In brief: Mia Khalifa Looked at a 1956 Photo of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and Saw a 2001 Heartthrob: ‘Thought This Was Josh Hartnett in Pearl Harbor’.
History accounts post old photos for perspective. Mia Khalifa looked at one and saw a casting call.
On Oct. 6, the creator and podcaster quote-posted a photo shared by the history account @HistorylandHQ. Its caption read: “Fidel Castro and Che Guevara while they were imprisoned in Mexico City, July 1956.”
Khalifa’s entire review: “thought this was Josh Hartnett in Pearl Harbor.”
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She didn’t say which of the two men she meant, so we won’t guess.
The photo comes from a real chapter of history. In the mid-1950s, Castro was in exile in Mexico, organizing the group that would later sail to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma. Guevara, an Argentine doctor, had joined him there. In the summer of 1956, Mexican authorities arrested members of the group and briefly held them, which is when the pair were photographed behind bars. Months later, in late 1956, the Granma landed in Cuba.
The comparison comes from a very different source. “Pearl Harbor,” the 2001 war epic directed by Michael Bay, starred Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett, who played pilot Danny Walker. The film’s look was period haircuts, military khaki and plenty of soft-focus brooding, which is apparently close enough to a 1950s Mexico City jail cell to make the internet blink twice.
Khalifa’s timeline usually runs on one-line reactions like this, along with her own daily question about uplifting Thoom.
The verdict: one photo, two revolutionaries, and one actor who probably didn’t expect to be part of the conversation this week.