Top Issue 1-2024

28 October 2010

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Sierra Maestra Walk | Blog: Moncada Barracks and Cuban Women's Federation

Camilo CienfuegosWednesday 20th October

ON our second morning in Santiago de Cuba we began the day with a visit to Moncada Barracks. This was the location of the first action of Fidel Castro’s revolution and it was at this site on 26th July 1963 that young men from all over Cuba were shot dead by the Batista Government. It was also the site of torture of many of the revolutionaries. The museum there had artefacts which demonstrate all that the prisoners had endured.

The Moncada attack also resulted in the arrest and incarceration of Fidel Castro.  While in the prison hospital, the Batista Government, having deliberately certified Fidel as mentally unstable, attempted to poison the leader of the revolution. It demonstrates the power of Fidel’s character and the message of the revolution that the doctors in the hospital would not administer the poison to Fidel. When Fidel, representing himself, was brought to trial he made the historic “History will absolve me” speech which has inspired revolutionaries all over the world since then.

On arrival at Moncada Barracks, our guide, the museum director, explained that schools are incorporated into many of the museums across Cuba. The Sinn Féin delegation had the privilege of visiting a Cuban classroom where the children demonstrated their love of their country by singing the National Anthem for us. It was an amazing experience for the group to have young children of 8 years old welcoming us so warmly and being so polite and appreciative for the Che Guevara and Bobby Sands badges which we gave them. It was a moving experience for the group to see the actual bullet holes in the barracks and the similarities between the treatment of political prisoners in Ireland and Cuba. In fact, the Cuban people hold their POWs in the same esteem as we do in Ireland.

Thursday 21st October

We left Santiago de Cuba for Granma province this morning.

On arrival at the town of Bayamo, the hometown of our guide Ezekhiel, our first stop was at the ICAP friendship house where we had the extremely humbling experience of meeting veterans of the revolution. These men had actually fought in the Sierra Maestra with Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and Fidel Castro. Many of them had fought in various battlefields across the African continent: in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Congo. This is in keeping with their belief in mankind above everything else as they explained their love of Cuba was second only to their love of humankind. They also explained their belief that although the military aspect of the struggle in Cuba has ended, the revolution continued a parallel which was not lost on our delegation.

Vilma Espin (right) with Celia Sanchez

After lunch we had a meeting with the Cuban Women’s Federation, established in 1960 by Vilma Espin, wife of Raul Castro, following the triumph of the revolution. The Women’s Federation protects the rights and interests of all Cuban women for example they have influenced the length of maternity leave in Cuba and they have advocated for the introduction of paternity leave as well. The women we met explained that in the Cuban culture women are very highly regarded in society.  The women in our delegation led the discussion and we explained the high esteem in which women are held in the republican struggle. We explained the historical significance of women such as Constance Markievicz, herself a military and political revolutionary, and the contribution made by women through all the decades of struggle to the point we reach today where we have women holding positions of party Vice-President, National Secretary, Minister of Education, Minister of Agriculture and MEP. In the Cuban political system, 47% of elected reps are female, something we aspire to at home.

In the evening, after dinner, we experienced the heartfelt hospitality of the Cuban people at firsthand when we visited a neighbourhood in Bayamo where the people held a street party for us. We were speechless at the sigh which greeted us on disembarking our bus – people coming down the street to welcome us, children laughing and singing. Everybody was so happy that we had come to visit them. It was simultaneously a humbling and uplifting experience. The people had prepared a concert of music and poetry for us and a banquet of Cuban food. We reciprocated with Barry singing the Irish ballad ‘Long Kesh’.  The Cuban love of singing and dancing was very apparent and we danced together to ‘son’, ‘salsa’ and ‘timba’ music.  We ended the night with a Congo back to the bus with the local people waving and cheering us on our way.  It was amazing that we had thought these people were poor – they are richer than us in every way bar materialistically

– Dale Moore

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