Respect for the word.

That Santa Ana morning when the Centennial Generation confronted Fulgencio Batista’s army at the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes garisons, eleven natives of the province of Matanzas participated.

Infography: Tania Rosa Álvarez Acosta.

Matanzas is a land of rebellion. Events carried out by the aborigines that inhabited the region and the slave rebellions in the area of Triunvirato, have come as legitimate inheritance to all the generations of children of this town.

Hence the presence of matanceros in the epic of July 26th, 1953.

That morning of Santa Ana in which Martí’s Centennial Generation confronted the army of dictator Fulgencio Batista at the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Bayamo, eleven natives of the western province of Matanzas participated.

Along with physician Mario Muñoz Monroy, from the municipality of Colón, were his fellow countrymen Gerardo Álvarez Álvarez, Héctor de Armas Erasti (survivor), Mario Martínez Ararás and his brother Raúl, who later betrayed his comrades in struggle.

Also included in this list of young people whose commitment to the homeland led them to the walls of Moncada are Julio Reyes Cairo from Jagüey, brothers Horacio and José Wilfredo Matheu Olivera, and Félix Rivero Vasallo, all from the municipality of Pedro Betancourt, as well as Israel Tápanes Vento (survivor) from Matanzas.

The group was completed by Calixto García Martínez, who after saving his life followed the leaders of the movement and became an expeditionary of the Granma and combatant of the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra.

After the triumph of the Revolution, Calixto García held important positions and responsibilities within the Revolutionary Armed Forces, among which the most important was that of chief of the Eastern and Central armies.

About that presence of Matanzas people in the actions of July 26th, Clara Enma Chávez Álvarez, Master in Social Studies, highlighted.

«The whole issue lies in the fact that Fidel, from the university classrooms and also within the orthodoxy, had been linked by that way with many matanceros who lived or worked in Havana.

«We cannot forget that it was the time when large hotels were being built in the Cuban capital and many young people from Matanzas were moving there in search of work, which is why many of them worked in construction.

«The proximity between Havana and Matanzas causes that in many aspects of Cuban history, the children of both provinces are mixed. An example of this is the assault on the Domingo Goicuría barracks in the city of Matanzas. There, most of the assailants were from Havana or Matanzas and lived in the capital.

The preparations for July 26th were no exception. Havana and its strong attractions made possible the exchange between Fidel and the young people in the capital itself, but on many occasions the meetings were held in Matanzas.

«Here Fidel met and visited Julio Reyes Cairo, leader of the Orthodox Youth in the municipality of Colón, Jaime López, in the area of Pedro Betancourt and Dr. Mario Muñoz, a Colombian who, in addition to medicine, liked aviation».

For that reason, Clara Enma recalls, it was the old Pepe Barrientos airport, near the Bellamar Caves, the place chosen for some of the interviews that Fidel held with Muñoz Monroy in early 1953.

«What could Fidel and Mario be talking about in such a secluded place? Logically about the action of the 26th, because in such a place, one more visitor did not attract attention».

Under those conditions, Fidel was forming the select group of eleven Matanceros who accompanied him in the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

Willingness and courage to give their lives for the definitive freedom, patriotism and above all respect for their word, characterized most of the Matanceros who inscribed their names in the pages of July 26th, 1953.

Written by Ana González Goicochea.