SANTIAGO DE CUBA.- This April 18, on behalf of all Cubans, the people of Santiago de Cuba paid tribute to the man who initiated the nation’s independence struggles, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, on the 198th anniversary of his birth in Bayamo.
During the ceremony, held in the early morning before the monument where his remains are buried in the city’s Santa Ifigenia Cemetary, an honor guard detail from the Revolutionary Armed Forces laid a floral wreath before the majestic memorial, and raised both the national flag and that raised in La Demajagua, in honor of an individual whose virtues would lead Cuba’s National Hero José Martí to describe him as “The man of marble.”
Following a poetry reading by a young elementary school student, the director of the Party school located in the neighborhood of José Martí, Edgar Figueredo López, recalled the patriotic actions of a man who on October 10, 1868, freed his slaves at the La Demajagua plantation and led an uprising against Spanish colonial rule.
With students, workers and members of the Association of Combatants of the Revolution in attendance, the ceremony was presided by First Party Secretary for the municipality of Santiago de Cuba, Jorge Luis Velázquez Díaz, and President of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power, Raúl Fornés Valenciano.