Thousands of young Cubans, accompanied by Cuban First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura, staged the traditional March of the Torches last Thursday night to honor national hero José Martí on the 158th anniversary of his birth. Holding up torches, participants paraded from the Havana University staircase to Central Park in the capital.
At the park, a group comprising Machado Ventura, Communist Youth first secretary Liudmila Alamo, and Federation of University Students president Maidel Gómez laid a wreath at the centrally-located monument to the Cuban hero.
The march also honored the 50th anniversaries of the Bay of Pigs victory and the proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution.
A concert by the pop music band Buena Fé topped off the event. The first such march was led by a group of young people on Jan. 27, 1953.
[...] Repeating Islands blogs about the commemoration of the 158th birthday of national hero José Martí, while Iván's File Cabinet says: “The government likes to sell the image of a sad guy, committed to the independence of his homeland…Martí was much more.” Tweet [...]
By: Cuba: Uncovering Martí · Global Voices on February 1, 2011
at 12:13 pm