Santiago de Cuba: A Birthplace of Heroes
On January 1, 1984, when Commander in Chief Fidel Castro gave Santiago de Cuba the Honorific Title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba and the Antonio Maceo Order, he was paying tribute to the history written by the people of Santiago.
Click on Santiago de Cuba: A City of 500 Years
It’s a hero city because its children have been heroes in different battles. The houses, streets, parks, public facilities that presently identify and stand for this city have won that seat of honor due to the patriotism of its inhabitants, their cultural values.
The city, with over 1,700 buildings that date back from the colonial age, the combination of eclecticism, modernism and rationalism in the constructions, features urban, architectural, environmental and monumental value that made its historic core win the National Monument distinction in l978.
It was the first Cuban capital created by Spanish colonialist. Since the very beginning it was attacked by pirates, corsairs and filibusters so the people had to defend the city.
A magical blend of native, African, European and Asian blood. People that were trying to have their own land in order to sow and cultivate their hopes of freedom and sovereignty, with no master coming from overseas. The melting pot of its nationality, assaulted by the brutality of slavery and subjection, was bathed by the sweat and blood of countless generations.
Women and men inoculated in their veins and character the hatred to Spanish despotism. Rebelliousness as a result of savage killings, such as the ones that took place in March and August 1869, February 1870 and the execution in August 1870 of patriot and author of the Cuban National Anthem, Perucho Figueredo.
The region was ready to receive the seed planted on October 10, 1868. Antonio Maceo, José Maceo, Pío Rosado, Guillermón Moncada, Flor Crombet, Quintín Bandera and hundreds of Santiago-born young women and men had been plotting against Spain and rose up. Santiago de Cuba, the children of this city had begun a fight that would be crowned nearly a century later.
In 1879 many patriots from this city joined the so-called Brief War, which wasn’t successful but kept the fighting spirit on the map.
On February 24, 1895, the fighting decision and patriotism had grown stronger. The bugles of Baire mobilized those who had fought in previous battles and many other patriots, representatives of the historic continuity.
That was how Santiago de Cuba stood its ground as a fighting pillar for Cuba’s independence. Those battles have laid the foundations of rebelliousness in the people of Santiago.
Even Nature seems to be an accomplice in the making of that character, by giving this city’s inhabitants baking sun, perennial and suffocating heat, earthquakes, narrow and hill-like streets, a mountain ring that protects them from the wind and is only interrupted by the bay that never stops kissing the feet of the city.
They say Trocha and Carnival. The doors are always open to guitars and combatants. When we hear the work solidarity the first synonym that comes to our mind is: people of Santiago, offering their hands, help, houses and tables to friends or acquaintance coming in peace.
It looks like if history had chosen this city to witness significant developments to the entire Cuban nation and beyond its borders.
This is where Spanish colonialism was given the death blow, in 1898. Batista’s tyranny was also brought down here, in January 1959. Major General Calixto García was offended here when the US army didn’t let him enter the city, after the he had led. And it was here where Commander in Chief Fidel Castro headed the 20-century mambi fighters to make a true Revolution.
The heroic assault to Moncada Barracks took place in this city on July 26, 1953. The olive-green uniform was first wore in this city on November 30, 1956, when the revolutionary fighters rose their weapons, backed up by the people, to support the landing of the rebels that were commanded by Fidel, on Granma yacht.
Antonio Maceo and Frank País were born in Santiago de Cuba, and their death symbolizes the passing of all the martyrs of the Revolution in different pro-independence stages. As a symbol of continuity of a same fight, the hero of clandestine actions was born on December 7, exactly 38 years after the passing away of the Bronze Titan.
Santa Ifigenia cemetery was created six months after the beginning of the 1868 war, just like if it was meant to treasure the mortal remains of uncountable heroes of our Homeland. It stores the remains of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and José Martí, top leaders of heroic deeds in Yara and Baire; Mariana Grajales, José Maceo, Guillermón Moncada, Perucho Figueredo, over twenty generals of our pro-independence wars.
40 combatants that assaulted the Moncada barracks are buried here, with Abel Santamaría Cuadrado. Brothers Frank and Josué; Pepito, Tony, Otto… hundreds of fighters from the Rebel Army and clandestine actions. One hundred and four internationalist combatants also rest here, as a testimony of the solidary value of this people.
In this city General Antonio received his 27th and last wound when, on April 15, 196l, the chest of his bust at the airport was hit by mercenary shrapnel. But the Titan stands there, defying disgrace and encouraging the people to fight.
That’s Santiago de Cuba, where history and present days shake hands to defend the future. Where economic and social development is on the go, in spite of the obstinate and criminal blockade that has affected the country for over half a century. An eternally rebel city, hospitable and heroic.
