On July 30, 1957, Frank País García, the leader of the 26th of July Movement in El Llano, was assassinated in his native Santiago de Cuba; and a year later, the commander of the Rebel Army René Ramos Latour, the Daniel of the underground, died in combat. In homage to both young men, and all those who had fallen in the struggle, the Revolutionary Government instituted the penultimate day of July as the Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution.
A date of deep patriotic sense that reminds us of the blood and sacrifice it took to achieve what we have, and as Fidel said, a day like today, but in 1959: “Because if something we do not want -and it is good to say it here, on this anniversary of the death of Frank País and Daniel, symbol of the whole generation that sacrificed itself-, it is good to say here that what we do not want is that no one can say tomorrow that our people have forgotten their dead”.
Frank País was not yet 23 years old when he was cowardly assassinated in the Callejón del Muro, in Santiago de Cuba, victim of a cowardly betrayal. At that time he was the most wanted man in the underground and he was the head of the 26th of July Movement in El Llano; therefore, he was Fidel’s lieutenant and a man of his complete confidence.
Together with Frank, Raul Pujols, in whose house the young revolutionary was hiding, also died. Both of them, under the merciless blasts of the Batista henchmen, who were so merciless in Frank; to the extreme of riddling his body with bullets.
Frank’s death shook Cuba
Frank’s death was a hard blow for the Revolution and his mass burial in the streets of Santiago showed the strength that the 26th of July Movement was gaining. Fidel, in a memorable letter to Celia Sanchez, when speaking of the young man from Santiago who had been born on December 7, 1934, stated:
“I cannot express to you the bitterness, the indignation, the infinite pain that overwhelms us. How barbaric! They cowardly hunted him down in the street, using all the advantages they enjoy to persecute an underground fighter. What monsters! They do not know the intelligence, the character, the integrity they have murdered. Not even the people of Cuba suspect who Frank País was, what was great and promising in him (…) What a loss this struggle means! What a sacrifice this filthy tyranny is already costing!”.
Meanwhile, Che, who met Frank in the Sierra Maestra, said of that brilliant revolutionary, who led the armed uprising of November 30, 1956 and was on the eve of marrying his beloved girlfriend America Domitro: “With Frank País we lost one of the most valuable fighters, but the reaction to his murder showed that new forces were joining the struggle and that the combative spirit of the people was growing”.
His body, with the rank of captain, was dressed with the olive green uniform and the black and red armband of the 26th of July Movement. Nothing could prevent the people of Santiago from accompanying him en masse to his final resting place in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.
Just a month before, on July 19, 1957, his younger brother, Josué País, only 19 years old, had fallen in combat; a hard blow for Doña Rosario, the mother of both, and as Mariana in the face of misfortune, as was the heroic mother of the Maceo family.
With Frank’s death, Cuba lost one of its best sons. In himself, he symbolized the integrity of the Revolution, and in the words of Army General Raúl Castro ” (…) he was the type of man who penetrates deeply and definitively in the heart of the people”.
Ramos Latour was the substitute for Frank, for David, in the underground. He assumed the name of Daniel and played an important role in the organization of the Revolutionary General Strike of April 9, 1958 in Cuba, after whose failure he went up to the Sierra Maestra and with the rank of commander fell in the combat of El Jobal, on July 30, 1958, exactly 12 months after Frank’s assassination.
Today, all over Cuba there will be a heartfelt tribute to our martyrs, and in the Callejón del Muro there will be a tribute of remembrance to the memory of Frank and Raúl Pujols. It will be, as every year, the loving homage of a people who do not forget their heroes and who know that the Homeland is built on the generous blood of so many good and valuable people.
