The Province of Granma

Granma is one of the five provinces in the "Oriente", Eastern Region of Cuba, the others being Las Tunas, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.  With an area of 8372 sq-Km it has flat plains on the north and rugged mountains on the south; it is crossed by Cuba's biggest river, Rio Cauto.

Granma has one of Cuba's greatest national parks, Gran Parque Nacional Sierra Maestra, with the third highest peak in Cuba - Pico Bayamesa (1730 meters).  Granma is also very fertile with rice fields, cattle ranches, sugar fields and coffee plantations.  But the largest legacy of the Province of Granma is its history.

Granma witnessed two wars of independence from Spain and the beginning of the struggle that earned Cuba's independence from the United States.

Bayamo is the capital city of the Province of Granma. It is 71 Km south of Holguín and 757 Km east of Havana.  Founded in 1513, Bayamo is one of the cradles of Cuban independence having witnessed many battles and destruction by its own townspeople to prevent it from falling into enemy's hands.  The whole city is scattered with reminders of its struggle for independence.  A bronze statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, hero of the First War of Independence, stands in Parque Céspedes together with a marble bust of Perucho Figueredo with the words of the national anthem of Cuba. The Museo Ñico López is a reminder of the hero who led the attack at the Bayamo garrison on July 26, 1953 hoping to support the assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.  Ñico López escaped to Guatemala where he met Che Guevara.  It was López who introduced Guevara to Fidel Castro, but López himself was killed after the Granma landing in 1956.

Cuban national anthem

The Poder Popular (People's Power) system is made up of municipal and provincial assemblies, and a national assembly, or Parliament, which is the highest political decision making body in the country.

The constitution of February 1976 provides for the 589 member Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular (National Assembly of the People's Power), or Parliament, elected every five years.  In July 1992 the constitution was amended to allow direct elections by universal suffrage and secret ballot.  Half the candidates are nominated by mass organizations, while the other half are chosen by elected municipal delegates from among their ranks (previously all were nominated by Communist Party committees).  The national Assembly elects the 31 member Consejo de Estado (Council of State), which has a president, first vice president, five additional vice presidents, and a secretary.  This body represents the National Assembly between its twice annual meetings and the Council's president is the head of government and state.  The president nominates a 44 member Consejo de Ministros (Council of Ministers), which must be confirmed by the National Assembly.

La Demajagua, near Manzanillo, is the place where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes freed his slaves and on October 11, 1868 launched the revolt against the Spanish marking the beginning of the First War of Independence that lasted ten years and culminating in Cuban independence 30 years later. It was nearby in the town of Yara where Céspedes proclaimed Cuba's independence in what is known as the Grito de Yara (Yara Declaration).

After the failed attempt to seize the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953 and a period of imprisonment, Fidel Castro departed for Mexico in May 1955.  In Mexico the underground resistance of the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) formed in Cuba, trained and equipped a revolutionary force and on December 2, 1956 Fidel Castro and 81 revolutionaries disembarked from the motor vessel Granma near Playa Las Coloradas. Soon after, Castro established a commanding post at La Plata high in the Sierra Maestra from where he directs the revolutionary efforts that finally led to the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista in January 1959.

At the highest point of the revolutionary struggle when Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos were defeating Batista's troops in the Sierra del Escambray, Fidel Castro's column took the town of Guisa, near Bayamo, after a fierce battle on November 30, 1958.  Castro himself gave his own reflections about the battle of Guisa in a speech he gave on November 25, 2000. In this speech he also makes reference to recent events related to an attempt against his life in Panama.

The CTC is the trade union confederation and is one of the most important mass organizations in Cuba.

The UJC or Union of Young Communists, is the mass organization that gathers Cuban youth and students.

The FMC is the Federation of Cuban Women founded in 1960.

In April 1895, José Martí - teacher, writer, poet and deep political thinker - landed near Baracoa in the Province of Guantanamo to launch the Second War of Independence, but in May 19, 1895 Martí was killed in battle at Dos Rios, 52 Km northeast of Bayamo.  The day before he was killed he wrote in an unfinished letter to a friend the following words:

I am every day now in danger of giving my life for my country and for my duty....... All I have done up to now, and I shall do hereafter, is to this end: prevent in good time that, with the independence of Cuba, the United States should expand over the Antilles and fall with that much more weight on other lands of our America".

José Martí is Cuba's national hero born on January 28, 1853. At a young age he became involved in anti colonial activities for which he lived in exile most of his life.  He was a prolific writer and thinker who lived in France, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela and finally in New York City.  It was his deep understanding of the U.S. that made him say that "he knew the monster since he lived in its entrails".

Martí expressed his identification with the poor and with the oppressed.  One of Martí's essential contributions was his advanced social thinking. According to him, the two roots that were to feed the republic were: the labour of men and women and homegrown ideas. He called U.S. imperialism by its name; denounced the role of monopolies and U.S. finance capital; put Latin American peoples on alert regarding the U.S. voracious expansionism.

It was his constant advocacy for Cuban independence that led to his election as Chief Delegate of the newly formed Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Party) in 1892.  It is believed that if Martí had not been killed he would have become the first president of the independent Cuba. Martí's political standing can be appreciated many years later after his death: In 1925 the first Cuban Communist Party was founded. One of the most outstanding members of its Central Committee was Carlos Baliño who had been a co-founder of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano together with Martí.

In a speech made by Martí to a graduating class in 1891, he stated the following:

If in the matter of my country, I would prefer a value above all others, 
a fundamental value that would be the support and principle of everyone
in the country, and without which all other values would be untrue and
uncertain, this would be the value that I would prefer:   I want that the 
first law of our republic be the reverence by Cubans to the full dignity of
humankind.

In September 1960 the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) were formed as mass organizations to consolidate grassroots support for the revolution.  These organizations are set up in all neighbourhoods across Cuba and now they play a decisive role in health, education, social and voluntary labour campaigns.

This is the capital city of the Province of Santiago de Cuba. Cubans often call it simply "Santiago".  It is Cuba's second largest city with more than 420,000 inhabitants, located 127 Km east of Bayamo.  It is a city rich in history and culture. Much of the fighting in both wars of independence took place in the province of Santiago.  Towards the end of the Second War of Independence, when Cuba was about to succeed, the U.S. intervened in Santiago de Cuba. They managed to have the Spanish surrender to them and the Cuban general Calixto García, and his largely black army, were not allowed to attend the ceremony.

On November 30, 1956 an uprising took place against Batista's troops in Santiago  to distract attention from the landing of Fidel Castro aboard the Granma; and it was in Santiago, just a little over two years later, on January 1, 1959, that Fidel Castro appeared on the balcony of the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) and declared the success of the revolution.  Santiago has the title of "Hero City of the Republic of Cuba".

This is an historic farm-house on the road to Santiago de Cuba from where at 5:15 am on July 26, 1953, a convoy of 26 cars under the command of Fidel Castro left to attack the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba.

On the morning of July 26, 1953 Fidel Castro and more than 100 revolutionaries launched an assault on the Moncada Barracks which was then the second most important military garrison in Cuba.  The revolutionaries hoped the assault would signal a general uprising throughout Cuba.  Of the 119 persons involved in the action, six died in combat and 55 were murdered after their capture by Batista's troops.  Fidel Castro and few others managed to escape only to be caught a few days later and put to trial.  At his trial Castro made his famous speech "History will absolve me", which became the platform for the Cuban Revolution. 

In 1960, after the triumph of the revolution, the Moncada barracks were converted into a school called Ciudad Escolar 26 de Julio (July 26 School City).

This town marks the beginning of the Gran Parque Nacional Sierra Maestra.  The region is well known as Fidel Castro's base of operations during the Cuban Revolution.

This is the command post established by Fidel Castro and his revolutionary troops in the Sierra Maestra.  The three Km walk from Alto del Naranjo includes a museum, field hospital, command post, the original site of Radio Rebelde, and Fidel's revolutionary residence.

Holguín is the capital city of the province by the same name. It was also the setting of a lot of fighting during the two wars of independence.  It has an international airport that brings tourists to the province. The locally brewed Mayabé beer is one the best in Cuba.

In every brigade close to the end of the trip, one night there is what is called the "Canadian night".  That is when we hope to show our Cuban friends some aspects of Canadian culture - culinary, dance, songs, etc.  You can contribute according to your skills.  We need to be prepared so we  bring items that we might need from Canada.  It is a night to share.