Cuba pays tribute to Celia Sanchez Manduley

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 11 (ACN) “Our permanent tribute to the most autochthonous flower of the Revolution, Celia Sanchez Manduley, who protected and embellished like few others the history and legacy of Fidel Castro since their days in the Sierra Maestra mountains as the first woman guerrilla of the Rebel Army,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote today on X about the Cuban revolutionary fighter, politician and researcher who died 44 years ago.

On his end, Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power, referred to Celia as an extraordinary woman and recalled the words of the intellectual Armando Hart when he said: "Celia was and will always be (...) the most intimate and dearest fiber of the Revolution, the most beloved of our sisters….”.

Likewise, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and deputy prime minister Inés María Chapman posted messages in honor of the woman that they described as sensitive and kind revolutionary committed to Fidel and the Homeland.

Celia Sánchez Manduley (1920-1980) joined the 26th of July Movement and organized a clandestine network of peasants that proved vital for the survival of the fighters that disembarked in southeastern Cuba on December 2, 1956 and later became the Rebel Army, of which she was the first woman soldier.

After the triumph of 1959, she took on important responsibilities as secretary of the Council of State, deputy to the Parliament, and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and of the National Directorate of the Federation of Cuban Women.