and appreciate it!

Mike
 
2005 - Steve Petras, owner of "Pizza King" on the Daytona Beach Boardwalk with a photo of himself 48 years earlier when he opened the stand. It was the last few days of "Pizza King" as the city had taken his property by eminent domain as part of a program to upgrade the boardwalk. He was being paid off well and planned to retire, possibly back to his native Greece.

Today, 14 years later, I stopped by his new "Pizza King" also on the Boardwalk, that he opened a few months after his initial retirement. A large framed print of this photo, a gift from me, hangs on the wall of his new location. I asked Steve if I could make a new photo of him in front of his new location holding the print of this photo. Now 86, he said he was too busy making pizza but suggested I come back in 10 years when he planned on really retiring.

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