67 years after the survivors of the Moncada epic repudiated with their rebellious song the presence of Fulgencio Batista in the then model prison of Isla de Pinos, once again the Freedom March crossed the walls of history.
That epic then carried out by 26 assailants to the Guillermo Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks under the aegis of Fidel Castro (1926-2016), on behalf of the people was remembered by the Municipal Defense Council in reduced composition due to the health emergency by COVID-19.
The annals of history refer that at the sound of a military march, Juan Almeida (1927-2009) climbed a wall and when he saw the dictator Batista in the center of the procession, he warned his companions.
Batista had visited the National Prison for Men in order to inaugurate an Electric Plant, adjacent to the Hall of Pavilion number one of the prison hospital, where the young people of the generation of the centenary of the birth of José Martí were unjustly confined. That audacious act had as a response the repression of the henchmen of Presidio Modelo.
The next day, Fidel Castro was transferred alone to an individual cell, where he remained until his release on May 15, 1955, while Ramiro Valdés, Oscar Alcalde, Ernesto Tizzol and Israel Tápanes received humiliation in punishment cells for 15 years. On February 15, prisoner number 3842 Agustín Díaz Cartaya, composer of the hymn that transcended as the July 26 March, was taken to the punishment cell in a section for the insane, where he was also tortured.
15 years ago, in the current Monument of the Republic of Cuba, a marble slab was unveiled where the image of Díaz Cartaya and the text of the march sung in chorus by the Moncadistas are perpetuated.
This composition was commissioned by the historical leader of the Revolution on July 19, 1953 at the Santa Elena farm during the last shooting practice before the assaults on two military fortresses of the tyranny in the east of the country.