The men pictured in Cuba 1959: The Second Front were teenagers when, in 1959, they rose against president Fulgencio Batista. They live near the legendary “Second Front” in the highlands of eastern Cuba, and, on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, they agreed to be photographed in their old uniforms by Alinka Echeverria.

The young Mexican photographer has been on a roll this past year. She came in second place at this year’s Center Awards in Santa Fe and is a selected winner in this year’s Flash Forward contest for emerging photographers, as chosen by the Magenta Foundation’s jury.

“The Cuban revolution is a huge part of history,” she says. “Not just in Cuba but in many parts of Latin America. I am fascinated about this history and what will come next, especially in Cuba.” But, far from being a work-in-progress about the current political situation, The Second Front is “really about the collective memory of this place,” says Echeverria. “These men are still very loyal to their past. The revolution symbolises everything tangible that they have. Their education, their homes, their hospitals come from the state. Their identity as men is basically formed around the revolution.”

Echeverria plans on finishing The Second Front this year, going back to Cuba to photograph and interview more than 100 former soldiers. “It’s a very emotional experience for them. When they put on these old uniforms, they transform. Sometimes, you need to look at an old letter or old photographs to remember. For them, it was putting on the clothes, getting out their medals.”

The work, which Echeverria showed at this year’s New York Photo Festival, will form a book when finished. It will also be shown in the village where these combatants have built their lives following the revolution. It will be a way, she says, for them to tell their grandchildren, who were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to relate to that past and understand their elders’ devotion to “La Revoluçion”.

www.alinkaecheverria.com