Sixty Years ago today, on April 15th 1961, eight B-26 Bombers painted to look like planes from the Cuban Air Force attacked Castro’s airfields. This would be the prelude to the ill-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Twelve-year-old Carlos Eire lived a few blocks from the Columbia Airfield in Havana. “I woke up to the house shaking, in what I thought was thunder. And it took me a few seconds to realize that this was not thunder, but that actually a war had started!”
Carlos and his family hid under the bed.
“Finally we’re being rescued. That was the feeling I had, we’re being rescued. But I might be a war casualty.”
Georgie Brooks and her little brother Tony were at home having lunch with their parents when the Cuban police knocked on their door. “We starting hearing the news of what’s happening. Um, there’s an invasion and they’re coming to the house just to pick up everybody that is against the government. And, all of a sudden, they appear at our house!”
They were terrified.
“One of the militia guys held me in his arms and he took me out in a car. And, they said to my mother, ‘Come with us.’ And, my stepfather, ‘Come with us.’ My brother, everybody that was there. So, they took all of us.”
Cuban authorities rounded up tens of thousands of Cubans throughout the island, and detained them in stadiums, theaters and other makeshift prisons for weeks (or longer) in order to quell a potential uprising from within.
Then on Sunday afternoon, Luis Orlando Rodriguez and his fellow members of Brigade 2506 slipped into a narrow body on the southern side of Cuba known as Bahia de Cochinos - the Bay of Pigs.
“I felt so emotional, like everybody else. We were so happy to see land again, Cuban land. And, knowing that we were just gonna get on land in a few hours, in our land. And, and sort of defend it. All of a sudden you feel patriotic. You feel great. You feel that nothing is gonna prevent you from being victorious.”
The attack started early the next morning.
To see what happened, and how these incredible stories intertwine, look out for the documentary film Voices from Cuba, narrated by Andy Garcia, premiering soon!