USA. New York City. District of Harlem. Hotel Theresa. 1960. Cuban President Fidel Castro was in New York to attend a General Assembly meeting of the United Nations. On the night of his arrival, he surprised the UN delegates by stamping in late and complaining about the treatment he received in the hotel with the UN had booked-in the Cuban delegation. Dispite the fact that the complaints seemed ill founded, Castro moved his entire staff up to Harlem's Hotel Theresa where he took over 40 rooms. The Theresa is sometimes described as the Waldorf Astoria of Harlem, and is in the center of the city's African-American section and the well publicised move was thus interpreted as a strategy ploy to gain the sympathy of black Americans as well the Africans.
Fidel Castro is seen here talking to journalists.