The 26th of July is coming. How not to believe in the echo of that intense dawn? How to forget the blazing fire of one of the youngest and most Marti dawns? How not to remember the intrepid soul of the men of Moncada?
How can we describe the greatness of that heroic deed without rediscovering ourselves in the city that witnessed it?
There, our Santiago, as always heroic; the incomparable cradle, the rebel in its symbolic immensity.
In its square the echo of Maceo’s cry, calling to continue being free; on the walls of the Moncada, the precepts of Martí so that his ideas would not die; that July 26 in the corridors of the military fortress the traces of a firm generation determined to transform the country through a Revolution.
Fidel at the front, with his backpack loaded with dreams for a better future; ideas called for combat. Rifles were wielded to annihilate misery, exploitation, unhealthy conditions and illiteracy.
A July day in arms
Young people of the Centennial, eager for justice, sought freedom, convinced that the only way to triumph was through arms to give schools, build hospitals, factories; to train teachers for education; to prepare doctors and scientists with responsibility for the health of the people.
The daring act of July at the Moncada, in spite of its setback, demonstrated the unquenchable thirst of the Homeland to merge blacks and whites into one family; for peasants to reap the fruits of their harvests, for boys and girls to smile and enjoy themselves in streets, squares and parks.
Moncada is the telluric force that summons us to continue building the present and the future; it is the torrent of its ideas that helps us to launch the slingshot against the monsters from within and without; to eradicate errors so that our dreams may be fulfilled and to continue building a united, sovereign, independent and fuller Homeland.
