For the story was the photo of the first climbing of Fidel Castro to the Pico Turquino, in the Sierra Maestra, on April 28, 1957, in the midst of liberating action.
In the highest altitude of Cuba, with 1,974 meters above sea level, appears along with his brother Raul and Universo Sánchez. Behind, other fighters from the Rebel Army.
With the rifles raised, there is emotion in the faces for having reached that peak and the bust of José Martí, intellectual author of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, on July 26, 1953, by that generation that did not leave Die to the Master, on the centenary of his birth.
For a moment the fatigue was forgotten and the notes of the National Anthem and the March of the 26 of July were sing.
It was a debt of Fidel and his men with El Apóstol, since in 1953 the sculptural work had been placed by Celia Sanchez Manduley and her father Manuel Sanchez, a rural physician and with advanced thinking
Written by the Cuban sculptor Jilma Madera, at the base of the monument is the phrase Martiana: "Men are as rare as the mountains who know how to look from them and feel the conviction of nation or humanity."
Fidel returned another time to the Pico Turquino, before and after the triumph of January First, and one of the most remembered moments was the graduation ceremony of 400 doctors and stomatologists, held at Pico Cuba, on November 14, 1965.
He then told the future Galenos how much they represented these very beloved, sacred elevations, and he said: "And there is something that can not be summed up in words or expressed in words, and it is really that moment when the Turquino is reached."
And further on, he said: "And this ascent (...) carries a symbol, and is the symbol that the spirit that brought us to these mountains, the spirit that took us to these mountains, is today as yesterday, and will always be ours Spirit, the spirit of our Revolution! "
That is why so many generations of Cubans and Cubans have climbed and climbed the Pico Turquino, despite how difficult and exhausting the rise is, since that summit is part of our national identity.