On July 26, 1953, the mobilization of the Cuban people began in response to the grave situation created by Fulgencio Batista with his coup d'état on March 10, 1952, and in view of the urgent need to find a way out that would allow the eradication of the economic and social ills resulting from the U.S. control that had taken over the island. The forces of the people, with the young Fidel Castro at the head, in the year of the centenary of the birth of José Martí, undertook an armed popular insurrection, with a previously structured tactical plan where the surprise assaults on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, in Bayamo, Granma, constitute the first step of a group of people determined to arm the Cuban people and start a revolution, and induce the awakening of the popular conscience to overthrow a dictator and the power that supported him . The 26th of July Movement thus became the historical event that would initiate a political and military organization that would give birth to the future Rebel Army, led by the young lawyer Fidel Castro, who would become the leader of the Cuban Revolution, achieving the definitive victory on January 1st, 1959 .

For 68 years now, the people of the Caribbean nation have been honoring the memory of that "Centennial Generation", which faced the dictatorship of the then coup president, Fulgencio Batista, in search of profound political, economic and social transformations, to put an end to foreign oppression, misery, unemployment, unhealthiness and ignorance that weighed on the homeland and the Cuban people, but above all to vindicate the human rights of the population, for a dignified life.

The assault on the barracks: The revolutionaries organized themselves into two leadership committees: a military one, under the command of Fidel, and a civilian one, led by Abel Santamaría. The operation was carried out with the utmost secrecy and secrecy; it was a selective organization of the members, peasants, employees, modest professionals were recruited. They were men and women of humble class and most of them were young; the act was programmed for that Sunday July 26, day of carnival festival in order to go unnoticed. In Moncada they were organized in three groups, the first one with Fidel at the head, would attack the fortress. The other two groups, commanded respectively by Abel Santamaría and Raúl Castro, would take two important adjacent buildings: the Civil Hospital, to attend to the wounded, and the Palace of Justice, from whose rooftop they would support the main action. The "Moncada Manifesto", written by the young poet Raúl Gómez García under Fidel's guidance, was read. To close with a brief exhortation to the revolutionary group, which began with a sentence that was fulfilled:

"Comrades: you may win in a few hours or be defeated; but, in any case, hear it well, comrades, in any case, the movement will triumph..."

Thus, the assault of 135 young combatants, led by Fidel Castro; was the first insurrectional attack against the dictatorship. Meanwhile, in the city of Bayano, Granma province, about twenty young people coming from the capital of the country led by Raúl Martínez Ararás were waiting in a hotel waiting for an order: to take by assault the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks in the city. They would take the barracks and the weapons, blow up the bridge at the Cauto River crossing, thus preventing the military from coming to the aid of the Moncada garrison. However, the plan did not go as planned in both barracks the number of soldiers and weapons outnumbered the revolutionaries, in spite of their bravery and dignity, the assailants, unable to effectively face the military fire, decided to retreat, without being able to take the Moncada fortress. Batista decreed a state of siege in Santiago de Cuba and the suspension of constitutional guarantees throughout the national territory; he closed the newspaper "Noticias de Hoy", organ of the popular socialist party, and applied censorship to the press and radio throughout the country. Creating the conditions to launch the repressive bodies with violence and without risk of publicity against the popular rebellion.

This event marked the history of the Cuban revolution, which influenced broad sectors of the island's masses that began to radicalize their methods of struggle, repudiating the dictatorial measures that kept the Cuban people in misery.

This movement, which culminated with the rise to power of Fidel Castro, was part of a process of "political consciousness" peculiar to the country, of a series of unfinished revolutions that marked the island's previous history, which, together with the exacerbation of the conditions of exploitation and abuses towards the population, led an important sector of the population to consider that the country was in need of profound transformations and democratization. Life for the bulk of the population was degrading: widespread poverty, illiteracy, lack of access to health care, unemployment and the fact that Cuba had been turned into a "neo-colony" and "brothel" of the United States. In short: The land of casinos, prostitutes and beaches. The island of tobacco and rum, but the nation with the most cars, televisions and movie theaters in Latin America. This, together with popular anger at the growing political corruption, perhaps the greatest in Latin America at the time, and the enormous penetration of U.S. capital, which suffocated the local bourgeoisie, led to a group of young people in rebellion, rose up against Batista. These facts of inequality are pointed out by Castro himself in his well-known plea "History will absolve me" -many times referred to as the manifesto of the armed struggle-.

The grievances had been many and very old, to exemplify more, already in 1933, Cuba had the awakening of the first workers' revolution. The spontaneous strike of the workers began on July 4th and extended to workers in sugar factories, tobacco factories, factories, workshops, commerce, railroads and hotels. Seven days later, the government installed martial law.

Imperialism relied on the formation of a nationalist government and populist front of San Martin and Guiteras, the latter was head of the army of Fulgencio Batista. A year later, Batista would be at the head of a coup d'état in 1934 and a second coup d'état, anti-worker and very much inclined to continue keeping in force the agreements with imperialism.

Batista came to power on the island. But he did nothing more than aggravate the already chaotic situation of the Cuban population, he ruled illegally until January 1, 1959, the day on which, together with his closest collaborators, he fled the country loaded with public money. Cubans lived with Batista under an alarming and unethical policy. It was a period characterized by repression, violence, persecution and worsening social differences. Thus, the young lawyer Castro, raised the need to fight against corruption within the framework of parliamentary democracy, with a reformist program that sought economic independence for Cuba, political freedom, and more social justice, he argued that since democracy was broken, the armed struggle took on full legitimacy.

Fidel, his brother Raúl, and other combatants were tried by the dictatorship, where Fidel's self-defense was immortalized with the phrase, "History will absolve me".

The July 26th Movement initiated a Revolution that meant for Latin America and the whole world a change and the gestation of social movements in the world for the vindication of the independence, sovereignty and autonomy of peoples whose human rights are subjected, diminished and violated by the interests of capital and de facto powers alien to the local populations.

Cuba became a watershed in the history of the continent and the world. Representing the tireless struggle of a people for their dignity, facing like David against Goliath, the various onslaughts of an economic blockade by the most powerful government in the world: the United States, which violates the fundamental human rights of the Cuban population.

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