July 30 is a day that smells of gunpowder and jasmine, of young blood spilled on the streets of Santiago, where the history of Cuba was written with bullets and hope.
Frank País García, the young man who became a soldier, the strategist with a calm gaze and creative hands, fell riddled with bullets from the tyranny. Alongside him was Raúl Pujol, another young man whose crime was to love Cuba more than his own life. The Batista dictatorship believed that by killing men it would kill ideas. It never considered the fire it would ignite with their deaths.
When Frank País's body was carried through the streets of Santiago on the shoulders of mourners, the shocked people turned his funeral into the biggest protest against Batista. Women dressed in mourning, workers with their fists raised, students with flags of the 26th of July, swore on his grave that the struggle would not cease.
"We must come here every year to remember the dead of the Revolution, but it must be like an examination of the conscience and conduct of each one of us (...)", Fidel declared on the second anniversary of Frank's death.
The history of Cuba is a string of sacrifices, and July 30, 1957, is one of its most painful links. This day echoes those years when Cuba was a battlefield and every young person carried in their heart the dilemma of being free or a martyr.
That is why this date, the Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution, is not only a day of mourning, but also a promise. It is the memory of the thousands of Cubans who, from 1868 until the last shot was fired in the Sierra, gave their lives for a free country. They are the hands of José Martí, writing the future; the smile of Camilo, which never fades; the verses of Bonifacio Byrne, which still sing to the flag.
Today we remember those who clearly understood that "to die for the homeland is to live."
Their names burn in the soul of this nation, scarred but indomitable, in which every heartbeat is an echo of those who sowed freedom with blood and heroism.
As long as there is a child who recites their verses, a young person who studies their history, a worker who defends their achievements, the martyrs of July 30 will continue to ride through time, like horsemen of dignity.
This is their day, our day, the day when Cuba opens the veins of memory and bleeds pride. The entire island, with its chest turned into a loudspeaker, shouts the oath carved in bronze: Your sacrifice was not in vain! Until victory, always!
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