Where were those kids with Fidel Castro from?

He might have been considered a dictator by some, but in this photo "El Comandante" shows off his soft side. All the kids are wearing fake beards to resemble him and he seems to be enjoying it. And it all would’ve not been strange if those kids were Cuban, but they were not, they were actually American. Hard to imagine today

but it happened in 1959 during his visit to New York, just after he took charge of Cuba and before the US sanctions. Times they are a changing.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary, lawyer and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.