CUBA - Revista Mensual was Cuba's premier monthly illustrated magazine during the revolutionary period, published in Havana and distributed internationally to promote Cuban revolutionary achievements and international solidarity with Third World liberation movements.
This October 1967 issue, Year VI, Number 66, features an exclusive interview with Comandante César Montes of the Guatemalan guerrilla movement: "Quince días con los guerrilleros de Guatemala: Habla el Comandante César Montes" (Fifteen days with the guerrillas of Guatemala: Commander César Montes speaks). The cover headlines declare "Los fusiles hablan por los indios enmulticidos desde hace 4 siglos" (Rifles speak for the Indians silenced for 4 centuries) and "En las montañas las guerrillas construyen una nueva Guatemala" (In the mountains the guerrillas construct a new Guatemala), reflecting Cuban support for indigenous-led revolutionary movements throughout Latin America during the height of guerrilla warfare in the 1960s.
The cover is a brilliant work of revolutionary graphic design that functions as both political commentary and visual assault. Two rifles frame the composition—rendered in detailed line drawing against yellow-orange (left) and green (right) vertical panels. The central image is a masterstroke of subversive design: a target composed of the American flag's stars and stripes, riddled with bullet holes that pierce through the blue star field and red-white stripes. The target design transforms the U.S. flag into a symbol of imperialist aggression worthy of armed resistance, while the bullet holes document the violence of anti-colonial struggle. The color scheme—yellow, red, white, blue, and green—evokes both the Guatemalan flag and broader pan-Latin American revolutionary symbolism. This powerful visual metaphor exemplifies Cuban revolutionary graphic design's ability to communicate complex political messages through direct, iconic imagery that required no translation across linguistic or cultural boundaries.