SANTIAGO DE CUBA — "...There is no heart in Cuba that does not feel all that we owe to this dear old woman," wrote José Martí about Mariana Grajales Cuello, from the depths of his soul, which explains why, on the 205th anniversary of the Maceo family mother’s birth, July 12, she was honored at Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, where her remains rest.
A floral wreath was deposited at her tomb in the name of the Cuban people, in the presence Party Central Committee members and the highest authorities of the Provincial Defense Council, Lázaro Expósito Canto and Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, while a ceremonial detachment of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, composed of young women, served as the honor guard.
"She was a strong, active woman," stated Graciela Pacheco Feria, researcher and descendant of the Maceo-Grajales family, "and in ten years of harsh war, her spirit of rebellion never wavered. She did not accept the Pact of Zanjon which left a bitter taste and deep regret in the heart of a mother and patriot.
Today we remember her with great pride…not only as the mother of the Maceo family, but also as a woman who broke with the limitations of the times, was proud of her gender and stood up as a banner of freedom, a genuine representative of our cultural and national identity that was being developed.”
After Pacheco’s remarks, Expósito and Johnson placed flowers alongside the monument dedicated to a person who, in her own right, shares with Martí, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Fidel, a special place in the cemetery, reserved for the founders of the Cuban nation.
Another heartfelt tribute to Mariana Grajales took place this July 12 in Havana, convened by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba’s José Antonio Aponte Commission and its Culture, Gender and Equity Commission. Luis Morlote Rivas, president of the organization, led the commemoration, attended by a number of cultural figures, who deposited flowers in the park here bearing her name, on behalf of all intellectuals, artists and the Cuban people.
