Friday, April 27, 2012

Monuments to the Revolution


This enormous outline of Camilo Cienfuegos is located around Revolutionary Square, where Fidel gave his historic - and frequent - hours-long speeches.  "Go well Fidel."

Some politics from Wikipedia: 

  • Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (February 6, 1932 – October 28, 1959) was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana. Raised in an anarchist family that had left Spain before the Spanish Civil War, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel CastroChe GuevaraJuan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro.
    • In 1954 he became an active member of the underground students movement against Dictator Fulgencio Batista. This involvement led him to be wounded by firearm on December 7, 1955, during a popular protest organized to honor Cuban independence hero Antonio Maceo. After being harassed by police and without a job, he decided to leave Cuba and travelled again to the U.S., in particular to New York. He was later expelled from the U.S., when his residence permit expired, and relocated to Mexico.
  • During his stay in Mexico, Camilo met Fidel Castro, who was organizing a revolutionary expedition that would return to Cuba to fight Batista. Thereafter Cienfuegos was one of the 82 revolutionaries who set sail aboard the boat Granma in November 1956. Allegedly, he was the last one to board the boat and was only allowed to join because of his thinness.

This is the outline of Ernesto "Che" Guevara.  "Always to Victory."  

Statue of José Marti and Monument to Marti. Opposite Revolutionary Square. A disturbingly "familiar" incident occurred in 1949.  Three crew members from the U.S. Navy ships visiting Havana urinated on a monument of Marti, Cuba's most venerated patriot.  



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