On September 5, 1957, members of the 26th of July Movement, some Navy officers and personnel and the people in general made history by uprising in the city of Cienfuegos against Batista’s better equipped army.
Despite being outgunned, their courageous action in support of the liberation campaign already under way in the Sierra Maestra mountains placed Cienfuegos at the center of the Homeland’s heart, even if they failed to meet their tactical goals.
On that day, valuable children of our country lost their lives, so this is a sacred act of remembrance in honor of a revolt that Fidel valued years later as a truly resolute and heroic battle resulting from the Cuban people’s growing awareness that a frontal struggle was then the most suitable way to achieve justice in the country, in the spirit of those who had been fighting in the east since the late 1956.
The assault still maintains its full glory after so many years as the local population visit, in an annual pilgrimage, the cemetery where the remains of the heroes massacred by the dictatorship rest.
The rebels took Cayo Loco and other enclaves of a city whose citizens had the courage to defy the corrupt and murderous ruler and to offer their support in a sobering day of light and commitment that made them taste full free