Landing of the Granma
Landing of the Granma | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Cuban Revolution | |||||||
Fighters disembarking from the Granma onto the Cuban coast | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
26th of July Movement | Cuba | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Fidel Castro | Fulgencio Batista | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
82 | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
67 (killed in ambush 3 days later)[1] |
Granma is a yacht that was used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in November 1956 to overthrow the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The 60-foot (18 m) diesel-powered vessel was built in 1943 by Wheeler Shipbuilding of Brooklyn, New York, as a light armored target practice boat, US Navy C-1994, and modified postwar to accommodate 12 people. "Granma", in English, is an affectionate term for a grandmother; the yacht is said to have been named for the previous owner's grandmother.[2][3][4]
Background
Exile of Moncada attackers
In 1953, beginning their first attack against the Batista government, Fidel Castro gathered 160 fighters and planned a multi-pronged attack on two military installations.[5] On 26 July 1953, the rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the barracks in Bayamo, only to be defeated decisively by the far more numerous government soldiers.[6] It was hoped that the staged attack would initiate a nationwide revolt against Batista's government. After an hour of fighting most of the rebels and their commander fled to the mountains.[7] The exact number of rebels killed in the battle is debatable; however, in his autobiography, Fidel Castro wrote that six were killed during the fighting, and an additional 55 were executed after being captured by the Batista government.[8] Due to the government's large number of men, Hunt revised the number to about 60 members taking the opportunity to flee to the mountains along with Castro.[9] Among the dead was Abel Santamaría, Castro's second-in-command, who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed on the same day as the attack.[10]
Numerous important revolutionaries, including the Castro brothers, were captured soon afterwards. During a political trial, Fidel spoke for nearly four hours in his defense, ending with the words "Condemn me, it does not matter.
Conception
In Mexico, Fidel Castro soon met with
Preparations
The yacht was purchased on October 10, 1956, for
Soon after midnight on November 25, 1956, in the Mexican port of
Operation
Santiago de Cuba uprising
A rebellion organized by the
Granma landing
We reached solid ground, lost, stumbling along like so many shadows or ghosts marching in response to some obscure psychic impulse. We had been through seven days of constant hunger and sickness during the sea crossing, topped by three still more terrible days on land. Exactly 10 days after our departure from Mexico, during the early morning hours of December 5, following a night-long march interrupted by fainting and frequent rest periods, we reached a spot paradoxically known as Alegría de Pío (Rejoicing of the Pious). – Che Guevara[22]
Batista predicted correctly that the landing would occur, and his troops were ready. Consequentially, the landing party was bombarded by helicopters and airplanes soon after landing. Since the terrain on the coastline provided little cover, the party was an easy target.[23] Many casualties ensued, most of them during battle at Alegría de Pío further inland. The survivors continued to the foot of Pico Turquino in the Sierra Maestra to perform guerilla war.[24]
Initially, Batista did not know who exactly were among the casualties, and international media widely reported that Fidel had died.
Granma yacht expeditioners
The 82 expeditioners were:[27]
- Fidel Castro
- Juan Manuel Márquez Rodríguez
- Faustino Pérez
- José Smith Comas
- Juan Almeida Bosque
- Raúl Castro
- Pablo Díaz
- Félix Elmuza
- Armando Huau
- Che Guevara
- Antonio López
- Teniente Jesús Reyes
- Cándido González
- Onelio Pino
- Roberto Roque
- Jesús Montané
- Mario Hidalgo
- César Gómez
- Rolando Moya
- Horacio Rodríguez
- José Ponce Díaz
- José Ramón Martínez
- Fernando Sánchez-Amaya
- Arturo Chaumont
- Norberto Collado
- Gino Donè Paro
- Julio Díaz
- René Bedia
- Evaristo Montes de Oca
- Esteban Sotolongo
- Andrés Luján
- José Fuentes
- Pablo Hurtado
- Emilio Albentosa
- Luis Crespo
- Rafael Chao
- Ernesto Fernández
- Armando Mestre
- Miguel Cabañas
- Eduardo Reyes
- Humberto Lamothe
- Santiago Hirzel
- Enrique Cuélez
- Mario Chanes
- Manuel Echevarría
- Fransisco González
- Mario Fuentes
- Noelio Capote
- Raúl Suárez
- Gabriel Gil
- Luis Arcos
- Alfonso Guillén Zelaya
- Miguel Saavedra
- Pedro Sotto
- Arsenio García
- Israel Cabrera
- Carlos Bermúdez
- Antonio Darío López
- Oscar Rodríguez
- Camilo Cienfuegos
- Gilberto García
- René Reiné
- Jaime Costa
- Norberto Godoy
- Enrique Cámara
- Raúl Díaz
- Armando Rodríguez
- Calixto García
- Calixto Morales
- Reinaldo Benítez
- René Rodríguez
- Jesús Gómez
- Francisco Chicola
- Universo Sánchez
- Efigenio Ameijeiras
- Ramiro Valdés
- Tomás Royo
- Arnaldo Pérez
- Ciro Redondo
- Rolando Santana
- Ramón Mejias
- José Morán
Legacy
Soon after the revolutionary forces triumphed on January 1, 1959, the cabin cruiser was transferred to Havana Bay. Norberto Collado Abreu, who had served as main helmsman for the 1956 voyage,[20] received the job of guarding and preserving the yacht.[citation needed]
Since 1976, the yacht has been displayed permanently in a glass enclosure at the Memorial Granma adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana. A portion of old Oriente Province, where the expedition made landfall, was renamed Granma Province in honor of the vessel. UNESCO has declared the Landing of the Granma National Park—established at the location (Playa Las Coloradas)—a World Heritage Site for its natural habitat.[28]
The Cuban government celebrates December 2 as the
References
- ISBN 9781644211137.
- ^ Daniel, Frank Jack (November 25, 2006). "Fifty years on, Mexico town recalls young Castro". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 28, 2006.
- ^ Arrington, Vanessa (July 2006). "Roots of Cuban Revolution lie in the east". Fox News. Associated Press. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
- ^ "Down with Imperialism* 12,000 Miles Away". Time. December 2, 2008. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2006.
- ^ "Historical sites: Moncada Army Barracks and". CubaTravelInfo. Archived from the original on 10 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
- Newsmax Media. Archivedfrom the original on 22 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ISBN 9780199371020.
- ^ Castro (2007), p. 133
- ^ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 257.
- ^ Castro (2007), p. 672
- ^ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 258.
- ^ "Chronicle of an Unforgettable Agony: Cuba's Political Prisons". Contacto Magazine. September 1996. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
- ^ Castro (2007), p. 174
- ISBN 9780745693040.
- ^ Frank Jack Daniel (November 27, 2006). "Fifty years on, Mexico town recalls young Castro". Caribbean Net News. Archived from the original on November 23, 2007. Retrieved December 2, 2007.
- ^ "History – Wheeler Yacht Company". wheeleryachts.com. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
- ISBN 0306808277.
- ^ "Humanismo. Mexico City: January-February 1958, No. 4". Sotherbys.com. Sotherbys. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
- ^ Guevara, Ernesto. Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria. "Una revolución que comienza" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 12, 2010.
- ^ a b "Cuban Revolutionary Collado Abreu Dies". Associated Press. April 3, 2008. Archived from the original on April 7, 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2008.
- ISBN 9781876175597.
- ISBN 1-55546-835-7.
- ^ Cuba Libre 2016, 24:00.
- ^ Cuba Libre 2016, 25:00.
- ^ Cuba Libre 2016, 26:00.
- ISBN 978-1-4128-2090-5.
- ^ "Lo que brilla con luz propia, nada lo puede apagar". Granma Cuba Si (in Spanish). Retrieved September 3, 2018.
- ^ "Desembarco del Granma National Park". whc.unesco.org. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ Expedición del Granma. Cuban Ministry of the Armed Forces. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
- ISBN 978-0-7879-6658-4.
Works cited
- ISBN 978-0-14-102626-8.
- "A Ragtag Revolution". The Cuba Libre Story. Episode 4 (in Finnish). 2016. Yle.
- Swanson, Peter (February 23, 2018). "The Amazing True Story of Fidel Castro's Mystery Motoryacht". PassageMaker.