Since 1933, the child Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz arrived for the first time in the city of Santiago de Cuba, a special union was established between him and this part of the country, becoming stronger and stronger, until it became a singular relationship of commitment and fidelity .
"I have the feeling that we do not know how to fail in Santiago de Cuba," Fidel himself said as significantly as January 1, 1959, and this is evident in the links between this city, its people and the leader of the revolution.
In the midst of the consternation and pain that grips the Cuban people after the physical departure of this universal man, young historian Frank Josué Solar Cabrales, a master's degree in science and an assistant professor at the Universidad de Oriente, threaded for Workers the threads that intertwine complicity That existed between the Cuban statesman, Santiago and the Santiagoians.
"At the edge of his 6 years Fidel gets to study Santiago de Cuba, here he spends much of his childhood and first adolescence, defining stage in the life of every person. He himself has confessed that he became a revolutionary at the University of Havana but without doubt his rebelliousness is marked and comes to light in the land of Santiago.
"Very close to the area where I lived, in Loma del Intendente, in Tivolí, was at that time the Institute of Second Education and Fidel witnessed the police abuses against students, also in the last months of the fall Of Machado were protests of the town, exploded bombs and all the effervescence that was generated around this it marked and left its mark on him.
"In addition, this city has a rebellious tradition that goes with the idiosyncrasy of its inhabitants, that environment surrounded the child, who showed on several occasions his rebellion, a condition of the revolutionary, One can not be such if one does not rebel against injustice, against abuse, against wrongdoing, and that he did repeatedly.
"He rebelled against the family that had him under his tutelage but which made him suffer deprivation and necessities, transgressed dogmas established in the school La Salle to be an internal student as was his desire, he kicked and smashed against the inspector there Constantly mistreated him physically ... finally there were several moments of rebellion that came to life in him while living in Santiago de Cuba, some of which are narrated in detail in the book Hundred Hours with Fidel, Ignacio Ramonet.
"In the same way, that first stay here serves you in many ways, you know the city, its streets, its surroundings, the lomerío, the bay, there is an approach to scenarios on which time later it would return its steps".
Q: Years like 1953 and 1956 marked other important moments in that relationship of which we speak ...
"Yes, there stand out the Moncada and the 30 of November.
"In the first case, it should be said that Fidel's election of that barracks had, of course, military and strategic considerations, but one can not forget the fact that he knew very well the characteristics of the people of Santiago, and was sure your support.
"For safety matters, the only resident in the city who is involved in the preparations for the assault is Renato Guitart, but Fidel took it for granted that the people here would not fail to support the armed action and this was demonstrated with the families that opened their Doors to welcome the assailants who managed to flee.
"He knew that he could count on Santiago de Cuba, and he explains it with beautiful words in his plea of self-defense when he says that 'in the East breathe air of epic and it seems that every dawn will be that of Yara or Baire.'
"Likewise, some time later, when referring to what he had experienced during the Moncada trial, he claimed to have felt a 'touching support' on the part of the people of Santiago, who, even in the midst of repression and without all the necessary information, showed their sympathy for The young lawyer, for his companions and the yearnings for freedom and justice that symbolized
"Nor can we forget that on the hills of the city of Santiago, one of the most incredible occasions of Fidel's survival occurs, just when he is captured days after the assault on the Moncada and in the midst of the ferocity of the soldiers against the assailants a soldier Dignified, Lieutenant Pedro Manuel Sarria Tartabull, prevents him from being killed and leaves an unquestionable truth to the story: Ideas are not killed.
"Then came the presidio, the exile, the contact with Frank País García and again the security of having the city and its people, this time to rise up in arms on November 30, 1956 and support the landing of the yacht Granma.
"And Santiago de Cuba did not fail Fidel and dressed in olive green, he did not falter either during the April 9 strike, or in the logistical support deployed from the clandestinity to shore up the struggle in the Sierra, or in the The last days of the war.
"So when the first of January goes to all of Cuba from the waves of Radio Rebelde sends a special message to the people of Santiago telling them that the city had to be free because it deserved it, and that in the afternoon everything had to be paralyzed Under the slogan Revolution Yes, coup d'état! And Santiago answered once more.
Q: There is a great occasion in Fidel's ties with the city and its people ...

"The first of January is an exceptional date for Cuba with the direct protagonism of a city that is a privileged witness of history.
"Santiago has been the strongest bulwark of the Revolution," Fidel said that day from the balcony of the City Hall, a site he returned to in 1984 to make public the award to this land of the honorary title of Hero City of the Republic of Cuba And of the Order Antonio Maceo, crowning the moment with words of the soul: 'We honor you especially today, and with you all our people, which ... is symbolized in you. May your heroism, your patriotism and your revolutionary spirit always be an example of all Cubans! May it always be the heroic slogan of our people that we learned here: Motherland or Death! May we always expect what we knew here that glorious First of January: victory! Thank you, Santiago! '
"Later on, this deep affinity between Fidel, Santiago and his people rises again with unsuspected visions just in October 1991 with the celebration of the 4th Party Congress, the only one that has been done outside the capital of the country, made in one step Decisive, in the context of the collapse of the socialist camp, with many in Miami preparing suitcases to enter a supposedly new Cuba, without revolution, anyway, in the midst of special circumstances was held that meeting of the Communists.
"It was only Santiago who was chosen for a congress in arms, as Fidel called it, who again symbolically appealed to the city, which once again showed itself as a bastion of the country.
"There is no doubt that the bonds between Santiago de Cuba, his people, and the leader of the Revolution are very strong, solid, of mutual surrender and attachment for never failing Fidel."