History gave us one of its best pages, as one of the largest contingents of young people left the Roja Villa to begin the armed struggle on July 26, 1953. It is said that this territory of the western region, then belonging to The former province of Pinar del Río, was the main center of the movement organized by Commander Fidel Castro.
Fourteen revolutionaries went to the country's most heroic call. The municipalities of Artemisa, Guanajay and Pinar del Río were represented and most of these young people died after the action. Three other participants in the attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Granma, were expeditionaries of the Granma yacht and gave their lives after landing, on December 2, 1956.
In the book “Antes del Moncada” by several authors, the Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez recalls that there were great difficulties. "The few weapons we had at the beginning of the fight, but at the same time: the seriousness, discipline, enthusiasm and confidence in the future and in Fidel, of that group of combatants," he said.
All the heroes and martyrs of Artemis are remembered, but when talking about Ciro Redondo, Julito Díaz and José Ramón Martínez Álvarez (Guanajay) the story acquires another significance. It was not enough for Ciro to participate in the actions of July 26; after prison he was also an expeditionary of the Granma yacht and fell in combat in the Sierra Maestra at just twenty-two years old.
Julito Díaz was a hardware store worker; After twenty-two months imprisoned on the Isla of Pinos, he went into exile in Mexico, came on the Granma yacht and died gloriously during the attack on Uvero, on May 28, 1957. José Ramón, from Guanajay, a simple and brave young worker , was in the action of the Palace of Justice under the command of Raúl Castro. After his arrival in Cuba on the yacht, he was murdered days later in Alegría de Pío.
In these three names, much of the national history remains and what happened that July 26 in the East of the country. From Artemis and other areas of Pinar del Rio, death served to understand “the purity of the popular roots on which the building of the revolution has been built”, as quoted in the book “Before the Moncada”. "(...) they had in their blood the unhappy and rebellious spirit of the working and exploited classes (...) led to the action of July 26 the generosity, the cleansing of ideals and the most absolute detachment."
