July 26 attack honored in New York

Ileana Núñez Mordoche and Larry Hamm celebrate July 26th anniversary. Photo: Roberto Mercado

This July 26 marked the 55th year since the beginning of the armed struggle in Cuba, which culminated into a revolutionary victory led by Fidel Castro on Jan. 1, 1959. The opening salvo was the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Barracks in Bayamo.

Here in New York at the 1199/SEIU union hall, hundreds of people gathered to honor this momentous event in human history and to show ongoing solidarity with the Cuban Revolution.

A new film on the five Cuban heroes entitled “Against the Silence in Our Own Voices: Families of the Cuban 5 Speak Out” drew enthusiastic applause. There were many speakers, including Lucius Walker from IFCO/Pastors for Peace, who thanked activists for condolences after his partner, Mary Walker, passed away; Manolo Santos, a youth organizer; Zayd Shakur of the New Black Panther Party; and Althea Stevens from the Venceremos Brigade.

Larry Hamm from Newark, N.J.’s People’s Organization for Progress introduced the special invited guest from the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations, Ileana Núñez Mordoche, with the words, “You measure a revolution by the kind of people the revolution produces.”

—Larry Hales