July 30, the day of sacrificed heroes

A sovereign decision of the government of the people in power proclaimed July 30 as the Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution, during the first national commemorative act of the assaults on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes in Bayamo, in homage to all the fallen for freedom and especially to Frank País García and Raúl Pujol Arencibia, vilely murdered in 1957 on the date established for the veneration.

“It is Santiago de Cuba, do not be amazed at anything”, described for the sacred memory the poet Manuel Navarro Luna the great commotion, pain and anger awakened before the horrendous crime that cut short the lives of Frank, head of Action and Sabotage of the 26th of July Movement, with only 22 years old; along with his companion of fight in the famous Callejón del Muro, killed near the house of the second mentioned, where they had taken refuge because of the persecution of the tyrant.

Colossal and full of courage was the popular demonstration that became the burial of both revolutionaries, on July 31 and thus the citizens of Santiago, on behalf of the entire nation, showed their strength without a hint of fear, giving face and chest to the weapons that were aimed at them in corners and squares of the streets traveled in defiant human tide.

On the date of the assassination of Frank Pais, a young man full of light and heroic, the tribute of Cubans to all their compatriots who died for independence, freedom and the ideals of social justice since the beginning of the libertarian struggle on October 10, 1868, when the unique and vast Cuban Revolution began, is very valid.

A month before, his brother Josue, only 19 years old, died massacred in another crime of the dictatorship together with two companions of the cause.

With the war nickname of David, Frank was a member of the National Directorate of the 26th of July Movement, founded in 1955 by Fidel before leaving for exile. He headed the Action and Sabotage front, a responsibility that made him deploy an incessant activity, risky and without a care in the world, all over the city.

He had not yet stopped when, after the events of the uprising of November 30, 1956, organized by him in support of the landing of the Granma yacht, he was imprisoned and tried. When he was released from prison, he was on file and under heavy surveillance by Fulgencio Batista's henchmen, who were committing crimes all over Cuba.

He then sought a way to meet with Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra in February of that year and did not cease in the organizational work to send men, weapons and medicines to the armed struggle initiated in the mountain range.

He worked as a teacher after graduating from the Normal School of Santiago de Cuba. He was of very humble birth and son of two modest Spanish emigrants from Galicia. His father, a Protestant pastor, and his mother, was the breadwinner of the family with the early death of the father.

A convinced Martiano, he was a militant since his adolescence in various student organizations in high school, in which he played a leading role in the pursuit of justice.

Noble, serious, and at the same time very cheerful, he identified himself with the usual forms of youthful entertainment such as music, parties, and was dedicated to the plastic arts in an amateur way.

His patriotism was strengthened by the coup d'état perpetrated by Batista in 1952, and also by his work as a teacher at the El Salvador School. In 1954, the year of his graduation, he founded the Eastern Revolutionary Action (ARO), together with Pepito Tey and other friends, with the objective of assuming the armed struggle as a method of combat.

Upon learning of the creation of the M-26-7, he contacts Fidel and requests his membership in the new organization. The ARO led by him joins the new organization. There is no doubt of his great sense of the historical moment and of his political evolution in permanent maturation.

Raul Pujol was born on December 2, 1918 in Palma Soriano, near Santiago. At a young age he moved to live in the former capital of the province of Oriente.

In his homeland he was able to own a small hardware store, working hard, which he later put almost entirely at the service of the cause, which he embraced at a very early age. He was also a vertical militant, willing to do anything and very daring.

The day of the assassination of both, Frank had been sheltering in Raul's house, near that place, but a tip-off put the assassins on the trail of the revolutionaries and their agents began to search the houses in the neighborhood. Raul found out about the inspection while he was outside. He alerted his partner and agreed to meet him soon, to leave the area. Too late.

They were walking trying not to be identified when they were intercepted, recognized by a former classmate of Frank's, at that time a casquito, and vilely killed in the middle of the street.

Fidel Castro, from the mountains of the Sierra Maestra, condemned the barbarism and referred to the extraordinary courage of the legendary Frank País.

To remember them today in a special way, together with the legion of other unforgettable compatriots, is a duty and an honor that good Cubans will always fulfill.