A law firm for M-26-7 (I).

It had been decided to create a law firm for the comrades of the M-26-7 who lacked the means to cover the costs of lawyers and that this, our law firm, would take the necessary steps without charging anything.

One morning, the man who later became Commander «Papito» Serquera and held important positions in the Provisional Revolutionary Government when the Cuban Revolution triumphed, summoned four of us companions to meet in a building in downtown Santiago de Cuba that had been occupied by lawyers Lucas Morán and Baudilio Castellanos. The latter had been our professor in law school. The place was empty, there were still the desks of those lawyers, a very big one, with glass, owned by Morán, and the other, incredibly small, owned by «Bilito» (Baudilio) who, on the other hand, was tall and fat.

We inquired about the reason and the urgency, and he told us that it had been decided to create a law firm for the comrades of the 26th of July Movement who lacked the means to pay for lawyers and that this, our law firm, would take all the necessary steps without charging anything. The four of us present there had known each other since high school and then we had studied law together at the University of Oriente. Actually, we were very close «Papito», Carlos Amat, Enrique Marimón and the undersigned, Thalia Fung.

We would work in the law office that had belonged to the aforementioned lawyers, now empty, and the Movement (M-26-7) would pay the necessary stamps, since a stamp had to be affixed to each lawyer’s signature, which, fortunately, had been reduced from one peso to 20 cents. We had to take care of the rent of the premises and the payment of the telephone, which brought us some incidents: but nobody thought about it at that time.

Written by Dr Sc. Thalia Fung Riveron.