--- title: Cuban propaganda posters, cartoons and broadcasts, 1896 to 2026 url: https://propagandaarchive.org/cuban-propaganda-posters/ description: 'Cuban propaganda from every side: 1890s war cartoons, the Platt Amendment era, 1959 revolution items and Radio Marti, with sources and rights shown.' section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg) Collection # Cuban propaganda posters, cartoons and broadcasts, 1896 to 2026 Cuban propaganda from every side: 1890s war cartoons, the Platt Amendment era, 1959 revolution items and Radio Marti, with sources and rights shown. 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. Cuban propaganda posters [![Cuba's Heroes and Their Flag: Souvenir Lithograph of the Grand Cuban-American Fair](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cubas-heroes-and-their-flag-1896-640.jpg)Cuba's Heroes and Their Flag: Souvenir Lithograph of the Grand Cuban-American Fair](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cubas-heroes-and-their-flag-1896/) [!["General Antonio Maceo, the Hero of Peralejo" (Sahm & Co., New York, 1898)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/general-antonio-maceo-hero-of-peralejo-sahm-1898-640.jpg)"General Antonio Maceo, the Hero of Peralejo" (Sahm & Co., New York, 1898)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/general-antonio-maceo-hero-of-peralejo-sahm-1898/) [![Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898-640.jpg)Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) [!["Requirements for Trade Expansion / Requisitos para el desarrollo comercial" (Cuban-American Reciprocity Bureau, 1903)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/requirements-for-trade-expansion-cuban-american-reciprocity-bureau-1903-640.jpg)"Requirements for Trade Expansion / Requisitos para el desarrollo comercial" (Cuban-American Reciprocity Bureau, 1903)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/requirements-for-trade-expansion-cuban-american-reciprocity-bureau-1903/) [![Havana Domestic Service, Castro's May Day speech on the Peruvian embassy exodus ('lumpens', 'scum'), broadcast (Havana, 1980-05-01)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/castro-may-day-lumpen-scum-fbis-1980-640.jpg)Havana Domestic Service, Castro's May Day speech on the Peruvian embassy exodus ('lumpens', 'scum'), broadcast (Havana, May 1, 1980)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/castro-may-day-lumpen-scum-fbis-1980/) [!["Noticiero Martí Noticias": title card of the newscast of 10 June 2026](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/noticiero-marti-noticias-title-card-2026-640.jpg)"Noticiero Martí Noticias": title card of the newscast of 10 June 2026](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/noticiero-marti-noticias-title-card-2026/) > **Content note.** The 1890s and 1900s cartoons use racial caricature of Cubans, Filipinos and Black Americans, and one shows a brutal figure of Spain trampling a starving child. A Cuban speech of 1980 calls those who entered the Peruvian embassy "scum". They are shown as issued, as evidence of what each side told its public. Showing an item is not endorsing it. [What are Cuban propaganda posters?](https://propagandaarchive.org/cuban-propaganda-posters/#what-are-cuban-propaganda-posters) [Cuba in the American press, 1896 to 1906](https://propagandaarchive.org/cuban-propaganda-posters/#cuba-in-the-american-press-1896-to-1906) [After 1959](https://propagandaarchive.org/cuban-propaganda-posters/#after-1959) [What is not here](https://propagandaarchive.org/cuban-propaganda-posters/#what-is-not-here) ## What are Cuban propaganda posters? Two different bodies of material are searched under this name. One is the poster art of the Cuban state after 1959. The other is the much older material made about Cuba: cartoons, prints and handbills from the war of independence (1895 to 1898), the Spanish-American War, and the US occupation that followed. The archive holds both, from every side that issued them, and applies one set of definitions to all of it. This page says first which parts the collection can show. ![Puck cover of 1896: Uncle Sam as the Noble Hero of a stage melodrama tells a cloaked villain marked Spain to stand back from a kneeling woman marked Cuba](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cuban-melodrama-puck-1896.jpg) ## Cuba in the American press, 1896 to 1906 In the war years the American cartoon press chose sides for its readers. *Puck*'s "The Cuban Melodrama" (1896) casts Uncle Sam as the hero, Spain as the villain and Cuba as the young woman, so the roles are assigned before any argument ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/), [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)). *Judge*'s lithograph of April 1898 pictures Spain trampling a starving child and a dead sailor of the *Maine*, with Sherman's line that war is hell turned to say peace under Spain is worse ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/), [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)); the collection also holds *Judge*'s "Remember the *Maine*! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans!". Spain's own side appears in the Madrid magazine *Blanco y Negro* of 1898, and in a New York fair committee's souvenir lithograph of the Cuban insurgent leaders, "Cuba's Heroes and Their Flag" (1896). ![Print of 1898: General Antonio Maceo on horseback leads a charge of the Cuban Liberation Army](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/general-antonio-maceo-hero-of-peralejo-sahm-1898.jpg) Explain moreShow less After the war the same press argued over what Cuba would become. *Puck*'s 1901 and 1902 covers present a choice between the United States and revolution, or among reciprocity, a loan under the Platt Amendment and annexation, each with only the options the cartoonist lists ([False dilemma](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/false-dilemma/)). In 1903 a lobbying body, the Cuban-American Reciprocity Bureau, issued its own bilingual cartoon for the trade treaty. ## After 1959 ![Puck cover of 1902: Cuba stands at a fork of three roads marked Reciprocity, Cuban Loan and Annexation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cubas-choice-puck-1902.jpg) For the revolution the collection holds both sides and their broadcasters: a 1969 handbill by US supporters of the government, a 1960 Berryman cartoon, a 1959 USIS world-news poster in Spanish, the Cuban state broadcasts of 1980 and 1985 (Castro's May Day speech and the reaction to Radio Martí), the Cuban government's own street billboards and neighbourhood-committee murals, and US-government news broadcasts to Cuba from 2008 and 2026. ## What is not here - **Not here:** posters of the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL) and of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC). The Library of Congress holds copies of several, but none is cleared for hosting here, and they are not hosted on a guess. - **Not here:** Cuban revolutionary-war leaflets of 1956 to 1958, and US leaflet and radio material of the early 1960s, including the Bay of Pigs operation. Neither has a copy FRAME can clear and host. **See also:** [Latin American propaganda posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/latin-american-propaganda-posters/). Sources and further reading ## Sources Louis A. Pérez Jr., The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography (University of North Carolina… Louis A. Pérez Jr., *The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography* (University of North Carolina Press, 1998). Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Each item in the grid carries its own source and rights note. ## Cuban propaganda in the collection Showing 22 of 22 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/). - [Cuba's Heroes and Their Flag: Souvenir Lithograph of the Grand Cuban-American Fair](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cubas-heroes-and-their-flag-1896/) (Cuban Independence Movement · 1896 · Transfer) - [Máquinas para fabricar yankées (Machines for Manufacturing Yankees)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/maquinas-para-fabricar-yankees-blanco-y-negro-1896/) (Spain · Apr 11, 1896 · Name-calling) - ["The Cuban Melodrama" (Puck cover, 3 June 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cuban-melodrama-puck-1896/) (United States · Jun 3, 1896 · Name-calling, Transfer) - ["She Is Getting Too Feeble to Hold Them" (Puck cover, 16 November 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/she-is-getting-too-feeble-to-hold-them-puck-1896/) (United States · Nov 16, 1896 · Name-calling). Content note: 1896 cartoon drawing Cuba and the Philippines as stereotyped dark-skinned children, shown as published. - ["General Antonio Maceo, the Hero of Peralejo" (Sahm & Co., New York, 1898)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/general-antonio-maceo-hero-of-peralejo-sahm-1898/) (United States · 1898 · Appeal to emotion) - [Uncle Sam looks at "Cuba" holding a "Cuban Revolutionist" baby (Bartholomew cartoon, April 1898)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/startled-uncle-sam-cuban-revolutionist-baby-bartholomew-1898/) (United States · Apr 1898 · Appeal to emotion) - ["'War is Hell.' Sherman, \[but\] Peace in Cuba under Spanish Rule Is Worse than Hell" (Judge, 30 April 1898)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-is-hell-sherman-peace-in-cuba-judge-1898/) (United States · Apr 30, 1898 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: 1898 atrocity cartoon: a brutal figure of Spain tramples an emaciated child and a dead sailor. - [El soldado de Cuba: —¡Ven tú, cobarde! (The Soldier of Cuba: 'Come here, you coward!')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/el-soldado-de-cuba-blanco-y-negro-1898/) (Spain · May 7, 1898 · Name-calling). Content note: Caricature of Cuban insurgents as tiny, dark-faced figures carried on a pole and in a basket by Uncle Sam. - [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (United States · May 7, 1898 · Card stacking) - ["Good Government vs. Revolution: An Easy Choice" (Puck centerfold, 17 April 1901)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/good-government-vs-revolution-puck-1901/) (United States · Apr 17, 1901 · False dilemma) - ["The Proposed Concession to Cuba" (Puck cover, 26 March 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/proposed-concession-to-cuba-puck-1902/) (United States · Mar 26, 1902 · Card stacking) - ["Cuba's Choice" (Puck cover, 3 September 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cubas-choice-puck-1902/) (United States · Sep 3, 1902 · False dilemma) - ["Requirements for Trade Expansion / Requisitos para el desarrollo comercial" (Cuban-American Reciprocity Bureau, 1903)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/requirements-for-trade-expansion-cuban-american-reciprocity-bureau-1903/) (United States · 1903 · Card stacking) - [Actualidades Mundiales poster, No. 64 (Spanish world-news map, Latin America)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/actualidades-mundiales-poster-64-china-cuba-berlin-1959/) (United States · Mar 10, 1959 · Card stacking) - [In English or Spanish...It Means What it Says!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-english-or-spanish-berryman-1960/) (United States · Nov 3, 1960 · Fear appeal) - ["Cuba: 10 Years of Revolution! Cuba Today": handbill template, United States, 1969](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cuba-ten-years-of-revolution-handbill-1969/) (United States · 1969 · Testimonial) - [Havana Domestic Service, Castro's May Day speech on the Peruvian embassy exodus ('lumpens', 'scum'), broadcast (Havana, May 1, 1980)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/castro-may-day-lumpen-scum-fbis-1980/) (Cuba · May 1, 1980 · Name-calling, Scapegoating, Demagoguery). Content note: Contains a head of state's speech labelling people who sought to leave Cuba 'lumpens', 'thugs', 'delinquents' and 'scum', with the crowd chanting 'scum'. - [FBIS Daily Report: Havana International Service lines up foreign voices against Radio Marti](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/havana-radio-marti-reaction-fbis-1985/) (Cuba · May 20, 1985 · Testimonial, Name-calling) - ["Señores imperialistas, ¡no les tenemos absolutamente ningún miedo!": Havana billboard, 2002](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/senores-imperialistas-ningun-miedo-havana-billboard-2002/) (Cuba · 2002 · Name-calling). Content note: Cartoon billboard caricaturing a U.S. figure in stars-and-stripes trousers beside a grinning armed fighter. - [TV Martí studio set for the programme "Nuestra América", 2008](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tv-marti-newscast-bbg-2008/) (United States · Jul 23, 2008 · Transfer) - [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, Zona 18, Old Havana: doorway, 2012](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cuba-cdr-old-havana-committee-doorway-2012/) (Cuba · Mar 30, 2012 · Identity fusion) - ["Noticiero Martí Noticias": title card of the newscast of 10 June 2026](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/noticiero-marti-noticias-title-card-2026/) (United States · Jun 10, 2026 · Transfer) ## Related guides and pages - [Cold War radio propaganda: stations and sources](https://propagandaarchive.org/cold-war-radio-propaganda/) - [Cuba under Fidel and Raúl Castro and their successors](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/castro-cuba/) - [Órgano oficial del Comité Central: Cuba's standing media apparatus after 1959](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cuba-state-media-apparatus/) - [¡Venceremos!: Cuba's 1961 literacy campaign, the primer, and the year-end declaration](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cuba-literacy-campaign-1961/) - [The peoples of three continents: OSPAAAL, a Havana secretariat, and Tricontinental](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cuba-ospaaal-tricontinental/) - [The Cuba-United States radio war: Radio Swan's cover story and Havana's 'gusanos'](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cuba-us-radio-war/) - [A committee on every block: Cuba's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cuba-cdr/) - [All guides](https://propagandaarchive.org/guides/)