Cuba honors Mariana Grajales on the anniversary of her birthday

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 12 (ACN) Through his Twitter account, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz recalled Mariana Grajales, the Mother of the Homeland, on the occasion of the 208th anniversary of her birth and described the heroine as an example of a woman and a Cuban and a brave patriot devoted to Cuban freedom.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Cuban vice president Salvador Valdés Mesa, also posted messages celebrating Mariana, whom they call the mother of all Cuban patriots and a symbol of all the women who engaged in Cuban wars for independence.

Born in the city of Santiago de Cuba, Mariana Grajales Cuello (1815-1893) was a patriot who pointed her children the way for the achievement of Cuba's freedom. All of them, as well as her husband, joined the Independence War in 1868. By the time the war ended, Mariana only had four sons left, whereas her two girls, Baldomera and Dominga, also participated by working in field hospitals.

All Cubans remember the time when the outstanding mambi fighter’s son Antonio suffered his first war wound in combat on May 20, 1869, she turned to her youngest son Marcos and told him, “Arise, for it’s time for you to fight for your homeland like your siblings”.

On October 10, 2017, her remains were buried alongside those of [Cuba’s Founding Father] Carlos Manuel de Céspedes at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, home to the tomb of the National Apostle of Cuba José Martí and to the ashes of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro.