The genuine charm of a municipality

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 9 (ACN) Many of Havana's landmarks are in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, whose patrimonial charm is irresistibly attractive despite being the city’s fourth smallest one, with only 12.26 square kilometers.

Its most famous patriot is José Ramón Rodríguez López, born in the neighborhood of El Vedado on August 17, 1937 and who on August 7, 1957, at the corner of 18th and 19th streets, was gunned down by police officers of the dictatorship imposed by the self-proclaimed General Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar.

Hours after the tragic event, his body appeared on a stretcher at the Rafael Freyre de Andrade Emergency Hospital, seriously injured and unconscious because of a bullet wound in his head that took his life on the 11th of that same month.

José Ramón Rodríguez López became one of the many young people who fought against Batista's regime. At 15, he assumed responsibilities that made him one of the most persecuted revolutionaries by Captain Esteban Ventura Novo’s henchmen.

He created the Student Federation of Private Education Centers and organized cell No. 8 of resistance and sabotage of the 26th of July Movement in Havana.

On August 12, 1957 those who carried his coffin on their shoulders all the way to the Cristobal Colon Cemetery while they shouted slogans against the ferocious tyranny sang the Cuban National Anthem as they lowered the box into his grave.

They had covered the coffin was covered with the flag he loved so much and that of the 26th of July Movement and pinned on his chest the star of Commander killed in action.

One of the distinctive features of this municipality is its coat of arms, which shows the monument of the Revolution Square and allegories to the seawall avenue and to the University of Havana, the oldest in Cuba, founded in 1728.

At 142 meters above sea level—the tallest in Cuba—and topped with a five-point star a few meters above the lookout, in front of the Square, stands the José Martí Memorial Monument, defiantly beauty and coated with white marble from the Isle of Youth.

From that height you can see the historical esplanade, venue of multiple parades and rallies in support of the Revolution right in front of the statue of our National Hero, José Martí.

Nearby, the university staircase stands out. Built in the 1920s, it is a clear symbol of the revolutionary student struggles against Machado and Batista, and the starting point of the March of the Torches on January 28, 1953. It is also reminiscent of the burial of Julio Antonio Mella's ashes on September 29, 1933 and of the death in combat of the university student leader José Antonio Echeverría on March 13, 1957.

As if that were not enough, this municipality boasts the FOCSA building, a representation of the highest level achieved in vertical development and one of the seven wonders of the nation's civil engineering.

A short distance away is 23rd Avenue and La Rampa, which runs from the seawall avenue to L Street, lined with airline offices, movie theaters, nightclubs, hotels, restaurants and stores.

Another masterpiece is Malecon, Cuba's most famous maritime promenade. It is a six-lane avenue along which, by the sidewalk, is the wall where thousands of people sit to watch the blue sea, the passing ships, or the beloved face of those who are sharing the beautiful sight of the sunset with them.

There is also Havana’s widest avenue, named Salvador Allende (formerly Carlos III), inaugurated in 1836.

Plaza de la Revolución is also home to the local baseball team Industriales, one of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara’s brainchildren when he was Minister of Industry, and to the Almendares River, which crosses eight of the province’s municipalities. Besides, many State Central Administration bodies, institutions, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Palace of the Revolution are located in this area.

On November 25, five years after the physical departure of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, the Fidel Castro Ruz Center was opened in El Vedado, on an evening ceremony that Army General Raúl Castro Ruz described as "the most exciting thing I have ever seen in my life". It is devoted to the study and dissemination of Fidel’s thoughts, work, life and example so that we can all get closer, from the heart, to one of the greatest men in Cuban history.