Eastern Cuban province honors Fidel’s visit in February 1959

"I have a feeling that I had not been able to show, a wish that I had not been able to fulfill: that of visiting and meeting with the people of Holguin", were the opening words of the historic speech delivered by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, on February 26, 1959, only 56 days after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

Fidel Castro wanted to hear from those gathered there what their main needs were, not different from the needs that hundreds of towns across Cuba had endured under Batista’s dictatorship: schools, hospitals, paving, sewage, aqueducts, water filters, and many other long-neglected public services.

Another major concern of the locals was that there were no universities in the eastern region. Fidel told them that one day they would have their own, and indeed, the University of Holguin was inaugurated in 1973 as a branch of the one in the city of Santiago de Cuba. This center was eventually followed by the Schools of Medical Sciences and of Physical Culture, the Higher Pedagogical Institute and the Higher Mining and Metallurgical Institute in Moa, as part of the efforts to make education universal in the province.

The Holguineros also saw the birth in 1965 of the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Hospital, the most important in the region, and other health-related entities, as well as new schools and institutions.

Since Fidel's first speech in this province on that day of 1959, the province of Holguin has witnessed all sorts of social changes and enjoyed the multiple opportunities that a more just society "with all and for the good of all" can provide.