Cuban singer and songwriter Sara González said in one of her songs “the heroes are remembered without tears, they are reminded on the earth, and that makes me think that they have not died, and that they live there, where there is a man ready to fight… to continue. ”
Today, a whole country reaffirms those words by commemorating the 64th anniversary of the death of Frank País García and Raúl Pujol on San Germán street, Callejón del Muro corner, in Santiago de Cuba. Frank was not one more combatant but one of our most valuable men, demonstrating his boundless commitment to achieve independence from Cuba.
In 1952, with the military coup of March 10, his life underwent a radical change. The problems were increasing and the solutions were far away; he, his companions, neighbors and relatives felt closely the hard hand of imperialism, so he understood that the fight against the tyrant should be with weapons. From then on, he decided to organize action cells that later integrated the July 26 Movement, following Fidel's departure from prison.
As if that were not enough, the bravery of this intrepid young man did not wait for the evildoers to continue destroying their homeland. On November 30, 1956, he led an uprising, two days before the landing of the Granma yacht. This event showed that the Revolution would have a strong bulwark in Santiago workers, or as he said "it was a beautiful spectacle of an entire people fighting for freedom." The repression had to end, they no longer wanted more deaths, they wanted justice.
His skills were enough to be recognized as an excellent leader of the clandestine struggle in the Llano. He was barbarically arrested and tortured by the minions of Casillas, but his commitment to the liberating cause had no understandings or prices. From that bitter experience, he was forced to change his refuge very frequently. In one of those changes, on July 30, 1957, he was surprised and killed.
Upon learning about his death, the people of Santiago went to his funeral convinced of the greatness of this Cuban. The pain moved the closest people and bothered the tyranny, because its people raised slogans and rifles. His loss would not be in vain, "death with its impeccable function ... makes heroes and stories" and Frank País Garcia "has become dagger and rifle in the trench of will, love, conscience ..."