Cuban president recalls 100th anniversary of Protest of the Thirteen

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel recalled on Saturday the Protest of the Thirteen, on the 100th anniversary of that event led by Rubén Martínez Villena and a group of revolutionary intellectuals.

In his Twitter profile, the President highlighted the commitment of Cuban intellectuals who repudiated the administration of President Alfredo Zayas (1921-1925), marked by the surrender to the United States and corruption.

The 100 years that have passed only magnify its transcendence and the extraordinary values of its leader, Rubén Martínez Villena. #CubaLivesInHisHistory, the head of state noted in his message.

Faced with the fraudulent event of the purchase of the Santa Clara Convent, Villena and a group of young intellectuals published on March 19, 1923 in the newspaper Heraldo de Cuba the manifesto called La Protesta de los Trece, in rejection of such actions by the country's authorities.

In the text, the signatories declared that they felt honored for initiating a movement against "the calculating, plundering and immoral rulers, who tend with their actions to provoke the debasement of the Homeland".

The event was the beginning of a historical moment in Cuba called "awakening of the national conscience".

The document was signed by Rubén Martínez Villena, José Antonio Fernández de Castro, Calixto Masó, Félix Lizaso, Alberto Lamar Schweyer, Francisco Ichaso, Luis Gómez Wangüemert, Juan Marinello, José Z. Tallet, José Manuel Acosta, Primitivo Cordero Leyva, Jorge Mañach and José Ramón García Pedrosa.