This is Frank País!.
Con apenas 22 años Frank País García fue asesinado por los esbirros de Batista el 30 de julio de 1957 en el Callejón del Muro, una calle de Santiago de Cuba.
Something in him had germinated since that March 10th. The coup d’état that gloated in bringing the homeland to its knees, broke Frank’s possible fears. Cuba had to be defended, even though he was just a young man of 18 with plans to get married and start a family.
From then on he did not stop working, first as a student leader and then at the head of the clandestine struggle in Santiago de Cuba; he was able to organize the uprising of November 30th in support of the landing of the Granma yacht.
He knew that his life was in danger and for that reason, as one of his comrades told, Frank País García only asked for one more month to leave well organized the supply of weapons, ammunition and men, in order to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
That July 30th, 1957, the 38 caliber pistol he carried under his shirt would be the perfect justification for the henchmen who were chasing him. «This is Frank País, Colonel!», confirmed a former classmate, after recognizing his brave young face behind the dark glasses and that vile shout was enough for them to brutally attack him and his friend of struggle, Raúl Pujol Arencibia.
The ferocious noise of the machine gun shocked the Callejón del Muro and its surroundings, while Frank País received 22 bullets in cold blood and his friend had no better luck. The following day Santiago de Cuba mourned the death of these two sons in funeral processions that covered more than 20 blocks.
Flowers from balconies, emotional speeches, strikes that extended for almost a week and even to other provinces, spoke louder than those gunshots.
Two young men had been unjustly murdered again. The soul of the clandestine struggle had died and the people carried him dressed in olive green, with an armband of the 26th of July Movement, to the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia.
But that young David, as he was also secretly called, would inspire the people to fight even harder against the bloody wave of persecutions and tortures. He thus became another reason to defend Cuba and the honor of all its martyrs.
Written by Jeidi Suárez García.
