Granma landing: a voyage that changed Cuba’s history

The Granma yacht landing with 82 expeditionary members 68 years ago changed this country's history, thus starting the guerrilla struggle for a definitive liberation.    

Early December 2, 1956, those young men, led by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, landed in a mangrove swamp zone in Las Coloradas beach, current Granma province.

Aboard that ship, the expeditionary members had begun an arduous voyage on November 25 from the Mexican port of Tuxpan.

The yacht could carry only 20 persons but accommodated the 82 young men with more ideas than weapons, who were determined to liberate Cuba from the Fulgencio Batista tyranny (1952-1959).

A stormy sea, engine breakdowns in the damaged ship, the overweight it was carrying, and a man’s fall into the sea prolonged and delayed the voyage, which was scheduled to arrive in Cuba on November 30.

This coincided with the armed uprising in Santiago de Cuba, commanded by young leader Frank Pais, who tried to divert the military forces’ attention about the Granma yacht landing and fostering a climate of insurrectionary struggle nationwide.

After the armed action failed, those men were besieged by Batista’s army and air force. Nevertheless the difficulties and heavy losses, they reached the Sierra Maestra mountain range.

Surprised and dispersed by Batista’s troops, the young men regrouped and formed the nucleus of the Rebel Army that fought the dictatorship in the island’s eastern mountains until the revolutionary triumph on January 1, 1959.