7-24-08, 9:01 am
HAVANA, Cuba (acn) Every July 26, Cubans celebrate with popular and cultural activities the National Day of Rebellion, which recalls the 1953 attack on the Moncada Garrison in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks in Bayamo, eastern Cuba.
The celebrations include a central rally, which takes part in the Cuban province that, during a period of one year, achieves the best economic and social performance. But, Why, when and where was July 26 declared National Day of Rebellion?
Early in the morning of July 26 1959, the Council of Ministers of the Cuban revolutionary government met at the Moncada garrison, six years after the attack on that military facility by a group of revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. The meeting, headed by then Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticos was brief. Participants recalled the heroes and martyrs of the historic event and reiterated their renewed commitment to building and defending the project that they had started at that site.
Armando Hart Davlos, then Education Minister made a proposal, which was unanimously approved: to declare July 26 National Rebelliousness Day. Hart Davalos supported his proposal with the fact that the assault on both garrisons marked the first rebellious action undertaken by the Cuban youth against the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship and the birth of a movement that unleashed the armed struggle, which defeated the bloody Batista government.
Participants at the meeting agreed that public activities on the occasion would include the commemoration of the historic event. The Cuban Council of Ministers also approved that July 30 was declared Martyrs of the Cuban Revolution Day, based on a proposal by then Agriculture Minister Pedro Miret Prieto, who was also part of the group who attacked the Moncada Garrison.
Other important moment in the meeting, which was broadcast on the radio, took place when Moncada participant Haydee Santamaria addressed the Cuban people and called on Fidel Castro, who was not present, to return to the post of Cuban Prime Minister. Fidel had resigned his post some days earlier to fight back a conspiracy staged by some right-wing members of the first government that ruled the country after 1959 and its president Manuel Urrutia. In her call Santamaria said, 'Fidel must continue as Prime Minister, since it is the will of the dead and the alive.' Some hours after that, Fidel resumed his work as Prime Minister during the July 26 central rally at Havana´s Revolution Square.
The meeting at the Moncada garrison concluded; later, participants took part at public gathering held at the Cespedes Park, in the old section of Santiago de Cuba, and they left for Havana.
Santiago de Cuba is the host of the 2008 central celebrations for the historic date. Some 160 local and foreign reporters will cover the activities, said Yusmila Zamora, Communist Party official in the province.
In recent days, Cuban First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura acknowledged the efforts and results of Santiago citizens in different social and economic fields. The current works in the sectors of housing, thoroughfares, basic services, social facilities and infrastructure in general will improve the economic development in the territory.
From the Cuban News Agency
