MANZANILLO, Granma.— Beyond the simple respect for a historical figure, the tribute to Celia Sánchez offered by the people of this city yesterday was a demonstration of intimate affection for a loved one, on the 35th anniversary of her death.
On each step of the beautiful stairway dedicated to the legendary heroine of the Sierra and the llano, people gathered for the national commemorative ceremony headed by Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, member of the Party Central Committee Secretariat, together with Roberto Montesinos, head of Department of the Central Committee; Sonia Pérez Mojena, most senior political authority in Granma and Teresa Amarelle Boué, general secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women.
Amarelle Boué praised Celia as an example of the enduring values that she preached and practiced: patriotism, loyalty, modesty and an inexhaustible human sensitivity to understand and address the problems of the people.
“We must take on her qualities and teach the lessons of her life to young people,” she said, referring not only to Celia’s combatant heroism, but to the exemplary woman she was in the personal sphere.
Susanne Santiesteban, a pre-university student, highlighted that for the younger generations, discovering the history of Celia is to encounter one of the most worthy examples to follow as men and women of true integrity, because she “personified sensitivity, responsibility and love.”
With verses, flowers, dances and songs, the town of Manzanillo paid homage to the heroine, linked to this region by natural ties of blood and her absolute loyalty at the critical moments of the guerilla struggle.
A fitting tribute
With a pilgrimage to the Pantheon of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) in the Colón Cemetery, where the remains of the Celia Sánchez lie, the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC) in Havana, remembered her this Sunday on the 35th anniversary of her death.
Rolando Alfonso Borges, head of Department of the Party Central Committee; Homero Acosta Alvarez, secretary of the Council of State, and Brigadier General Delsa Esther Pueblas Viltres, decorated Hero of the Republic of Cuba, led the tribute.
Actress Corina Mestre, recited the poem entitled, “Cuban women through history,” while the General Secretary of the FMC in the capital, Lissette González García, said that Celia synthesized the essence of human and revolutionary values, she was a fervent follower of Marti and a soldier of justice, besides her infinite loyalty to the Revolution and the Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz.
She emphasized that Celia was one of the most important Cuban women in the clandestine struggle and that after the Revolution she dedicated her life to fulfilling important tasks until her death on January 11, 1980.
