Guantanamo.- Today, July 30, Cuba pauses its pulse to honor their memory. Sixty-eight years have not dulled the echo of those shots fired on San Bartolomé Street, in heroic Santiago de Cuba City.
Frank País García, the Chief of Action and Sabotage for the 26th of July Movement, was just 22 years old, along with his brave comrade-in-arms Raúl Pujol Arencibia, were riddled with bullets by henchmen in the service of Fulgencio Batista’s tyranny.
Their young blood, shed in 1957, forever marked the Day of the Martyrs of the Cuban Revolution.
Frank was not just a name; he represented organization, intelligence, and audacity. From the underground movement in Santiago de Cuba, he wove the network that supported the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra.
Simultaneously with the landing of the yacht Granma in eastern Cuba, he organized the armed uprising on November 30, 1956, in order to keep the oppressive forces busy. His strategic mind and unwavering ethics turned the youth of the eastern region into the backbone of the insurrection.
Along with Raúl Pujol, he shared the total dedication and the secret of the underground struggle.
The morning of July 30 was a cowardly ambush. The denunciation led the henchmen to his refuge. Frank and Raúl, surprised but never surrendered, faced their fate with the dignity known only to heroes.
His assassination was not the end the tyranny had hoped for; it was the spark that ignited the sacred wrath of the people. The workers of Santiago declared a spontaneous general strike. This strike was the largest popular demonstration in the city up to that point. The mobilization of July 30, 1957 is considered one of the most decisive dates in both the Cuban Revolution and the fall of Batista’s dictatorship.
The legacy of Frank País and Raúl Pujol transcends in the marble and bronze. It is the heartbeat of every young Cuban who defends their homeland today.
They embody the rebellious lineage, intelligence at the service of justice, and serene courage in the face of adversity. Their example is a compass, reminding us that the vanguard is not a place, but a commitment, that to be young in Cuba means carrying in your blood Frank’s impulse to create, to resist, to build, always looking ahead on the sovereignty and dignity of the nation.
Sixty-eight years after their vile murder, Frank and Raúl are not echoes of the past, they are voices of the present. Their sacrifice resonates in the classrooms, in the fields, in the laboratories, wherever committed Cuban youth are present.
Today, as yesterday, his legacy is a banner: that of a youth who know that defending the Homeland is the highest honor.
