On December 2, 1956, an 82-strong expeditionary force of resolved patriots led by Fidel Castro, ready to do anything in the struggle against the Batista dictatorship, arrived in Cuba from Mexico on board the yacht Granma.
Such a thumbnail description could portray the date as just another milestone among the hazardous events of the liberation war, but that difficult day became a special symbol in that it is marked as the birth date of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, then made of the nascent and heroic Rebel Army.
Having been exposed to imprisonment and great dangers in Mexico, especially the stalking of hitmen hired by Batista and FBI agents, the revolutionaries had to prepare everything in secrecy before their departure from Veracruz on the yacht Granma, procured by a faithful friend.
The arrival at the inhospitable Cuban beach where the boat ran aground rather than dock also went down on Cuban history as the day when the dream of definitive freedom was reborn, based on their strategic plan to reach the Sierra Maestra mountains, bound to become the main stage of the liberation war.
Joining Fidel were Cuban patriots, an Italian, and a few Latin American
