Julio Antonio Mella. Foto: Internet
Julio Antonio Mella was born on March 25, 1903. He was registered with his father's name and a maternal surname. From an early age, he was always aware of the most progressive social currents. He was a diligent reader and student, a young man with an easy verb.
In 1921, he enrolled at the University of Havana with the aim of obtaining the degrees of Doctor in Civil Law and in Philosophy and Letters. University education was his first stage of struggle. In the secretariat of the Directorate of the University Students Federation, in 1922, he was in charge of the administration and the ideological themes of the university magazine Alma Máter, of which he was the most inspiring.
In the twenties the university students unleashed the fight against corruption, the request for new statutes and the student strike. Mella gained prestige and support until becoming the undisputed leader and being elected president of the University Student Federation in 1923.
In 1924 he joined the Communist Association of Havana and chairs the Anticlerical Federation. He collaborates with the Veterans and Patriots Movement and participates in the founding of the Cuban section of the Antimperialist League of the Americas and the Communist Party of Cuba in August 1925.
For his revolutionary activities and constant challenges to the government of Gerardo Machado he was imprisoned. Once liberated, Mella takes refuge in exile and leaves for Mexico. There, he continued his work as head of the Mexican Communist Party and founded the Association of New Cuban Revolutionary Emigrants and the newspaper Cuba libre.
From Havana, Machado issued the death warrant for Julio Antonio Mella. On January 10, 1929, around 11 pm, a bullet went through his back and the other reached his arm. Although he was assisted at the hospital, he did not survive and died after midnight. His last words are known: "I die for the Revolution". Thus the undisputed leader of the Cuban youth of the twenties lost his life.