University of Havana Students Commemorate the 159th Anniversary of the Birth of José Martí

Source: Granma
Honor para quien honor merece

Cuba Sets New Tourism Record in 2011

Hotel Nacional, Havana, Cuba
For the fourth consecutive year, Cuba has surpassed the previous year record in the number of tourists that arrive in the island as tourists, reported Cuban daily Granma today.

Last year, 2,531,745 was a new record number of tourists. That number was surpassed on December 13, 2011, and we still have two more weeks to go for the current year.

The biggest number of visitors came from the United Kingdom and Canada. There was also growth in the number of visitors coming from Argentina.

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JG: The Miami anti-Cuba right-wingers are going to have cagalera.

El recuerdo de Juan Manuel Márquez

Juan Manuel Márquez pronuncia un discurso en Nueva York
y a su lado, Fidel.
Discurso de Fidel en el Parque Central de Nueva York el 24 de abril de 1959.

En esta noche de hoy, noche de triunfo, noche que ha de quedar inolvidablemente grabada en nuestros corazones, noche de orgullo para la América entera, solo un pensamiento triste nos invade, solo un dolor nos estremece. Al contemplar aquí esta inmensa muchedumbre, al hablar aquí hoy, mi pensamiento se eleva hacia aquel que fue mi compañero de organización del Movimiento 26 de Julio en el exilio; mi pensamiento se eleva a quien fue compañero de esta jornada; mi pensamiento se eleva a aquel orador formidable; a aquel compañero que hacía poner de pie a la multitud con su palabra vibrante: Juan Manuel Márquez (APLAUSOS).

No está presente hoy, pero la obra que inició está aquí presente. No está presente él, pero está presente su recuerdo; no está presente él, pero están presentes los frutos de su sacrificio: Juan Manuel Márquez, otra vez nos hemos vuelto a reunir con los cubanos y los latinoamericanos de Nueva York. Pero esta vez no son 1 000, son decenas y decenas de millares de miles, que esta vez no hay latinoamericanos solo, hay también norteamericanos, esta vez no estamos hablando de sueños que habrán de realizarse, sino de sueños que se han realizado y de sueños que se habrán de realizar, con el aliento de ver lo que se ha hecho (APLAUSOS).

Esta vez no la reunimos para iniciar una empresa guerrera, la reunimos y la convocamos para iniciar una etapa y una empresa de creación y de paz. No la reunimos cuando todo está por delante, cuando todos contábamos con la fe nuestra y con la fe de unos cuantos, sino cuando contamos ya, gracias al esfuerzo de los que como tú han caído con la fe y con el respaldo de millones de latinoamericanos. Juan Manuel Márquez, a ti debemos dedicarte hoy el mejor recuerdo, el más devoto recuerdo y el más sentido homenaje, porque aquí está tu compañero que siguió la lucha, aquí está tu compañero que te recuerda y te echa de menos.

No se pondrá hoy de pie la multitud con tu palabra, pero se pondrá de pie con estas palabras que pronuncio al conjuro de tu recuerdo.

(OVACIÓN)

Juan Manuel Márquez fue el segundo jefe del Movimiento 26 de julio y de la expedición del Granma. Con solo 16 años se incorporó a la lucha contra el tirano Gerardo Machado y fue encarcelado en el Presidio Modelo, en abril de 1932, con 17 años de edad, por lo que fue el más joven de todos los presos políticos en ese centro.

Tras la caída del "asno con garras" se opone firmemente a la intervención norteamericana a través de la mediación Summer-Welles. Posteriormente, ya conocedor de la influencia de los medios, funda el periódico Catapulta, donde refleja su pensamiento político y critica tempranamente a ese "machadista arrepentido" llamado Fulgencio Batista. Más tarde comienza a colaborar con el semanario El Sol, espacio en el que fustiga a los gobernantes de turno y expresa su lucha por la revolución agraria-antimperialista. Juan Manuel tuvo una destacada trayectoria de combate y de críticas a las lacras del sistema político y social imperante en Cuba y en los programas radiales sobresalió por sus relevantes cualidades de orador, y finalmente se volcó a la lucha contra la tiranía batistiana, fase más reconocida de su sentir patriota, por lo cual sufrió cárcel y torturas. Tuvo una activa participación en la organización de la expedición del Granma y luego de Alegría de Pío fue asesinado el 15 de diciembre de 1956 por la soldadesca batistiana.

Source: Granma

Labels: Cuba, Granma, Juan Manuel Márquez

December 2, 1956: The Granma Lands

Granma is the yacht that was used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 for the purpose of overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The 60-foot (18 m) diesel-powered cabin cruiser was built in 1943 and designed to accommodate 12 people. "Granma", in English, is an affectionate term for a grandmother; the yacht is said to have been named for the original owner's grandmother.

The yacht was purchased on 10 October 1956 for MX$50,000 (US$15,000) from the U.S.-based Schuylkill Products Company, Inc. by a Mexican citizen—said to be Mexico City gun dealer Antonio "The Friend" del Conde who was secretly representing Fidel Castro. Castro's 26th of July Movement had attempted to purchase a Catalina flying boat or a US naval crash rescue boat for the purpose of crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba, but their efforts had been thwarted by lack of funds. The money to purchase the Granma had been raised in the U.S. state of Florida by former President of Cuba Carlos Prío Socarrás.

Shortly after midnight on 25 November 1956 in the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz, the Granma was surreptitiously boarded by 82 members of the 26th of July movement including their leader, Fidel Castro, his brother, Raúl Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. The group—who later came to be known collectively as los expedicionarios del yate Granma—set out from Tuxpan at 1 a.m. and, after a series of vicissitudes and misadventures, including the near-foundering of their heavily overladen and leaking craft, disembarked on 2 December on the Playa Las Coloradas, Municipality of Niquero, in what is now Granma Province (after the vessel), but was then part of the larger Oriente Province. The Granma was piloted by Norberto Collado Abreu, a Cuban Navy veteran and ally of Castro. The location was chosen to emulate the voyage of national hero José Martí, who had landed in the same region 61 years earlier during the wars of independence from Spanish colonial rule.

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)."

Ernesto 'Che" Guevara

Soon after the revolutionary forces triumphed on 1 January 1959, the cabin cruiser was transferred to Havana Bay. Norberto Collado Abreu, who had served as main helmsman for the 1956 voyage,[4] was given the responsibility of guarding and preserving the yacht.

Since 1976, the yacht has been on permanent display in a glass enclosure at the Granma Memorial 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 and the Landing of the Granma National Park established at the location (Playa Las Coloradas) was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its natural habitat. Every year on 25 November a group of Cuban youths sets out from Tuxpan aboard a replica of the Granma to re-trace hour by hour the voyage of the original Granma to its landing spot at Playa Las Coloradas a week later.

The date 2 December is celebrated as the "Day of the Cuban Armed Forces", and the replica has also been paraded at state functions to commemorate the original voyage. In further tribute, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party has been called Granma. The name of this vessel became an icon for Cuban communism. Although the name is sometimes described as having been misspelled, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary lists granma as a variant of grandma.

Source: Wikepedia

Granma. Provincia ubicada en la región oriental de la isla de Cuba. Tierra fecunda, llena de historia. Es la cuna del Padre de la Patria y de la Nacionalidad Cubana, iniciadora de la gesta libertaria de 1868 y escenario de los hechos gestados por la generación del centenario: el asalto al Cuartel Carlos Manuel de Céspedes de Bayamo y el Desembarco del yate Granma. Sirvió de abrigo al Ejército Rebelde y se libraron importantes combates hasta alcanzar la libertad el 1 de enero de 1959.

Source: EcuRed (Cuba)

55 años despues, el Granma es la hazaña misma y una página de hermosa intrepidez

El desembarco que nos guía

JG: The landing of the Granma was Freedom's Lightning.

Cuba to Allow Buying and Selling of Property, With Few Restrictions

By DAMIEN CAVE - The New York Times

Published: November 3, 2011

MEXICO CITY — Cuba announced a new property law Thursday that promises to allow citizens and permanent residents to buy and sell real estate — the most significant market-oriented change yet approved by the government of Raúl Castro, and one that will probably reshape Cuba’s cities and conceptions of class.

The new rules go into effect on Nov. 10, according to Cuba’s Granma newspaper, and while some of the fine print is still being written, the law published on Thursday amounts to a major break from decades of socialist housing. For the first time since the early days of the revolution, buyers and sellers will be allowed to set home prices and move when they want. Transactions of various kinds, including sales, trades and gifts to relatives by Cubans who are emigrating, will no longer be subject to government approval, the new law says.

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PDF: Decreto-Ley 288

Do not allow yourself to be scammed by the Miami Gusanos. Read "The Gateta Oficial de la Republica de Cuba." (Click on the link for the oficial PDF file.

It is very interesting and INFORMATIVE to read the original text of the Decree/Law 288, in the original Spanish. There are some idiots who live in the United States that are now yelling: "Cuba is going capitalist." What a bunch of FOOLS! In capitalist U.S.A., with its system based on exploitation and greed, you can purchase 50, or 100 personal "homes." None of that is happening in Cuba with Decree Law 288. You can have, at the most, two personal properties. Cuba is not trying to import greedy capitalism from the United States. It is trying to perfect what the majority of the Cuban people have chosen as a better system: NATIVE CUBAN SOCIALISM.

Do not let yourself be confused, fooled or scammed by the MIAMI SCUM!