November 30th: echoes of a rebellious dawn.

Wearing their olive green uniforms and the red and black armband of the 26th of July Movement, those heroes, led by Frank País García, faced with remarkable courage the arms superiority and the brutal repression of Batista’s army.

On November 30th, 1956, a group of young people wrote one of the most memorable pages of our history. On that day, the Santiago terroir witnessed the realization of a bloody armed uprising that resounded throughout the country and marked the beginning of a new era of resistance against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

This audacious rebellion, conceived under the orders of Fidel Castro Ruz, aimed at destabilizing the regime through a climate of generalized insurrection, in support of the disembarkation of the expeditionaries of the Granma yacht, who had sailed from Mexico five days earlier to join the uprising. The strategy contemplated the neutralization of the troops stationed in Moncada and the stockpiling of weapons by attacking the Maritime and National Police, as well as an armory located in Dolores Square in Santiago de Cuba.

Wearing their olive green uniforms and the representative red and black armband of the 26th of July Movement, those heroes, led by Frank País García, faced with remarkable courage the arms superiority and the brutal repression of Batista’s army. The objective was to generate a domino effect, inciting simultaneous uprisings in other regions of the island. In fact, the uprising was replicated in Palma Soriano, Guantánamo, Las Tunas, Baire, Manzanillo, Pinar del Río, among other places, through sabotage, fires and other insurrectionist initiatives.

However, the rough sea hindered the timely arrival of the Granma rebels and that libertarian mob, which had to wait for the disembarkation to take place, precipitated its execution due to the lack of communication between the guerrillas, and the enemy, who did not hesitate to snatch the lives of José «Pepito» Tey, Antonio «Tony» Alomá and Otto Parellada, undermined the success of the initial plan.

This immortal epic that took place in the Hero City became a powerful fuel for the Cuban Revolution, an exemplary feat that once again demonstrated the patriotism and courage of the people and launched its vigorous struggle for emancipation until that January 1959 when victory was finally consolidated.

Written by Yadiel Barbón,