granma yacht

The Voyage of the Granma and the Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro's Epic Sea Odyssey

AFP / Getty Images

• Caribbean History
• History Before Columbus
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Central American History
• South American History
• Mexican History
• American History
• African American History
• African History
• Ancient History and Culture
• Asian History
• European History
• Medieval & Renaissance History
• Military History
• The 20th Century
• Women's History
• Ph.D., Spanish, Ohio State University
• M.A., Spanish, University of Montana
• B.A., Spanish, Penn State University

In November 1956, 82 Cuban rebels piled onto the small yacht Granma and set sail for Cuba to touch off the Cuban Revolution . The yacht, designed for only 12 passengers and supposedly with a maximum capacity of 25, also had to carry fuel for a week as well as food and weapons for the soldiers. Miraculously, the Granma made it to Cuba on December 2 and the Cuban rebels (including Fidel and Raul Castro, Ernesto “Ché” Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos ) disembarked to start the revolution.

In 1953, Fidel Castro had led an assault on the federal barracks at Moncada , near Santiago. The attack was a failure and Castro was sent to jail. The attackers were released in 1955 by Dictator Fulgencio Batista , however, who was bowing to international pressure to release political prisoners. Castro and many of the others went to Mexico to plan the next step of the revolution. In Mexico, Castro found many Cuban exiles who wanted to see the end of the Batista regime. They began to organize the “26th of July Movement” named after the date of the Moncada assault.

Organization

In Mexico, the rebels collected arms and received training. Fidel and Raúl Castro also met two men who would play key roles in the revolution: Argentine physician Ernesto “Ché” Guevara and Cuban exile Camilo Cienfuegos. The Mexican government, suspicious of the activities of the movement, detained some of them for a while, but eventually left them alone. The group had some money, provided by former Cuban president Carlos Prío. When the group was ready, they contacted their comrades back in Cuba and told them to cause distractions on November 30, the day they would arrive.

Castro still had the problem of how to get the men to Cuba. At first, he tried to purchase a used military transport but was unable to locate one. Desperate, he purchased the yacht Granma for $18,000 of Prío’s money through a Mexican agent. The Granma, supposedly named after the grandmother of its first owner (an American), was run down, its two diesel engines in need of repair. The 13 meter (about 43 feet) yacht was designed for 12 passengers and could only fit about 20 comfortably. Castro docked the yacht in Tuxpan, on the Mexican coast.

At the end of November, Castro heard rumors that the Mexican police were planning to arrest the Cubans and possibly turn them over to Batista. Even though repairs to the Granma were not completed, he knew they had to go. On the night of November 25, the boat was loaded down with food, weapons, and fuel, and 82 Cuban rebels came on board. Another fifty or so remained behind, as there was no room for them. The boat departed silently, so as not to alert Mexican authorities. Once it was in international waters, the men on board began loudly singing the Cuban national anthem.

Rough Waters

The 1,200-mile sea voyage was utterly miserable. Food had to be rationed, and there was no room for anyone to rest. The engines were in poor repair and required constant attention. As the Granma passed Yucatan, it began taking on water, and the men had to bail until the bilge pumps were repaired: for a while, it looked as if the boat would surely sink. Seas were rough and many of the men were seasick. Guevara, a doctor, could tend to the men but he had no seasickness remedies. One man fell overboard at night and they spent an hour searching for him before he was rescued: this used up fuel they could not spare.

Arrival in Cuba

Castro had estimated the trip would take five days, and communicated to his people in Cuba that they would arrive on November 30th. The Granma was slowed by engine trouble and excess weight, however, and didn’t arrive until December 2nd. The rebels in Cuba did their part, attacking government and military installations on the 30th, but Castro and the others did not arrive. They reached Cuba on December 2nd, but it was during broad daylight and the Cuban Air Force was flying patrols looking for them. They also missed their intended landing spot by about 15 miles.

The Rest of the Story

All 82 rebels reached Cuba, and Castro decided to head for the mountains of the Sierra Maestra where he could regroup and contact sympathizers in Havana and elsewhere. In the afternoon of December 5th, they were located by a large army patrol and attacked by surprise. The rebels were immediately scattered, and over the next few days most of them were killed or captured: less than 20 made it to the Sierra Maestra with Castro.

The handful of rebels who survived the Granma trip and ensuing massacre became Castro’s inner circle, men he could trust, and he built his movement around them. By the end of 1958, Castro was ready to make his move: the despised Batista was driven out and the revolutionaries marched into Havana in triumph.

The Granma itself was retired with honor. After the triumph of the revolution, it was brought to Havana harbor. Later it was preserved and put on display.

Today, the Granma is a sacred symbol of the Revolution. The province where it landed was divided, creating the new Granma Province. The official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party is called Granma. The spot where it landed was made into the Landing of the Granma National Park, and it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site , although more for marine life than historical value. Every year, Cuban schoolchildren board a replica of the Granma and re-trace its voyage from the coast of Mexico to Cuba.

Resources and Further Reading

• Castañeda, Jorge C. Compañero: the Life and Death of Che Guevara. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.
• Coltman, Leycester. The Real Fidel Castro. New Haven and London: the Yale University Press, 2003.
• A Brief History of the Cuban Revolution
• Biography of Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban Revolutionary
• Biography of Raul Castro
• Key Players in the Cuban Revolution
• Biography of Fulgencio Batista, Cuban President and Dictator
• Biography of Ernesto Che Guevara, Revolutionary Leader
• Cuban Revolution: Assault on the Moncada Barracks
• Biography of Fidel Castro, President of Cuba for 50 Years
• Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion
• A Short History of the Chinese in Cuba
• Biography of José Martí, Cuban Poet, Patriot, Revolutionary
• Civil Wars and Revolutions in Latin American History
• Most Impressive Facial Hair in the History of Latin America
• US and Cuba Have History of Complex Relations
• The 10 Most Important Events in the History of Latin America
• USS Maine Explosion and the Spanish-American War

The Landing of the Granma

By j.a. sierra.

FEARING FOR THEIR LIFE after being released from prison on May 15 1955, Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul went to Mexico City to organize the war against dictator Fulgencio Batista . "We will return when we can bring to our people the liberty and the right to live decently without despotism and without hunger," wrote Castro in the weekly Bohemia .

"Seventeen months were to pass from the time Castro left Havana until his disastrous and fateful return to Cuba," says New York Times journalist Herbert L. Matthews in his book Revolution in Cuba . "It was a frustrating, harassed, penurious time. The two great problems were to train his expeditionary force and raise the money for arms and a boat on which to get to Cuba. These had to be done in the face of constant interference by the Mexican police, treachery among the Cubans, and spying by Batista agents. At one time Castro and twenty-two of his comrades spent three weeks in a Mexico City jail for illegally possessing arms."

Shortly after arriving in Mexico, the Castros were introduced to a young Argentine physician named Ernesto Guevara . "I had been linked to him from the outset by a tie of romantic adventurous sympathy," writes Guevara in Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War , "and by the conviction that it would be worth dying on a foreign beach for such a pure ideal." Guevara joined the expedition as the revolutionary army's official doctor.

A leisure yacht named Granma was secured for the trip to Cuba. Although seaworthy, the ship was not in the best shape. Badly worn gears prevented the ship from achieving significant speed, and the radio could only receive, making it impossible to communicate with allies in Cuba. The craft was overcrowded with weapons, ammunition, and 82 soldiers. To make matters worse, the ship's tanks held 1,200 gallons of fuel, not nearly enough to reach Cuba, so an additional 2,000 gallons, in cans, were stored on deck.

"It was 1:00 a.m., November 25 1956, and time to leave," recalls Faustino Pérez in Diary of the Cuban Revolution . "As quietly as possible, with only one engine going at low speed and all her lights out, the Granma began to pull away. We were crouched so close together that we were almost on top of one another. The helmsman followed the middle of the channel toward the river's mouth. On either side of us, the city slept on. It took half an hour to leave the river, and perhaps another half an hour to cross the harbor. No one had seen us, and were now entering the gulf."

"The departure was hasty," writes Matthews in The Cuban Story , "for the Mexican authorities were after him. There was little food; the boat--which could comfortably accommodate no more than a dozen men-was dreadfully overcrowded; the Granma's engines were bad. Everything seemed to go wrong. It had been arranged that his 26th of July followers in Santiago de Cuba would rise on November 30, the day Fidel and his band were supposed to land. There was a brave, but of course, futile uprising on November 30, with Fidel far out to sea."

On the last day of the journey, ex-navy lieutenant Roque fell overboard. "The Granma's search lights were turned on for the first time," recalls Faustino Pérez in Diary of the Cuban Revolution , "when it was more dangerous than ever. Nothing helped. Our comrade was being swallowed by the deep. Never willing to give up, Fidel ordered one more search. We heard the cry "Here!" again, weaker but inexplicably closer now. Pichirilo Mejías, our brave, efficient Dominican helmsman, saw him first and miraculously rescued him. His strength, his ability, his level headedness, as well as Fidel's faith and the efforts of his comrades had saved his life."

The landing of the Granma , in December 1956, was planned to re-enact the route that José Martí had followed to begin Cuba's War of Independence in 1895. The target landing spot was a town called Niquero, in Oriente province. Still waiting for them on December 2 was Celia Sánches, one of the founders of the July-26-Movement , with an assortment of trucks, jeeps, food, weapons and about 50 men.

Leaking and running days behind schedule, the Granma was spotted by a helicopter, and the rebels were forced to beach the ship at a spot called Playa de los Colorados, near the village of "Las Coloradas," about fifteen miles south of the designated spot. The new landing area was more of a swamp than a beach, and the rebels were unable to unload most of their weapons due to the muddy waters, the thick undergrowth plant life and small crabs.

"Just consider where the landing took place," says Celia Sánchez in The Twelve , a book by Carlos Franqui about the early days of the struggle against Batista. "If they had debarked right on the beach instead of at the swamp, they would have found trucks, jeeps, gasoline. It would have been a walkaway."

The troops regrouped inland and began to move toward the Sierra Maestra, unable to find anything to eat that first day. Along the way, peasants and farmers gave them food and water, until on December 5, betrayed by their guide, the rebels were ambushed at Alegría de Pío. They were forced to scatter again, and most were killed in battle, or as they attempted to surrender.

For eleven days the remaining rebels, wounded, hungry and scattered, evaded Batista's army, regrouping on December 18 deep inside the Sierra Maestra Mountains.

Of the 82 who made the trip from Mexico, only twelve made it to the Sierra Maestra, including the Castro brothers, Che Guevara (wounded and bleeding), Camilo Cienfuegos, Juan Almeida, Efigenio Amejeiras, Ciro Redondo, Julio Díaz, Calixto García, Luis Crespo, Jose Ponce and Universo Sanchez. "We will win this war," said Castro, "we're just beginning to fight!"

Related : Escape to the Sierra Maestra by Che Guevara | Frank País and the Underground Movement in the cities, and Battle of Jigüe , from Terrence Cannon's: REVOLUTIONARY CUBA | Contents: Before the Revolution

Return to 1956

Granma Yacht: the vessel which brought the Cuban Revolution in Cuba

On November 1956, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Castro’s brother, Raul Castro, along with 80 other fighters, departed from the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz and headed to Cuba on the yacht “Granma.” The 60-foot (18 meters) diesel-powered cabin cruiser, originally designed for twelve people, brought the Cuban revolutionaries who overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista.

The cruiser was built in 1943, and it is said that it was originally named after the grandmother of the original owner. However, the revolutionaries called the yacht simply “Granma,” as an affectionate term for a grandmother. The yacht was purchased only a month before the revolution, on the 10th October 1956. It was bought from the United States for MX$ 50,000 (US$15,000), through a gun dealer Antonio “The Friend” del Conde from Mexico City.

Castro’s initial plan for crossing the Gulf of Mexico was to purchase a US naval crash rescue boat or a Catalina flying boat maritime aircraft. However, he wasn’t able to realize his idea due to the lack of funds. The money for the “Granma” yacht was donated to the revolution by the former Cuban President Carlos Prío Socarrás and Teresa Casuso Morín, a prominent Cuban intellectual, and writer, who fought for freedom and democracy in Cuba.

The Cuban Revolutionaries, later known as “Los expedicionarios del yate Granma” (“The Granma yacht expeditioners”) set out from Tuxpan shortly after midnight, on the 25th November. For more than a week, the members of the expedition experienced sea-sickness, diminishing supplies, and a leaking craft until the 2nd December, when the 82 revolutionaries arrived on Playa Las Coloradas, municipality of Niquero, today known as Granma Province. The location was chosen by the Cuban national hero, Jose Marti.

The site was chosen by the Cuban national hero, Jose Marti. He had landed at the very same location 61 years earlier, during the independence wars from the Spanish colonial rule. The yacht was navigated by Castro’s ally and the Cuban Navy veteran, Norberto Collado Abreu.

Here’s what Che Guevara has written about the landing: “We reached solid ground, lost, stumbling along like so many shadows or ghosts marching in response to some obscure psychic impulse. We had been through seven days of constant hunger and sickness during the sea crossing, topped by three still more terrible days on land. Exactly ten days after our departure from Mexico, during the early morning hours of December 5th, following a night-long march interrupted by fainting and frequent rest periods, we reached a spot paradoxically known as Alegría de Pío (Rejoicing of the Pious)”. Ernesto “Che” Guevara (World Leaders Past & Present) by Douglas Kellner, 1989, Chelsea House Publishers, pg 40.

After the triumph of the revolution on 1st January 1959, the yacht was transferred to Havana Bay and its pilot, Norberto Collado Abreu, got the job of guarding and preserving the cabin cruiser. Since 1976, the “Granma” is on permanent display in a glass enclosure at the Granma Memorial adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana.

The location of the Granma landing, Playa Las Coloradas, was declared “Granma National Park,” a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, for its natural habitat.

Read another story from us: CIA attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro on 638 occasions

On 2nd December, when Cuba celebrates the “Day of the Cuban Armed Forces,” a replica of the vessel has been paraded at state functions to commemorate the original revolutionary voyage. Granma is also the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. As a matter of fact, the name has become an icon of the Cuban communism.

• Submissions

Cuba’s Granma Yacht: 65 Years since its Historic Voyage

By Alejandra Garcia on December 2, 2021

photo: Juvenal Balán

On December 2, 1956, the Granma yacht arrived in Cuba at Las Coloradas beach, in the eastern part of the island, after a seven-day voyage that began in Mexican waters. On more than one occasion during the trip, the 82 Cuban expedition members, led by Fidel Castro, believed that the small ship would not reach its final destination.

On November 25 of that year, the small wooden yacht, built-in 1943, set sail down the Tuxpan River towards the Gulf of Mexico. It was close to two o’clock in the morning, and barely a soul could be seen. It sailed with its lights off and in absolute silence to avoid the attention of the Mexican guards. The darkness and the sacks of oranges that were placed on the bow did not let them see the course of the boat, and they almost took a detour, which would have taken them away from the open sea.

Fortunately, the revolutionaries corrected the route, and the Granma yacht advanced through the wide Tuxpan river with the expeditionaries piled almost on top of each other. Raúl Castro, brother of the Cuban leader, wrote down every detail of those first hours aboard the Granma: “We left at full speed while we saw just a few lights of the city of Tuxpan”.

Historian Heberto Norman Acosta added other little-known details in an article published recently in Cubadebate: “When the ship was far enough away from Mexico’s mainland, the lights were turned on, and the 82 expedition members excitedly sang the National Anthem. How happy Fidel and the rest of the expedition members must have been when they saw themselves already on their way to Cuba.”

The first days of the journey were the most difficult ones. The Argentine doctor Ernesto (Che) Guevara, in his “Pasajes de la Guerra” (Passages of the war), related what happened onboard the yacht once it reached the turbulent waters of the gulf.

“The instability of the waters made most of the crew sick. The whole ship looked ridiculously tragic: men with anguish on their faces, clutching their stomachs. Some had their heads stuck in a bucket, and others were lying in the strangest positions, immobile and with their clothes soiled by vomit. Except for two or three sailors and four or five others, the rest of the eighty-two crewmen were seasick,” he described.

While this was happening, the lower cabins began to fill with water due to a malfunction in the vessel. Raul wrote in his diary: “The yacht was about to sink, as it was taking on a lot of water and the turbine was unable to drain it. We were bailing it out with buckets. The helmsman told Fidel that we had to go ashore. Fidel said we had to continue even though we were sinking. The swells were higher than the ship.”

Years later, Fidel recalled those hours of despair, “We were not going to stop because of a storm nor by the risk of sinking. Nothing would hold us back or turn our course away from Cuba. We could sink on the way. But we were not going to turn back.”

After a frantic hours-long battle, they noticed that the water had begun to recede little by little because humidity expanded the wood and allowed the water to stop coming in.

The last of the challenges they had to face was the moment when a man fell into the water, just as they were sighting Cuban land from the southern waters of the Caribbean Sea.

At the cry of “Man overboard!” Fidel gave orders to stop the stop the course and maneuver to rescue the comrade. One of the expedition members, Pedro Sotto Alba, wrote in his diary: “At about one o’clock in the morning, Roque was holding on to the yacht’s antenna, and in a moment of swell he fell into the sea, antenna and all. No matter how fast he got afloat, he was already far away”.

The boat didn’t go anywhere until their comrade was rescued. It was about three-quarters of an hour of going in circles trying to find him. They managed to scan him through the choppy waves by the faint light of a flashlight.

Shortly after the rescue, the disembarkation would begin, which happened two days later than planned. The arrival of the 82 revolutionaries on the eastern side of Cuba changed the course of the island forever. That December 2, the words Fidel said shortly before setting sail on that small yacht full of men from a dock in Tuxpan were fulfilled: “If I leave Mexico, I will arrive in Cuba; If I arrive, I’ll enter; If I enter, I’ll triumph.” And so he did.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

Subscribe to Resumen

Email address:

First Name:

Archives by Year

Archives by month.

Landing of the Granma

Invasion of cuba done by a single yacht in the cuban revolution / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

Can you list the top facts and stats about Landing of the Granma?

Summarize this article for a 10 year old

Granma is a yacht that was used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in November 1956 to overthrow the regime of Fulgencio Batista . The 60-foot (18 m) diesel-powered vessel was built in 1943 by Wheeler Shipbuilding of Brooklyn, New York, as a light armored target practice boat, US Navy C-1994, and modified postwar to accommodate 12 people. "Granma", in English, is an affectionate term for a grandmother; the yacht is said to have been named for the previous owner's grandmother. [2] [3] [4]

Exile of Moncada attackers

In 1953, beginning their first attack against the Batista government, Fidel Castro gathered 160 fighters and planned a multi-pronged attack on two military installations. [5] On 26 July 1953, the rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the barracks in Bayamo , only to be defeated decisively by the far more numerous government soldiers. [6] It was hoped that the staged attack would initiate a nationwide revolt against Batista's government. After an hour of fighting most of the rebels and their commander fled to the mountains. [7] The exact number of rebels killed in the battle is debatable; however, in his autobiography, Fidel Castro wrote that six were killed during the fighting, and an additional 55 were executed after being captured by the Batista government. [8] Due to the government's large number of men, Hunt revised the number to about 60 members taking the opportunity to flee to the mountains along with Castro. [9] Among the dead was Abel Santamaría , Castro's second-in-command, who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed on the same day as the attack. [10]

Numerous important revolutionaries, including the Castro brothers, were captured soon afterwards. During a political trial, Fidel spoke for nearly four hours in his defense, ending with the words "Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me ." Castro's defense was based on nationalism, representation and beneficial programs for the non-elite Cubans, justice for the Cuban community, and his patriotism. [11] Fidel was sentenced to 15 years in the prison Presidio Modelo , located on Isla de Pinos , while Raúl was sentenced to 13 years. [12] However, in 1955, yielding to political considerations, the Batista government freed all political prisoners in Cuba, including the Moncada attackers. Fidel's Jesuit childhood teachers succeeded in persuading Batista to include Fidel and Raúl in the release. Fidel Castro left Cuba for exile in Mexico. [13]

In Mexico, Fidel Castro soon met with Spanish Civil War veteran Alberto Bayo . Castro informed Bayo he had a plan to invade Cuba but had no money for weapons or a single volunteered soldier. Despite the lack of resources Bayo decided to assist Castro's plan because giving military advice would not cost him anything. With time Fidel would be joined by his brother Raul Castro , and his old comrade Antonio "Ñico" López. Lopez would bring Raul Castro to a nearby hospital where an exiled Che Guevara was working as a doctor. Guevara, who had met Lopez previously in Guatemala was invited to meet with Fidel Castro by Lopez. The Castro brothers, Lopez, and Guevara were to be the first volunteers for the expedition. On the evening of July 8, 1954 Guevara and Fidel Castro met in the home of Maria Antonia Gonzalez. The apartment later became a headquarters for the rebels. Castro realised he had little money for his plans and in October travelled to New Jersey and Miami to raise money from Cuban exiles for his invasion. [14]

Preparations

The yacht was purchased on October 10, 1956, for MX$ 50,000 ( US$ 4,000 in 1956) from the United States-based Schuylkill Products Company, Inc., by a Mexican citizen—said to be Mexico City gun dealer Antonio "The Friend" del Conde [15] —secretly representing Fidel Castro . The builder, Wheeler Shipbuiding, then of Brooklyn, New York, now of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, also built Ernest Hemmingway 's boat Pilar . [16] It is still unknown who removed the light armor and expanded the cabin postwar to convert the navy training boat into a civilian yacht. Castro's 26th of July Movement had attempted to purchase a Catalina flying boat maritime aircraft, or a US naval crash rescue boat for the purpose of crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba, but their efforts had been thwarted by lack of funds. The money to purchase Granma had been raised in the US state of Florida by former President of Cuba Carlos Prío Socarrás [17] and Teresa Casuso Morín . [18]

Soon after midnight on November 25, 1956, in the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz , Granma was boarded surreptitiously by 82 members of the 26th of July Movement including their commander, Fidel Castro, his brother, Raúl Castro , Che Guevara , and Camilo Cienfuegos . The group—who later came to be known collectively as los expedicionarios del yate Granma (the Granma yacht expeditioners)—then set out from Tuxpan at 2   a.m. [19] After a series of vicissitudes and misadventures, including diminishing supplies, sea-sickness, and the near-foundering of their heavily laden and leaking craft, they disembarked on December 2 on the Playa Las Coloradas , in the municipality of Niquero , in modern Granma Province (named for the vessel), formerly part of the larger Oriente Province . Granma was piloted by Norberto Collado Abreu , a World War II Cuban Navy veteran and ally of Castro. [20] The location was chosen to emulate the voyage of national hero José Martí , who had landed in the same region 61 years earlier during the wars of independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Santiago de Cuba uprising

A rebellion organized by the 26th of July movement and planned by Haydée Santamaría , Celia Sánchez , and Frank País occurred in Santiago de Cuba . It was planned in occurrence with the landing of the Granma. The rebellion happened on November 30 but was destroyed quickly by police. The Granma itself wouldn't arrive in Cuba until days later on December 2. It was made two days late due to bad weather during the voyage to Cuba. [21]

Granma landing

We reached solid ground, lost, stumbling along like so many shadows or ghosts marching in response to some obscure psychic impulse. We had been through seven days of constant hunger and sickness during the sea crossing, topped by three still more terrible days on land. Exactly 10 days after our departure from Mexico, during the early morning hours of December 5, following a night-long march interrupted by fainting and frequent rest periods, we reached a spot paradoxically known as Alegría de Pío (Rejoicing of the Pious). – Che Guevara [22]

Batista predicted correctly that the landing would occur, and his troops were ready. Consequentially, the landing party was bombarded by helicopters and airplanes soon after landing. Since the terrain on the coastline provided little cover, the party was an easy target. [23] Many casualties ensued, most of them during battle at Alegría de Pío   [ es ] further inland. The survivors continued to the foot of Pico Turquino in the Sierra Maestra to perform guerilla war. [24]

Initially, Batista did not know who exactly were among the casualties, and international media widely reported that Fidel had died. [25] This was, however, not the case. Of the 82, about 21 had survived. According to the most credible version, the survivors were Fidel, Raúl, Guevara, Armando Rodríguez , Faustino Pérez   [ es ] , Ramiro Valdés , Universo Sánchez , Efigenio Ameijeiras , René Rodríguez , Camilo Cienfuegos , Juan Almeida Bosque , Calixto García , Calixto Morales , Reinaldo Benítez , Julio Díaz , Luis Crespo Cabrera , [ citation needed ] Rafael Chao , Ciro Redondo   [ es ] , José Morán , Carlos Bermúdez , and Fransisco González . All others had been either killed, captured, or left behind. [26]

Granma yacht expeditioners

The 82 expeditioners were: [27]

• Fidel Castro
• Juan Manuel Márquez Rodríguez   [ es ]
• Faustino Pérez   [ es ]
• José Smith Comas
• Juan Almeida Bosque
• Raúl Castro
• Félix Elmuza
• Armando Huau
• Che Guevara
• Antonio López
• Teniente Jesús Reyes
• Cándido González
• Onelio Pino
• Roberto Roque
• Jesús Montané   [ es ]
• Mario Hidalgo
• César Gómez
• Rolando Moya
• Horacio Rodríguez
• José Ponce Díaz
• José Ramón Martínez
• Fernando Sánchez-Amaya
• Arturo Chaumont
• Norberto Collado
• Gino Donè Paro   [ it ]
• Evaristo Montes de Oca
• Esteban Sotolongo
• Andrés Luján
• José Fuentes
• Pablo Hurtado
• Emilio Albentosa
• Luis Crespo
• Rafael Chao
• Ernesto Fernández
• Armando Mestre
• Miguel Cabañas
• Eduardo Reyes
• Humberto Lamothe
• Santiago Hirzel
• Enrique Cuélez
• Mario Chanes   [ es ]
• Manuel Echevarría
• Fransisco González
• Mario Fuentes
• Noelio Capote
• Raúl Suárez
• Gabriel Gil
• Alfonso Guillén Zelaya
• Miguel Saavedra
• Pedro Sotto
• Arsenio García
• Israel Cabrera
• Carlos Bermúdez
• Antonio Darío López
• Oscar Rodríguez
• Camilo Cienfuegos
• Gilberto García
• Jaime Costa   [ es ]
• Norberto Godoy
• Enrique Cámara
• Armando Rodríguez
• Calixto García
• Calixto Morales
• Reinaldo Benítez
• René Rodríguez
• Jesús Gómez
• Francisco Chicola
• Universo Sánchez
• Efigenio Ameijeiras
• Ramiro Valdés
• Arnaldo Pérez
• Ciro Redondo   [ es ]
• Rolando Santana
• Ramón Mejias

Soon after the revolutionary forces triumphed on January 1, 1959, the cabin cruiser was transferred to Havana Bay . Norberto Collado Abreu, who had served as main helmsman for the 1956 voyage, [20] received the job of guarding and preserving the yacht. [ citation needed ]

Since 1976, the yacht has been displayed permanently in a glass enclosure at the Memorial Granma adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana . A portion of old Oriente Province , where the expedition made landfall, was renamed Granma Province in honor of the vessel. UNESCO has declared the Landing of the Granma National Park —established at the location (Playa Las Coloradas)—a World Heritage Site for its natural habitat. [28]

The Cuban government celebrates December 2 as the Day of the Cuban Armed Forces , [29] and a replica has also been paraded at state functions to commemorate the original voyage. In further tribute, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party has been named Granma . The name of the vessel became a symbol for Cuban communism . [30]

• [2] Daniel, Frank Jack (November 25, 2006). "Fifty years on, Mexico town recalls young Castro" . Reuters . Archived from the original on November 28, 2006.
• [3] Arrington, Vanessa (July 2006). "Roots of Cuban Revolution lie in the east" . Fox News. Associated Press . Retrieved January 14, 2007 .
• [4] "Down with Imperialism* 12,000 Miles Away" . Time . December 2, 2008. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008 . Retrieved December 3, 2006 .
• [5] "Historical sites: Moncada Army Barracks and" . CubaTravelInfo. Archived from the original on 10 July 2013 . Retrieved 10 July 2013 .
• [6] Faria, Miguel A. Jr. (27 July 2004). "Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement" . Newsmax Media . Archived from the original on 22 August 2015 . Retrieved 14 August 2015 .
• [7] Hunt, Michael H. (2004). The World Transformed: 1945 to the present . New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p.   257. ISBN   9780199371020 .
• [8] Castro (2007) , p.   133
• [9] Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present . New York: Oxford University Press. p.   257.
• [10] Castro (2007) , p.   672
• [11] Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present . New York: Oxford University Press. p.   258.
• [12] "Chronicle of an Unforgettable Agony: Cuba's Political Prisons" . Contacto Magazine . September 1996. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013 . Retrieved 10 July 2013 .
• [13] Castro (2007) , p.   174
• [14] Skierka, Volker (2014). Fidel Castro A Biography . Polity Press. ISBN   9780745693040 .
• [15] Frank Jack Daniel (November 27, 2006). "Fifty years on, Mexico town recalls young Castro" . Caribbean Net News . Archived from the original on November 23, 2007 . Retrieved December 2, 2007 .
• [16] "History – Wheeler Yacht Company" . wheeleryachts.com . Archived from the original on March 23, 2019 . Retrieved August 12, 2019 .
• [17] Thomas, Hugh (March 21, 1998). Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom . Da Capo Press. pp.   584–585. ISBN   0306808277 .
• [18] "Humanismo. Mexico City: January-February 1958, No. 4" . Sotherbys.com . Sotherbys . Retrieved December 28, 2016 .
• [19] Guevara, Ernesto. Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria. "Una revolución que comienza" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 12, 2010.
• [20] "Cuban Revolutionary Collado Abreu Dies" . Associated Press . April 3, 2008. Archived from the original on April 7, 2008 . Retrieved April 3, 2008 .
• [21] Santamaria, Haydee (2003). Haydée Santamaría Woman Guerilla Leader in Cuba Whose Passion for Art and Revolution Inspired Latin America's Cultural Renaissance . Ocean Press. p.   x. ISBN   9781876175597 .
• [22] Kellner, Douglas (1989). Ernesto "Che" Guevara . World Leaders Past & Present. Chelsea House Publishers. p.   40. ISBN   1-55546-835-7 .
• [23] Cuba Libre 2016 , 24:00.
• [24] Cuba Libre 2016 , 25:00.
• [25] Cuba Libre 2016 , 26:00.
• [26] Bonachea, Ramon L.; Martin, Marta San (2011). Cuban Insurrection 1952–1959 . New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. p.   107n49. ISBN   978-1-4128-2090-5 .
• [27] "Lo que brilla con luz propia, nada lo puede apagar" . Granma Cuba Si (in Spanish) . Retrieved September 3, 2018 .
• [28] "Desembarco del Granma National Park" . whc.unesco.org . Retrieved February 12, 2017 .
• [29] Expedición del Granma . Cuban Ministry of the Armed Forces . Retrieved November 19, 2006 .
• [30] Enrique Oltuski (November 29, 2002). Vida Clandestina: My Life in the Cuban Revolution . John Wiley & Sons. pp.   292–. ISBN   978-0-7879-6658-4 .

Works cited

• Castro, Fidel (2007). Ignacio Ramonet (ed.). Fidel Castro: My Life . Translated by Andrew Hurley. Penguin Books. ISBN   978-0-14-102626-8 .
• "A Ragtag Revolution". The Cuba Libre Story . Episode 4 (in Finnish). 2016. Yle.
• Swanson, Peter (February 23, 2018). "The Amazing True Story of Fidel Castro's Mystery Motoryacht" . PassageMaker .

External links

• Wheeler Yachts Home Page
• Che Guevara's account of the Granma's voyage
• Fidel Castro recalls the Granma crossing
• Landing of the Granma on historyofcuba.com
• The Voyage of the Granma
• Che Describes his Departure to Cuba from Mexico Aboard the Granma

• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014
• Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia
• Motor yachts
• Cuban Revolution
• Museum ships in Cuba
• Che Guevara

Granma (yacht)

• View history

Granma Memorial in Havana

Granma is the yacht that was used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in November 1956 for the purpose of overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio Batista . The 60-foot (18 m) diesel-powered cabin cruiser was built in 1943 and designed to accommodate 12 people. "Granma", in English, is an affectionate term for a grandmother; the yacht is said to have been named for the original owner's grandmother. [1]

• 1.1 Landing
• 2 After the revolution
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Role in the Cuban revolution [ ]

The route of the Granma from Tuxpan to Playa Las Coloradas.

The yacht was purchased on 10 October 1956 for MX$ 50,000 (US$15,000) from the U.S. -based Schuylkill Products Company, Inc. by a Mexican citizen—said to be Mexico City gun dealer Antonio "The Friend" del Conde [2] —secretly representing Fidel Castro . Castro's 26th of July Movement had attempted to purchase a Catalina flying boat or a US naval crash rescue boat for the purpose of crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba, but their efforts had been thwarted by lack of funds. The money to purchase the Granma had been raised in the U.S. state of Florida by former President of Cuba Carlos Prío Socarrás . [3]

Shortly after midnight on 25 November 1956 in the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz , the Granma was surreptitiously boarded by 82 members of the 26th of July movement including their leader, Fidel Castro , his brother, Raúl Castro , Che Guevara , and Camilo Cienfuegos . The group—who later came to be known collectively as los expedicionarios del yate Granma —set out from Tuxpan at 1 a.m. and, after a series of vicissitudes and misadventures, including the near-foundering of their heavily overladen and leaking craft, disembarked on 2 December on the Playa Las Coloradas , municipality of Niquero , in what is now Granma Province (after the vessel), but was then part of the larger Oriente Province. The Granma was piloted by Norberto Collado Abreu , a Cuban Navy veteran and ally of Castro. [4] The location was chosen to emulate the voyage of national hero José Martí , who had landed in the same region 61 years earlier during the wars of independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Landing [ ]

"We reached solid ground, lost, stumbling along like so many shadows or ghosts marching in response to some obscure psychic impulse. We had been through seven days of constant hunger and sickness during the sea crossing, topped by three still more terrible days on land. Exactly 10 days after our departure from Mexico, during the early morning hours of December 5, following a night-long march interrupted by fainting and frequent rest periods, we reached a spot paradoxically known as Alegría de Pío (Rejoicing of the Pious)". - Che Guevara [5]

After the revolution [ ]

Soon after the revolutionary forces triumphed on 1 January 1959, the cabin cruiser was transferred to Havana Bay. Norberto Collado Abreu , who had served as main helmsman for the 1956 voyage, [4] was given the responsibility of guarding and preserving the yacht.

Since 1976, the yacht has been on permanent display in a glass enclosure at the Granma Memorial adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana. A portion of old Oriente Province, where the expedition made landfall, was renamed Granma Province in honor of the vessel and the Landing of the Granma National Park established at the location (Playa Las Coloradas) was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its natural habitat. Every year on 25 November a group of Cuban youths sets out from Tuxpan aboard a replica of the Granma to re-trace hour by hour the voyage of the original Granma to its landing spot at Playa Las Coloradas a week later. [ citation needed ]

The date 2 December is celebrated as the "Day of the Cuban Armed Forces", [6] and the replica has also been paraded at state functions to commemorate the original voyage. In further tribute, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party has been called Granma. The name of this vessel became an icon for Cuban communism. Although the name is sometimes described as having been misspelled, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary lists granma as a variant of grandma .

References [ ]

• ↑ Yahoo news . Accessed 3 December 2006. ° Roots of Cuban Revolution lie in the east. Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press July 2006. Accessed 14 January 2007. ° Time Magazine 1966 report Accessed 3 December 2006.
• ↑ Frank Jack Daniel (27 November 2006). "Fifty years on, Mexico town recalls young Castro" . Caribbean Net News . http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000044/004447.htm . Retrieved 2007-12-02 .  
• ↑ Thomas, Hugh. Cuba : The Pursuit of Freedom . p584-5.
• ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Cuban Revolutionary Collado Abreu Dies" . Associated Press . 2008-04-03 . http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwmSiVGv7YJhIJt2qN4o-3rWEQ-QD8VQ3DSG0 . Retrieved 2008-04-03 .   [ dead link ]
• ↑ Ernesto "Che" Guevara (World Leaders Past & Present) , by Douglas Kellner, 1989, Chelsea House Publishers, ISBN 1-55546-835-7 , pg 40
• ↑ Expedición del Granma Online at Cuban Ministry of the Armed Forces , accessed 19 November 2006

External links [ ]

• Che Guevara's account of the Granma's voyage
• Fidel Castro recalls the Granma crossing
• Landing of the Granma on historyofcuba.com
• The Voyage of the Granma
• Che Describes his Departure to Cuba from Mexico Aboard the Granma

Coordinates: 23°8′27″N 82°21′25″W  /  23.14083°N 82.35694°W  / 23.14083; -82.35694

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Castro’s legacy: how the revolutionary inspired and appalled the world

The man who led a revolution and strode the world stage for half a century left Cuba with free healthcare, food shortages – and not a single street in his name

No street bears his name and there is not a single statue in his honour but Fidel Castro did not want or need that type of recognition. From tip to tip, he made Cuba his living, breathing creation.

Children in red neckerchiefs scampering to free schools, families rationing toilet paper in dilapidated houses, pensioners enjoying free medical treatment, newspapers filled with monotonous state propaganda: all in some way bear the stamp of one man.

Historians will debate Castro’s legacy for decades to come but his revolution’s accomplishments and failures are on open display in today’s Cuba , which – even with the reforms of recent years – still bears the stamp of half a century of “Fidelismo”.

The “maximum leader” was a workaholic micro-manager who turned the Caribbean island into an economic, political and social laboratory that has simultaneously intrigued, appalled and inspired the world.

“When Fidel took power in 1959 few would have predicted that he would be able to so completely transform Cuban society, upend US priorities in Latin America and create a following of global proportions,” said Dan Erikson, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank and author of The Cuba Wars .

The most apparent downside of his legacy is material scarcity. For ordinary Cubans things tend to be either in short supply, such as transport, housing and food, or prohibitively expensive, such as soap, books and clothes.

These problems have persisted since Fidel handed the presidency to his brother Raúl in 2008 . Despite overtures to the United States and encouragement of micro businesses since then, the state still controls the lion’s share of the economy and pays an average monthly wage of less than £15. This has forced many to hustle extra income however they can, including prostitution and low-level corruption. The lucky ones earn hard currency through tourism jobs or receive dollars from relatives in Florida.

Cubans are canny improvisers and can live with dignity on a shoestring, but they yearn for conditions to ease. “We want to buy good stuff, nice stuff, like you do in your countries,” said Miguel, 20, gazing wistfully at Adidas runners on a store on Neptuno street.

Castro blamed the hardship on the US embargo, a longstanding, vindictive stranglehold which cost the economy billions. However, most analysts and many Cubans say botched central planning and stifling controls were even more ruinous. “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work,” goes the old joke.

Thanks to universal and free education and healthcare, however, Cuba boasts first-world levels of literacy and life expectancy. The comandante made sure the state reached the poorest, a commitment denied to many slum-dwellers across Latin America.

Idealism sparkles in places such as Havana’s institute for the blind where Lisbet, a young doctor, works marathon shifts. “We see every single one of the patients. It’s our job and how we contribute to the revolution and humankind.”

Castro continued to hold a place in people’s hearts and minds despite largely withdrawing from public life in the last decade of his life. Increasingly infirm, he mostly tended his garden in Zone Zero (the high security district of Havana), rebutted frequent premature rumours of his death with photographs showing him holding the latest edition of the state-run newspaper Granma, and wrote the occasional column, including grumpy criticism of Cuba’s drift towards market economics and reconciliation with the United States .

But his influence was clearly on the wane. Although he met Pope Francis in 2015 , he spent a lot more time with his plants than with national and global power brokers. Even before his death, he had become more of a historical than a political figure.

“Fidel was the dominant figure for decades, but Raúl has been calling the shots,” observed a European diplomat based in Havana, who predicted the death would have more symbolic than political significance. “Has his presence been a block to reforms? Possibly. There could be an impact on young Cubans, but we won’t see a huge shift of Cuban politics after Fidel’s death. More significant would be if Raúl dies because he put his leadership on the line for reform.”

Cuba had already begun the move away from Fidel’s era in a similar series of gradual steps to that taken in China after the the death of Mao Zedong or Vietnam after the demise of Ho Chi Minh.

Under the Economic Modernisation Plan of 2010, the state shed 1m jobs, and opened opportunities for small private business, such as paladares – family-run restaurants – and casas particulares , or home hotels. Farmers have been given more autonomy and price incentives to produce more food. The government has eased overseas travel restrictions , loosened pay ceilings, ended controls on car sales and tied up with overseas partners to build a new free-trade zone at the former submarine base in Mariel. The biggest changes have been in the diplomatic sphere, where Cuba strengthened ties with the Vatican and signed a historic accord with the United States to ease half a century of cold war tension .

But this is still an island shaped more by Fidel Castro than any other man. Wander up the marble steps at the centre of Revolution Square and stand where Castro used to give his marathon orations to an audience of more than a million and you can still see just how much the revolution he led reshaped the country. On one side are the giant profiles – illuminated at night – of his two lieutenants: Che Guevara on the ministry of the interior and Camilo Cienfuegos across the facade of the communications ministry.

In the distance, you can see the tower blocks that were formerly the headquarters of major US corporations such as ITT and General Electric but were nationalised under Castro, and hotels such as the Havana Libre, which were once owned by US mobsters but later turned over to the state.

Part of Cuba’s charm for tourists – and the curse for many locals – is that it is all too easy to remember what life here was like in the early days of the revolution because the city has barely move on in the subsequent half century. Thanks to the economic embargo imposed by the United States, Castro’s Cuba became a time capsule. Despite a partial facelift ahead of Pope Francis’s visit in 2015, many streets are still lined by crumbling colonial facades and potted by holes that look like they have been there for decades.

The former mafia hotels have had little more than a lick of paint since they were frequented by mobsters like Meyer Lansky and Charles “Lucky” Luciano. And, of course, classic cars from the 1950s – Buicks, Chryslers, Oldsmobiles and Chevrolets – still cruise the Malecón .

Close to Revolution Square is the run-down La Timba neighbourhood, where a young Fidel Castro cut his teeth as a lawyer defending the local community of shanty-home dwellers against eviction by developers. Juvelio Chinea, an elderly resident, said the changes brought by the revolution in his own life had been modest, but his sons and grandsons had been able to attend university – the first generations in their family to be able to do so.

Chinea recalls hearing the comandante ’s speeches from inside his home. The 21-gun salute used to crack the walls and shake the cutlery. There would be singing and shouting from the crowd, then a hush as Castro started speaking. “Some speeches were better than others,” he remembers. “I wish he could have stayed in power longer.”

Not everyone is so sure about that. At the law department in Havana University, where Castro studied from 1945, there is admiration for the country’s former leader, but many believe he held back development.

“The best thing Fidel did for Cuba was to give us free healthcare at the level of a first world nation,” said one student. “The worst thing is that economic change has been delayed. If Fidel and Raúl had acted earlier, many of today’s problems would already have been solved.”

The student dreams of starting his own private law firm but that is not yet possible, he says, “because the government prefers to keep lawyers and courts under control” so he is thinking of joining his brother, who moved recently to the United States. Nonetheless, he is proud of his country’s and his university’s history. “It’s great that this school was where an icon like Fidel studied.”

That many still feel affection for “ El Jefe Máximo ” despite his ruinous economic policies is because he is judged more for his nationalist triumphs than his communist failures. Castro’s main inspiration was not Karl Marx, but José Martí, the 19th-century Cuban independence hero. While the latter fought to eject Spanish colonisers, Castro ended US neo-imperialist rule by kicking out US corporations and gangsters. The former banana republic is now proudly sovereign.

Camilo Guevara, the son of Castro’s comrade-in-arms Ernesto “Che” Guevara , said these achievements were secure despite the recent overtures from Washington.

“The revolutionaries changed the status quo and established a base for this nation that is independent, sovereign, progressive and economically sustainable. That’s how we got where we are,” he said at the Che Guevara Institute, which is dedicated to maintaining the ideological legacy of his father’s generation.

The message is driven home at the Museum of the Revolution, where the trophies of the early Castro era are prominently displayed outside the building that was once the presidential palace. Here you find the Granma yacht, on which Castro and 81 fellow revolutionaries sailed from Mexico in 1956 to begin the war against the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista . Here too is the engine of the US U-2 spy plane that was shot down in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis . Inside, the exhibits and photographs ram home how this small island, under Castro’s leadership, defied the Yankee superpower despite the threat of nuclear annihilation.

For many elderly Cubans, that was a terrifying, thrilling time to be alive and they remain grateful to Castro for guiding them through it. Frank López, a retired teacher, speaks fondly of that early era under the comandante . “It was frightening. The US jets would fly low and fast above the city, shattering the windows with their noise. We were all trained to use rifles and machine guns and would have to do drills every night. But in the end, nothing happened and we all went back to school. People should stand up to the US more often.”

But he is not dewy-eyed about Castro. Although he admires the early healthcare and education reforms, he also recalls the economic hardships and the intrusive, suspicious state security apparatus. At one point, he was placed under surveillance for six years because a friend had plotted against Castro. These days, a bigger problem is making ends meet in the face of shortages of basic foodstuffs. “We must all do other work to get by. It’s been like that for more than 20 years,” he says. “So while we say thank you to the revolution for the education and healthcare, we also ask how much longer we have to keep saying thank you.”

While Castro became a figurehead for revolutionary armed struggle throughout and beyond Latin America, the former guerrilla was far from universally popular in his home country once he turned his hand to government. Property appropriations, restrictions on religion and crackdowns on suspected enemies left many, particularly in the old middle class, hating him – a sentiment that has spanned the generations.

As a child, Antonio Rodiles said he rebelled after learning his mother’s property had been confiscated and a cousin executed as a suspected CIA agent. “They used to tell me ‘Fidel is your daddy’. I replied ‘No, he’s not’. I hated them for forcing me to do things. As I grew up I realised this kind of system is not natural,” he recalls. Today, he heads the opposition group Citizen Demand for Another Cuba and is often arrested and beaten. “Fidel has left a shadow over Cuba. His legacy is terrible. He destroyed families, individuals and the structure of society.”

Similarly, Rosa María Payá grew up watching her father fight against and suffer from a system that tolerated little dissent. Oswaldo Payá was a leading campaigner for free elections who was imprisoned first for his religious beliefs and then for his political campaigns. He died in a car accident in 2014. Rosa María believes he was forced off the road by the government agents who were following him. She said the Castros have left a legacy of tyranny that is unchanged despite the cosmetic reforms and diplomatic deals of recent years.

“The Cuban people haven’t had a choice since the 1950s,” she says. “My father spent three years in a forced labour camp because he was Catholic. Others were imprisoned with him because they were homosexuals or dressed the ‘wrong’ way. The reality is that you can’t be alternative to the line of Fidel and Raúl.”

From the 1960s onwards, the Intelligence Directorate intrusively monitored opponents, many of whom were beaten by police or spent years in jail. Despite the release of dozens of political prisoners in the wake of the 2014 Cuba-US agreement, many activists were detained or harassed ahead of visits by Barack Obama in 2016 and Pope Francis the previous year.

Yet, compared with the past, there is a little more scope for criticism, a lot more opportunity to travel, and slightly less of a sense of crisis. Cuba may still be more closely aligned to Venezuela than the United States, but it is clearly hedging its bets more than it used to do under Fidel. Today the country is different from the one that confidently erected a now-fading plaque on Avenida Salvador Allende with a quotation from Chile’s socialist leader: “To be young and not to be revolutionary is a contradiction, almost a biological one.”

Instead, on Avenida G, a bohemian hub of cafes and street corners for Havana’s teens, the talk is not of politics but iPods, fashion, films and Major League Baseball.

In a valedictory speech at the close of the 2016 Cuban Communist party congress, Castro urged his compatriots to stick to their socialist ideals despite the warming of ties with the US, but he recognised that his generation was passing.

“Soon I’ll be like all the others,” he said of his dead comrades. “The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain as proof on this planet that if they are worked at with fervour and dignity, they can produce the material and cultural goods that human beings need, and we need to fight without truce to obtain them.”

Despite the trembling voice and mournful tone, it was a typically combative call to arms. The last of many. It may have been several years since Castro’s thunderous, marathon orations, but Cuba will still feel strangely quiet without him.

• Fidel Castro

More on this story

Fidel Castro: mass rallies set for Havana and Santiago as ashes journey across Cuba

Fidel Castro obituary

Havana in mourning: 'We Cubans are Fidelista even if we are not communist'

Castro was ‘champion of social justice’ despite flaws, says Corbyn

Fidel Castro, Cuba’s revolutionary leader, dies aged 90

'A towering figure': world leaders past and present react to death of Castro

Trump and Obama offer divergent responses to death of Fidel Castro

Divide and rule: Castro family torn by dysfunction and disagreements

Close but no cigar: how America failed to kill Fidel Castro

Most viewed.

Landing of the Granma

Granma is a yacht that was used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in November 1956 to overthrow the regime of Fulgencio Batista . The 60-foot (18 m) diesel-powered vessel was built in 1943 by Wheeler Shipbuilding of Brooklyn, New York, as a light armored target practice boat, US Navy C-1994, and modified postwar to accommodate 12 people. "Granma", in English, is an affectionate term for a grandmother; the yacht is said to have been named for the previous owner's grandmother.

Exile of Moncada attackers

In 1953, beginning their first attack against the Batista government, Fidel Castro gathered 160 fighters and planned a multi-pronged attack on two military installations. On 26 July 1953, the rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the barracks in Bayamo , only to be defeated decisively by the far more numerous government soldiers. It was hoped that the staged attack would initiate a nationwide revolt against Batista's government. After an hour of fighting most of the rebels and their commander fled to the mountains. The exact number of rebels killed in the battle is debatable; however, in his autobiography, Fidel Castro wrote that six were killed during the fighting, and an additional 55 were executed after being captured by the Batista government. Due to the government's large number of men, Hunt revised the number to about 60 members taking the opportunity to flee to the mountains along with Castro. Among the dead was Abel Santamaría , Castro's second-in-command, who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed on the same day as the attack.

Numerous important revolutionaries, including the Castro brothers, were captured soon afterwards. During a political trial, Fidel spoke for nearly four hours in his defense, ending with the words "Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me ." Castro's defense was based on nationalism, representation and beneficial programs for the non-elite Cubans, justice for the Cuban community, and his patriotism. Fidel was sentenced to 15 years in the prison Presidio Modelo , located on Isla de Pinos , while Raúl was sentenced to 13 years. However, in 1955, yielding to political considerations, the Batista government freed all political prisoners in Cuba, including the Moncada attackers. Fidel's Jesuit childhood teachers succeeded in persuading Batista to include Fidel and Raúl in the release. Fidel Castro left Cuba for exile in Mexico.

In Mexico, Fidel Castro soon met with Spanish Civil War veteran Alberto Bayo . Castro informed Bayo he had a plan to invade Cuba but had no money for weapons or a single volunteered soldier. Despite the lack of resources Bayo decided to assist Castro's plan because giving military advice would not cost him anything. With time Fidel would be joined by his brother Raul Castro , and his old comrade Antonio "Ñico" López. Lopez would bring Raul Castro to a nearby hospital where an exiled Che Guevara was working as a doctor. Guevara, who had met Lopez previously in Guatemala was invited to meet with Fidel Castro by Lopez. The Castro brothers, Lopez, and Guevara were to be the first volunteers for the expedition. On the evening of July 8, 1954 Guevara and Fidel Castro met in the home of Maria Antonia Gonzalez. The apartment later became a headquarters for the rebels. Castro realised he had little money for his plans and in October travelled to New Jersey and Miami to raise money from Cuban exiles for his invasion.

Preparations

The yacht was purchased on October 10, 1956, for MX$ 50,000 ( US$ 4,000 in 1956) from the United States-based Schuylkill Products Company, Inc., by a Mexican citizen—said to be Mexico City gun dealer Antonio "The Friend" del Conde—secretly representing Fidel Castro . The builder, Wheeler Shipbuiding, then of Brooklyn, New York, now of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, also built Ernest Hemmingway 's boat Pilar . It is still unknown who removed the light armor and expanded the cabin postwar to convert the navy training boat into a civilian yacht. Castro's 26th of July Movement had attempted to purchase a Catalina flying boat maritime aircraft, or a US naval crash rescue boat for the purpose of crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba, but their efforts had been thwarted by lack of funds. The money to purchase Granma had been raised in the US state of Florida by former President of Cuba Carlos Prío Socarrás and Teresa Casuso Morín .

Soon after midnight on November 25, 1956, in the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz , Granma was boarded surreptitiously by 82 members of the 26th of July Movement including their commander, Fidel Castro, his brother, Raúl Castro , Che Guevara , and Camilo Cienfuegos . The group—who later came to be known collectively as los expedicionarios del yate Granma (the Granma yacht expeditioners)—then set out from Tuxpan at 2 a.m. After a series of vicissitudes and misadventures, including diminishing supplies, sea-sickness, and the near-foundering of their heavily laden and leaking craft, they disembarked on December 2 on the Playa Las Coloradas , in the municipality of Niquero , in modern Granma Province (named for the vessel), formerly part of the larger Oriente Province . Granma was piloted by Norberto Collado Abreu , a World War II Cuban Navy veteran and ally of Castro. The location was chosen to emulate the voyage of national hero José Martí , who had landed in the same region 61 years earlier during the wars of independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Santiago de Cuba uprising

A rebellion organized by the 26th of July movement and planned by Haydée Santamaría , Celia Sánchez , and Frank País occurred in Santiago de Cuba . It was planned in occurrence with the landing of the Granma. The rebellion happened on November 30 but was destroyed quickly by police. The Granma itself wouldn't arrive in Cuba until days later on December 2. It was made two days late due to bad weather during the voyage to Cuba.

Granma landing

We reached solid ground, lost, stumbling along like so many shadows or ghosts marching in response to some obscure psychic impulse. We had been through seven days of constant hunger and sickness during the sea crossing, topped by three still more terrible days on land. Exactly 10 days after our departure from Mexico, during the early morning hours of December 5, following a night-long march interrupted by fainting and frequent rest periods, we reached a spot paradoxically known as Alegría de Pío (Rejoicing of the Pious). – Che Guevara

Batista predicted correctly that the landing would occur, and his troops were ready. Consequentially, the landing party was bombarded by helicopters and airplanes soon after landing. Since the terrain on the coastline provided little cover, the party was an easy target. Many casualties ensued, most of them during battle at Alegría de Pío  [ es ] further inland. The survivors continued to the foot of Pico Turquino in the Sierra Maestra to perform guerilla war.

Initially, Batista did not know who exactly were among the casualties, and international media widely reported that Fidel had died. This was, however, not the case. Of the 82, about 21 had survived. According to the most credible version, the survivors were Fidel, Raúl, Guevara, Armando Rodríguez, Faustino Pérez  [ es ] , Ramiro Valdés , Universo Sánchez, Efigenio Ameijeiras , René Rodríguez, Camilo Cienfuegos , Juan Almeida Bosque , Calixto García, Calixto Morales, Reinaldo Benítez, Julio Díaz, Luis Crespo Cabrera, [ citation needed ] Rafael Chao, Ciro Redondo  [ es ] , José Morán, Carlos Bermúdez, and Fransisco González. All others had been either killed, captured, or left behind.

Granma yacht expeditioners

The 82 expeditioners were:

• Fidel Castro
• Juan Manuel Márquez Rodríguez  [ es ]
• Faustino Pérez  [ es ]
• José Smith Comas
• Juan Almeida Bosque
• Raúl Castro
• Félix Elmuza
• Armando Huau
• Che Guevara
• Antonio López
• Teniente Jesús Reyes
• Cándido González
• Onelio Pino
• Roberto Roque
• Jesús Montané  [ es ]
• Mario Hidalgo
• César Gómez
• Rolando Moya
• Horacio Rodríguez
• José Ponce Díaz
• José Ramón Martínez
• Fernando Sánchez-Amaya
• Arturo Chaumont
• Norberto Collado
• Gino Donè Paro  [ it ]
• Evaristo Montes de Oca
• Esteban Sotolongo
• Andrés Luján
• José Fuentes
• Pablo Hurtado
• Emilio Albentosa
• Luis Crespo
• Rafael Chao
• Ernesto Fernández
• Armando Mestre
• Miguel Cabañas
• Eduardo Reyes
• Humberto Lamothe
• Santiago Hirzel
• Enrique Cuélez
• Mario Chanes  [ es ]
• Manuel Echevarría
• Fransisco González
• Mario Fuentes
• Noelio Capote
• Raúl Suárez
• Gabriel Gil
• Alfonso Guillén Zelaya
• Miguel Saavedra
• Pedro Sotto
• Arsenio García
• Israel Cabrera
• Carlos Bermúdez
• Antonio Darío López
• Oscar Rodríguez
• Camilo Cienfuegos
• Gilberto García
• Jaime Costa  [ es ]
• Norberto Godoy
• Enrique Cámara
• Armando Rodríguez
• Calixto García
• Calixto Morales
• Reinaldo Benítez
• René Rodríguez
• Jesús Gómez
• Francisco Chicola
• Universo Sánchez
• Efigenio Ameijeiras
• Ramiro Valdés
• Arnaldo Pérez
• Ciro Redondo  [ es ]
• Rolando Santana
• Ramón Mejias

Soon after the revolutionary forces triumphed on January 1, 1959, the cabin cruiser was transferred to Havana Bay . Norberto Collado Abreu, who had served as main helmsman for the 1956 voyage, received the job of guarding and preserving the yacht. [ citation needed ]

Since 1976, the yacht has been displayed permanently in a glass enclosure at the Memorial Granma adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana . A portion of old Oriente Province , where the expedition made landfall, was renamed Granma Province in honor of the vessel. UNESCO has declared the Landing of the Granma National Park —established at the location (Playa Las Coloradas)—a World Heritage Site for its natural habitat.

The Cuban government celebrates December 2 as the Day of the Cuban Armed Forces , and a replica has also been paraded at state functions to commemorate the original voyage. In further tribute, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party has been named Granma . The name of the vessel became a symbol for Cuban communism .

• Cuban exile
• United States embargo against Cuba
• La Coubre explosion
• Bay of Pigs Invasion
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Escopeteros
• Radio Rebelde
• Robert Maheu
• Awards and honours
• Eponymous things
• Religious views
• Relationship with dairy
• Granma (yacht)
• Motor yachts
• Cuban Revolution
• Museum ships in Cuba

This page was last updated at 2024-03-20 08:04 UTC. Update now . View original page .

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please use Firefox or Safari

• Reflections by Fidel

The Granma, breaking through the fog

In this article: Cuba , Fidel Castro , Granma Yacht , History , Politics , society , tribute

December 2, 1956, at a point on the southern coast of eastern Cuba known as Los Cayuelos, the men under Fidel’s leadership disembarked, intent upon honoring the blood spilled in the name of independence before them.

It took the expedition members almost four hours to cross the 1,500 meters of swampy mangroves that separated them from the mainland, in a slow, painful march, losing their boots, clothes and valuable war material, but never their confidence in Fidel’s statement upon leaving Mexico: “If I leave, I will arrive; if I arrive, I will enter; if I enter, I will triumph.”

The days that followed were worse. Three days later, with practically no food or rest, the baptism of fire arrived, in Alegría de Pío, leaving the deaths of combatants, the capture of others… the dispersion.

But much more than this setback was needed to defeat the expedition. Just days later, on December 18, at Cinco Palmas, with eight men and seven weapons reunited, Fidel exclaimed: “Now, yes, we have won the war!”

With this conviction they landed on Cuban soil; and this would be the guide for every battle in the Sierra Maestra, until the final victory, and today, 64 Decembers later, it is the same conviction that Cuba holds dear, as we confront new efforts to break us.

Landing on the Granma, in 1956, were not only the utopia of the possible and the homeland imagined by Martí, but also the commitment to sovereignty of a people that does not allow its history to be disgraced, and much less is easily confused. (Taken from Granma)

Make a comment

Your email address will not be published. The mandatory fields are marked. *

Most Commented

• Cubadebate opens its new Web page in English | 20
• Mandela is dead: Why hide the truth about Apartheid? | 11
• El Paso Diary: The Battle Over the Solo Fax | 10
• President Hugo Chavez's address to the People of Venezuela | 10
• Free the Five is heard at Left Forum | 6
• May every citizen be a constituent | 6
• Raúl receives Kim Yong Chol, Special Envoy of the President of the Workers’ Party of Korea | 6
• The Unsustainable Position of the Empire | 5
• U.S. government promoting Internet aggression against Cuba | 5
• NATO’s Genocidal Role | 4
• The Fiftieth Anniversary Parade | 4
• El Paso Diary: The Tip of the Iceberg | 4
• Cuba's Reasons
• El Paso Diary The El Paso Diary is written by José Pertierra--an attorney who represents the government of Venezuela in its request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles. Pertierra´s journals describe the testimony, evidence, legal skirmishes, quirks and follies of this very historic trial that features for the first time the close collaboration of the United States government with Cuban authorities to prosecute an ex CIA agent who is one of the masterminds of the fifty-year old dirty war against Cuba.
• Bernie Dwyer
• Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla
• Deisy Francis Mexidor
• Fidel Castro Ruz
• José Pertierra
• Raúl Castro Ruz
• Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
• Amy Goodman
• Arleen Rodríguez Derivet
• Hugo Chávez Frías
• Josh R. Nelson
• Juan Gelman
• Luis Rumbaut
• Michael Moore
• Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Noam Chomsky
• Reinaldo Taladrid Herrero
• Richard Gott

Group of Cuban Journalists against Terrorism © 2009, UCI , Havana, Cuba Optimized by Firefox. Requires 1204 x 768 resolution or higher

• Editorial Board
• Terms and Conditions
• For Webmasters and Developers
• Suggestions to reference www.cubadebate.cu

Not logged in

• Create account

Engineering:Landing of the Granma

• Engineering

Page actions

• View source

Granma is a yacht that was used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in November 1956 to overthrow the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The 60-foot (18 m) diesel-powered vessel was built in 1943 by Wheeler Shipbuilding of Brooklyn, New York, as a light armored target practice boat, US Navy C-1994, and modified postwar to accommodate 12 people. "Granma", in English, is an affectionate term for a grandmother; the yacht is said to have been named for the previous owner's grandmother. [1] [2] [3]

• 1.1 Exile of Moncada attackers
• 1.2 Conception
• 1.3 Preparations
• 2.1 Santiago de Cuba uprising
• 2.2 Granma landing
• 2.3 Granma yacht expeditioners
• 4.1 Works cited
• 5 External links

Exile of Moncada attackers

In 1953, beginning their first attack against the Batista government, Fidel Castro gathered 160 fighters and planned a multi-pronged attack on two military installations. [4] On 26 July 1953, the rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the barracks in Bayamo, only to be defeated decisively by the far more numerous government soldiers. [5] It was hoped that the staged attack would initiate a nationwide revolt against Batista's government. After an hour of fighting most of the rebels and their commander fled to the mountains. [6] The exact number of rebels killed in the battle is debatable; however, in his autobiography, Fidel Castro wrote that six were killed during the fighting, and an additional 55 were executed after being captured by the Batista government. [7] Due to the government's large number of men, Hunt revised the number to about 60 members taking the opportunity to flee to the mountains along with Castro. [8] Among the dead was Abel Santamaría, Castro's second-in-command, who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed on the same day as the attack. [9]

Numerous important revolutionaries, including the Castro brothers, were captured soon afterwards. During a political trial, Fidel spoke for nearly four hours in his defense, ending with the words "Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me." Castro's defense was based on nationalism, representation and beneficial programs for the non-elite Cubans, justice for the Cuban community, and his patriotism. [10] Fidel was sentenced to 15 years in the prison Presidio Modelo, located on Isla de Pinos, while Raúl was sentenced to 13 years. [11] However, in 1955, yielding to political considerations, the Batista government freed all political prisoners in Cuba, including the Moncada attackers. Fidel's Jesuit childhood teachers succeeded in persuading Batista to include Fidel and Raúl in the release. Fidel Castro left Cuba for exile in Mexico. [12]

In Mexico, Fidel Castro soon met with Spanish Civil War veteran Alberto Bayo. Castro informed Bayo he had a plan to invade Cuba but had no money for weapons or a single volunteered soldier. Despite the lack of resources Bayo decided to assist Castro's plan because giving military advice would not cost him anything. With time Fidel would be joined by his brother Raul Castro, and his old comrade Antonio "Ñico" López. Lopez would bring Raul Castro to a nearby hospital where an exiled Che Guevara was working as a doctor. Guevara, who had met Lopez previously in Guatemala was invited to meet with Fidel Castro by Lopez. The Castro brothers, Lopez, and Guevara were to be the first volunteers for the expedition. On the evening of July 8, 1954 Guevara and Fidel Castro met in the home of Maria Antonia Gonzalez. The apartment later became a headquarters for the rebels. Castro realised he had little money for his plans and in October travelled to New Jersey and Miami to raise money from Cuban exiles for his invasion. [13]

Preparations

The yacht was purchased on October 10, 1956, for MX$50,000 (US$4,000 in 1956) from the United States-based Schuylkill Products Company, Inc., by a Mexican citizen—said to be Mexico City gun dealer Antonio "The Friend" del Conde [14] —secretly representing Fidel Castro. The builder, Wheeler Shipbuiding, then of Brooklyn, New York, now of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, also built Ernest Hemmingway's boat Pilar . [15] It is still unknown who removed the light armor and expanded the cabin postwar to convert the navy training boat into a civilian yacht. Castro's 26th of July Movement had attempted to purchase a Catalina flying boat maritime aircraft, or a US naval crash rescue boat for the purpose of crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba, but their efforts had been thwarted by lack of funds. The money to purchase Granma had been raised in the US state of Florida by former President of Cuba Carlos Prío Socarrás [16] and Teresa Casuso Morín. [17]

Soon after midnight on November 25, 1956, in the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz, Granma was boarded surreptitiously by 82 members of the 26th of July Movement including their commander, Fidel Castro, his brother, Raúl Castro, Che Guevara , and Camilo Cienfuegos. The group—who later came to be known collectively as los expedicionarios del yate Granma (the Granma yacht expeditioners)—then set out from Tuxpan at 2 a.m. [18] After a series of vicissitudes and misadventures, including diminishing supplies, sea-sickness, and the near-foundering of their heavily laden and leaking craft, they disembarked on December 2 on the Playa Las Coloradas, in the municipality of Niquero, in modern Granma Province (named for the vessel), formerly part of the larger Oriente Province. Granma was piloted by Norberto Collado Abreu, a World War II Cuban Navy veteran and ally of Castro. [19] The location was chosen to emulate the voyage of national hero José Martí , who had landed in the same region 61 years earlier during the wars of independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Santiago de Cuba uprising

A rebellion organized by the 26th of July movement and planned by Haydée Santamaría, Celia Sánchez, and Frank País occurred in Santiago de Cuba. It was planned in occurrence with the landing of the Granma. The rebellion happened on November 30 but was destroyed quickly by police. The Granma itself wouldn't arrive in Cuba until days later on December 2. It was made two days late due to bad weather during the voyage to Cuba. [20]

Granma landing

We reached solid ground, lost, stumbling along like so many shadows or ghosts marching in response to some obscure psychic impulse. We had been through seven days of constant hunger and sickness during the sea crossing, topped by three still more terrible days on land. Exactly 10 days after our departure from Mexico, during the early morning hours of December 5, following a night-long march interrupted by fainting and frequent rest periods, we reached a spot paradoxically known as Alegría de Pío (Rejoicing of the Pious). – Che Guevara [21]

Batista predicted correctly that the landing would occur, and his troops were ready. Consequentially, the landing party was bombarded by helicopters and airplanes soon after landing. Since the terrain on the coastline provided little cover, the party was an easy target. [22] Many casualties ensued, most of them during battle at Alegría de Pío (es) further inland. The survivors continued to the foot of Pico Turquino in the Sierra Maestra to perform guerilla war. [23]

Initially, Batista did not know who exactly were among the casualties, and international media widely reported that Fidel had died. [24] This was, however, not the case. Of the 82, about 21 had survived. According to the most credible version, the survivors were Fidel, Raúl, Guevara, Armando Rodríguez, Faustino Pérez (es), Ramiro Valdés, Universo Sánchez, Efigenio Ameijeiras, René Rodríguez, Camilo Cienfuegos, Juan Almeida Bosque, Calixto García, Calixto Morales, Reinaldo Benítez, Julio Díaz, Luis Crespo Cabrera, [ citation needed ] Rafael Chao, Ciro Redondo (revolutionary) (es), José Morán, Carlos Bermúdez, and Fransisco González. All others had been either killed, captured, or left behind. [25]

Granma yacht expeditioners

The 82 expeditioners were: [26]

• Fidel Castro
• Juan Manuel Márquez Rodríguez (es)
• Faustino Pérez (es)
• José Smith Comas
• Juan Almeida Bosque
• Raúl Castro
• Félix Elmuza
• Armando Huau
• Che Guevara
• Antonio López
• Teniente Jesús Reyes
• Cándido González
• Onelio Pino
• Roberto Roque
• Jesús Montané (es)
• Mario Hidalgo
• César Gómez
• Rolando Moya
• Horacio Rodríguez
• José Ponce Díaz
• José Ramón Martínez
• Fernando Sánchez-Amaya
• Arturo Chaumont
• Norberto Collado
• Gino Donè Paro (it)
• Evaristo Montes de Oca
• Esteban Sotolongo
• Andrés Luján
• José Fuentes
• Pablo Hurtado
• Emilio Albentosa
• Luis Crespo
• Rafael Chao
• Ernesto Fernández
• Armando Mestre
• Miguel Cabañas
• Eduardo Reyes
• Humberto Lamothe
• Santiago Hirzel
• Enrique Cuélez
• Mario Chanes (es)
• Manuel Echevarría
• Fransisco González
• Mario Fuentes
• Noelio Capote
• Raúl Suárez
• Gabriel Gil
• Alfonso Guillén Zelaya
• Miguel Saavedra
• Pedro Sotto
• Arsenio García
• Israel Cabrera
• Carlos Bermúdez
• Antonio Darío López
• Oscar Rodríguez
• Camilo Cienfuegos
• Gilberto García
• Jaime Costa (es)
• Norberto Godoy
• Enrique Cámara
• Armando Rodríguez
• Calixto García
• Calixto Morales
• Reinaldo Benítez
• René Rodríguez
• Jesús Gómez
• Francisco Chicola
• Universo Sánchez
• Efigenio Ameijeiras
• Ramiro Valdés
• Arnaldo Pérez
• Ciro Redondo (revolutionary) (es)
• Rolando Santana
• Ramón Mejias

Soon after the revolutionary forces triumphed on January 1, 1959, the cabin cruiser was transferred to Havana Bay. Norberto Collado Abreu, who had served as main helmsman for the 1956 voyage, [19] received the job of guarding and preserving the yacht. [ citation needed ]

Since 1976, the yacht has been displayed permanently in a glass enclosure at the Memorial Granma adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana . A portion of old Oriente Province, where the expedition made landfall, was renamed Granma Province in honor of the vessel. UNESCO has declared the Landing of the Granma National Park—established at the location (Playa Las Coloradas)—a World Heritage Site for its natural habitat. [27]

The Cuban government celebrates December 2 as the Day of the Cuban Armed Forces, [28] and a replica has also been paraded at state functions to commemorate the original voyage. In further tribute, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party has been named Granma . The name of the vessel became a symbol for Cuban communism. [29]

• ↑ Daniel, Frank Jack (November 25, 2006). "Fifty years on, Mexico town recalls young Castro" . Reuters . http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061126/ts_nm/mexico_castro_dc .  
• ↑ Arrington, Vanessa (July 2006). "Roots of Cuban Revolution lie in the east" . Associated Press. Fox News . http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2006Jul25/0,4675,CubaRootsoftheRevolutionLH1,00.html .  
• ↑ "Down with Imperialism* 12,000 Miles Away" . Time (magazine) . December 2, 2008 . http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899011,00.html . Retrieved December 3, 2006 .  
• ↑ "Historical sites: Moncada Army Barracks and" . CubaTravelInfo . http://www.cubatravelinfo.com/historical-sites/moncada-army-barracks.html .  
• ↑ Faria, Miguel A. Jr. (27 July 2004). "Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement" . Newsmax Media . http://haciendapublishing.com/articles/fidel-castro-and-26th-july-movement .  
• ↑ Hunt, Michael H. (2004). The World Transformed: 1945 to the present . New York, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 257. ISBN   9780199371020 .  
• ↑ Castro (2007) , p. 133
• ↑ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present . New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 257.  
• ↑ Castro (2007) , p. 672
• ↑ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present . New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 258.  
• ↑ "Chronicle of an Unforgettable Agony: Cuba's Political Prisons" . Contacto Magazine . September 1996 . http://www2.fiu.edu/~fcf/estoria.presidio.html .  
• ↑ Castro (2007) , p. 174
• ↑ Skierka, Volker (2014). Fidel Castro A Biography . Polity Press. ISBN   9780745693040 . https://books.google.com/books?id=stZxBAAAQBAJ&q=26th+of+july+movement+granma .  
• ↑ Frank Jack Daniel (November 27, 2006). "Fifty years on, Mexico town recalls young Castro" . Caribbean Net News . http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000044/004447.htm .  
• ↑ "History – Wheeler Yacht Company" . http://wheeleryachts.com/history.html .  
• ↑ Thomas, Hugh (March 21, 1998). Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom . Da Capo Press. pp. 584–585. ISBN   0306808277 .  
• ↑ "Humanismo. Mexico City: January-February 1958, No. 4" . Sotherbys . http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.197.html/2015/fine-books-and-manuscripts-n09516 .  
• ↑ Guevara, Ernesto (in es). Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria. "Una revolución que comienza" . http://patriagrande.net/cuba/ernesto.che.guevara/pasajes/01.htm .  
• ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Cuban Revolutionary Collado Abreu Dies" . Associated Press. April 3, 2008 . http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwmSiVGv7YJhIJt2qN4o-3rWEQ-QD8VQ3DSG0 .  
• ↑ Santamaria, Haydee (2003). Haydée Santamaría Woman Guerilla Leader in Cuba Whose Passion for Art and Revolution Inspired Latin America's Cultural Renaissance . Ocean Press. p. x. ISBN   9781876175597 . https://books.google.com/books?id=y3_sa9kwRusC&dq=1956+granma&pg=PP12 .  
• ↑ Kellner, Douglas (1989). Ernesto "Che" Guevara . World Leaders Past & Present. Chelsea House Publishers. p. 40. ISBN   1-55546-835-7 .  
• ↑ Cuba Libre 2016 , 24:00.
• ↑ Cuba Libre 2016 , 25:00.
• ↑ Cuba Libre 2016 , 26:00.
• ↑ Bonachea, Ramon L.; Martin, Marta San (2011). Cuban Insurrection 1952–1959 . New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. p. 107n49. ISBN   978-1-4128-2090-5 . https://books.google.com/books?id=EbawDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT107 .  
• ↑ "Lo que brilla con luz propia, nada lo puede apagar" (in es). Granma Cuba Si . http://www.granma.cu/granmad/secciones/50_granma-80_fidel/la_travesia2.html .  
• ↑ "Desembarco del Granma National Park" (in en) . https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/889 .  
• ↑ Expedición del Granma . Cuban Ministry of the Armed Forces . http://www.cubagob.cu/otras_info/minfar/granma.htm . Retrieved November 19, 2006 .  
• ↑ Enrique Oltuski (November 29, 2002). Vida Clandestina: My Life in the Cuban Revolution . John Wiley & Sons. pp. 292–. ISBN   978-0-7879-6658-4 . https://books.google.com/books?id=re4dh_XLCOIC&pg=PA292 .  

Works cited

• Castro, Fidel (2007). Ignacio Ramonet. ed. Fidel Castro: My Life . Translated by Andrew Hurley. Penguin Books. ISBN   978-0-14-102626-8 .  
• Swanson, Peter (February 23, 2018). "The Amazing True Story of Fidel Castro's Mystery Motoryacht" . PassageMaker . https://www.passagemaker.com/trawler-news/granma-yacht-changed-history .  

External links

• Wheeler Yachts Home Page
• Che Guevara's account of the Granma's voyage
• Fidel Castro recalls the Granma crossing
• Landing of the Granma on historyofcuba.com
• The Voyage of the Granma
• Che Describes his Departure to Cuba from Mexico Aboard the Granma

[ ⚑ ] 23°8′27″N 82°21′25″W  /  23.14083°N 82.35694°W  / 23.14083; -82.35694

• CS1 suomi-language sources (fi)
• Motor yachts

• Add a new article
• Search in all topics
• Search in namespaces
• Search in categories
• Search using prefix
• About HandWiki
• How to edit
• Citation manager
• Formatting articles
• List of categories
• Recent pages
• Recent changes
• Random page
• Support & Donate
• Special pages
• Cite this page

User page tools

• What links here
• Related changes
• Printable version
• Permanent link
• Page information

Other projects

In other languages.

• This page was last edited on 4 February 2024, at 12:26.
• Privacy policy
• Disclaimers

Man Behind Fidel Castro's Granma Yacht Lost For Words Over Death

Antonio del Conde stands during the Photo exhibit "83 Reasons" in Mexico City

Promoted Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com

Track Budget 2023 and get Latest News Live on NDTV.com.

Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world .

Track Latest News and Election Results Coverage Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.

Watch Live News:

Radio Ciudad del Mar, desde Cienfuegos, Cuba

Radio Ciudad del Mar, productora de contenidos para la Radio e Internet, desde Cienfuegos, Cuba

🎧 Escúchenos en audio real

Cuba recalls Granma yacht and its journey towards freedom

On December 2, 1956, an 82-strong expeditionary force of resolved patriots led by Fidel Castro, ready to do anything in the struggle against the Batista dictatorship, arrived in Cuba from Mexico on board the yacht Granma.

Such a thumbnail description could portray the date as just another milestone among the hazardous events of the liberation war, but that difficult day became a special symbol in that it is marked as the birth date of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, then made of the nascent and heroic Rebel Army.

Having been exposed to imprisonment and great dangers in Mexico, especially the stalking of hitmen hired by Batista and FBI agents, the revolutionaries had to prepare everything in secrecy before their departure from Veracruz on the yacht Granma, procured by a faithful friend.

The arrival at the inhospitable Cuban beach where the boat ran aground rather than dock also went down on Cuban history as the day when the dream of definitive freedom was reborn, based on their strategic plan to reach the Sierra Maestra mountains, bound to become the main stage of the liberation war.

Joining Fidel were Cuban patriots, an Italian, and a few Latin American revolutionaries, among them the Argentine Ernesto Guevara, soon to be known as the legendary Che . The force also included combatants who would be renowned, such as Camilo Cienfuegos, Juan Almeida and Raul Castro, who reached the rank of Commander in the campaign. All souls were brimming with love and ideals to fulfill the commitment made by the young lawyer Fidel, their leader and founder of the 26th of July Movement: “In 1956 we will be free or martyrs”.

Marked not by swan songs but by the threats of the great northern Cyclops and its lackeys in Cuba, the Caribbean odyssey was the beginning of many hard trials as their homeland suffered the violent and illegal imposition, after a coup d’état, of a bloody dictatorship that persecuted, tortured and killed the country’s best children, especially young people, and kept many living in inhuman conditions while the power was held by an oligarchic caste headed by Batista, as folded to the U.S.A. as his predecessors.

The Granma expedition was also a necessity born of previous events such as the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks. Their survivors, once released from prison and led by Fidel, founded the 26th of July Movement and other outstanding nuclei of the student body.

The dictator had been forced to release Fidel Castro and his comrades in May 1955. The young lawyer decided to travel to Mexico, a neutral country that would give him a better chance of making new plans to fight, something impossible in Cuba.

While on the Granma, the revolutionaries heard on the radio about the uprising in Santiago de Cuba organized by the hero Frank País to support the landing, scheduled for November 30th but delayed by the bad weather and the fall overboard of one revolutionary, Roberto Roque, who was eventually rescued.

Once they were on dry land, another unspeakable adventure started. They were trapped and paradoxically sheltered by the undergrowth in a thick mangrove swamp that made walking difficult until the 5th, when they were surprised by and strafed from army planes in the place called Alegria de Pio, where they had to stop out of exhaustion.

A small number managed to escape in different directions. Some went to the plains while others regrouped around Fidel Castro to become what would later become the Rebel Army.

Fortunately, the huge and multiple impacts of the historic landing and the fulfillment of its proclamations made our Homeland grow in stature.

Redacción RCM

Puede que también te guste.

Havana celebrates its 504th anniversary

Diaz-Canel chairs 6th Plenary Session of Communist Party of Cuba

Cuba hosts Foto al Vuelo 2023 nature photography contest

Deja una respuesta cancelar la respuesta.

Tu dirección de correo electrónico no será publicada. Los campos obligatorios están marcados con *

Comentario *

Correo electrónico *

Guarda mi nombre, correo electrónico y web en este navegador para la próxima vez que comente.

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Man behind Castro's Granma yacht lost for words over death

By Roberto Ramirez MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The man who helped a young Fidel Castro set sail for revolution said on Saturday he was speechless over the death of his old friend, 60 years after he furnished him with a weapons-filled yacht for his historic voyage to Cuba. Mexico City gun dealer Antonio del Conde, nicknamed "The Friend," met Castro in the 1950s and bought him Granma, the boat he used to sail from Mexico to start the insurgency that toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista two years later. "I have no words," del Conde said in an interview at his home in Mexico City. "He changed my life, like he changed the lives of many people in different countries around the world." Cuban leader Raul Castro said his brother died late on Friday, exactly 60 years since Fidel and a band of armed comrades left from the port of Tuxpan on Mexico's Gulf coast. Fidel was 90 years old, the same age as del Conde. "When my friend told me ... I was silent," del Conde said, speaking from his modest apartment in southern Mexico City. He was imprisoned for a year for helping the revolutionaries, but eventually made it to Cuba to celebrate with his friends. A sepia-toned photograph hung on the wall of del Conde drinking malt beer over dinner with a bearded Fidel, Raul and left-wing icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara after the revolution. Del Conde first met Castro in 1955, when the young revolutionary walked into his arms shop in the Mexican capital saying he wanted to buy something. "I replied, 'Sir, I don't know who you are, but I'm going to help you,'" del Conde said. "It was Fidel Castro." Del Conde bought the Granma from an American couple for the Cubans and loaded it with weapons and fuel. The yacht, only designed to hold a few people, was said to have been named after the grandmother of its original owner. It later gave its name to Cuba's Communist Party newspaper. The 82 insurgents, including Raul and "Che" Guevara, left Mexico in the early hours of November 25, 1956, to land in Cuba a week later. They overthrew Batista in just over two years. This week, before news of Castro's death was announced, a group including del Conde gathered in Tuxpan in Veracruz state to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the boat's departure. "I asked for a round of applause for 'The Commander' Fidel Castro; we all stood up and clapped," del Conde said. The original yacht now sits inside a glass case outside the Museum of the Revolution in the Cuban capital, Havana. "We have to keep his image alive, as if he were with us, very close to us," del Conde said. (Writing by Christine Murray; Editing by Dave Graham and Jonathan Oatis)

Recommended Stories

Halle berry thought she could 'skip' perimenopause. a health scare after 'great sex' was a wake-up call..

Halle Berry shared a personal health story alongside first lady Jill Biden during "A Day of Unreasonable Conversation" event.

Conor McGregor displays concerning behavior with twitches, difficulty speaking in interview

McGregor's "Road House" hit Prime Video this week.

2024 Fantasy Baseball: Top MLB prospects who deserve draft day attention

Whether it's due to struggles or lack of promotion, drafting prospects can backfire. But Andy Behrens thinks these incoming rookies are still worth the risk.

Shohei Ohtani interpreter scandal: Major holes poked in Ippei Mizuhara's pre-Ohtani résumé

Ippei Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers earlier this week.

Texas is refusing to register kei trucks, and owners are fighting back

"The Autopian" reports that owners of kei trucks are running into more problems registering their vehicles, and an organization formed to fight back.

NFL mock draft: A top QB prospect falls amid trades galore in the top 10

Charles McDonald and Nate Tice's latest mock draft has five quarterbacks off the board in the top 13, a big-time weapon for Aaron Rodgers and some steals in the second half of the first round.

2024 Fantasy Baseball predictions for every American League team

Fantasy baseball analyst Dalton Del Don delivers his boldest takes for the American League — and he thinks a top-five draft pick is set to win MVP.

Dodgers' reported reaction to Shohei Ohtani's $680 million deferral request: 'Holy f***'

Andrew Friedman reacted like the rest of us when he heard Shohei Ohtani's contract proposal.

Realtor commission change delivers a boon to homebuilders, a blow to real estate platforms

A landmark settlement changing the real estate commission structure will reshape nearly every aspect of the homebuying process — from homebuyers to brokerages to homebuilders.

These Patagonia jackets are a steal right now at REI at almost $250 off today only

Combine these deals for a cold-weather system that'll keep you warm and dry for years to come for nearly $250 off the MSRP

Disney had big plans in India — here's why it's pulling back

Disney is retreating from India. Here's why it's happening now.

Mock Draft Monday with Nate Tice: Raiders make desperate QB pick

'Mock Draft Monday' makes its debut with Yahoo's very own Nate Tice joining Matt Harmon to break down his latest mock draft ahead. Every Monday leading up to the draft, Harmon will have one of the top mock drafters in the industry on the pod to break down their latest mock and share their favorite five picks and fits.

Massive changes coming to Google Chrome threaten to reshape the modern internet

Google is ending third-party cookies in Chrome. Here’s what that means for publishers trying to stay afloat in a brutal market.

NFL bans hip-drop tackle despite NFLPA's objections

Momentum had been building on the controversial proposal for months.

LSU rallies to reach Sweet 16 after Kim Mulkey’s tirade: ‘I’m not going to let one sleazy reporter distract us’

Kim Mulkey went off and threatened to sue The Washington Post on Saturday over an apparent unpublished article about her.

NFL Draft: Odds for Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy going 2nd overall have a curious shift

Do bettors know something about J.J. McCarthy's draft stock?

Confusion reigns as baseball world grapples with Shohei Ohtani-Ippei Mizuhara gambling scandal

After days of speculation and questions, one thing players and agents seem to agree on is that they don't believe Ohtani is a gambling man.

First round mock draft LIVE with Nate Tice | Zero Blitz

Jason Fitz is joined by the great Nate Tice to prepare for the 2024 NFL Draft the best way they know how: a full first-round mock draft done live on the show. The duo start off by reacting to the biggest NFL news from the weekend, including some rule changes to come out of the NFL owner's meetings and the Tennessee Titans trading for CB L'Jarius Sneed. Fitz and Nate give their thoughts on the hip drop tackle ban, an additional coach's challenge, the Titans' plans for the future and more. Next, the two hosts dive into their first round mock draft and alternate making picks. Some of the more contentious selections include Rome Odunze to the Chicago Bears, the Las Vegas Raiders passing on a quarterback, Brock Bowers to the Los Angeles Rams, Bo Nix to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and many more.

Jabari Smith Jr., Kris Dunn each suspended after throwing punches in Houston's win over Utah

Jabari Smith Jr. and Kris Dunn threw punches at each other and were quickly ejected on Saturday night in Houston.

Wall Street's most bullish strategist cites a 'big surprise' pushing stocks higher: Morning Brief

As stocks rally to record highs, Wall Street strategists continue to raise their forecasts to keep pace.

Granma Yacht

Granma is the yacht used to transport 82 fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in November 1956 to overthrow the Fulgencio Batista regime. The 18-meter diesel-powered cabin cruiser was built in 1943 by the Wheeler Shipbuilding of Brooklyn as a lightly armored target application boat, the US Navy C-1994.

Granma yacht has been changed to accommodate 12 people after the war. The meaning of the name of the yacht is a loving grandmother term in English and according to the rumor, the name of the famous ship was given by a grandmother who was the former owner.

Purchase of Granma Yacht

The historic yacht was purchased by a Mexican citizen from the manufacturer company on October 10, 1956. It is not known who removed the light armor to turn the navy training boat into a civilian yacht and by whom at the end of the war, the cabin was expanded.

Castro, who wanted to cross from the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba, attempted to purchase a rescue boat or seaplane with the 26th of July Operation. However, their efforts were hampered by insufficient funds.

The money was collected in Florida, the USA by former Cuban President Carlos Prío Socarrás and Teresa Casuso Morín to purchase Granma, one of the ships that changed world history.

Granma Yacht in the 26th of July Movement

On 25 November 1956, Granma was secretly embarked on the historic ship with 82 members, including key figures such as Camilo Cienfuegos, leaders of the 26 July movement, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and his brother Raúl Castro. Later, the group known collectively as Granma yacht explorers set out from Tuxpan.

The famous group landed at Playa Las Coloradas on December 2, following a series of misfortunes, including diminishing supplies, seasickness, and heavy-loaded ships. The story of reaching this land was considered a great success. Granma was armed by Norberto Collado Abreu, Castro's ally and a Cuban navy veteran during World War II.

The famous ship Granma yacht is now exhibited at the Gamma Monument next to the Revolution Museum in Havana. There has been a name change in a part of the former Province of Oriente. The region where the revolutionaries first set foot on land from the Granma Yacht was named Granma State. Also, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba has been named Granma since its establishment.

U.S Recorded Music Revenue Grew by 8% in 2023, Per RIAA Annual Report, but Layoffs and Slowing Growth Are Cause for Concern  

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

• U.S Recorded Music Revenue Grew by 8% in 2023, Per RIAA Annual Report, but Layoffs and Slowing Growth Are Cause for Concern   3 hours ago
• Madonna to Stage Free Concert in Rio de Janeiro as ‘Celebration’ Tour Finale 23 hours ago
• Maxwell Unveils ‘Serenade’ Tour Dates With Jazmine Sullivan 1 day ago

The U.S. recorded music industry grew its revenue by 8% in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $17.1 billion and marking eight consecutive years of growth. However, there’s no question that the streaming boom of the past decade, which produced years of double-digit growth, is leveling off and the industry is reacting with layoffs and talk of a “transformational moment ” in the months and years to come.  

However, the news arrives amid hundreds of layoffs at major music companies — totaling more than a thousand at Universal and Warner Music Groups, with more expected — concerns over AI, and efforts toward a new model for music companies, led by Lucian Grainge and Robert Kyncl, the CEOs of those companies. Their call for new models comes against the backdrop of a leveling off of streaming’s growth, after years of double-digit growth, as the markets mature in the U.S. and Europe.  

Despite a grim start to 2024, the 2023 year-end results are indeed positive: Revenues from paid subscriptions grew to $11.2 billion in 2023, accounting for 78% of streaming revenues and nearly two-thirds of total revenues. Paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others grew 8% to a record high $14.4 billion in revenue. However, limited tier subscriptions (services limited by factors such as mobile access, catalog availability, product features, or device restrictions) fell 4% to $1 billion. Services like Amazon Prime, Pandora Plus, music licenses for streaming fitness services, and other subscriptions are included in this category.

And physical formats continued their resurgence, up 11% to $1.9 billion. A 17 th consecutive year of growth, up 10%, vinyl again led the way and for the second time since 1987 outsold CDs in units (43 million vs. 37 million).

“Recorded music keeps reaching new heights as labels’ ‘all of the above’ commitment to meet fans everywhere they want to be continued to pay off for the entire music community,” said RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Glazier. “Licensing of social networks, fitness apps, and short form video are adding new value […] and physical sales once again boomed, with vinyl records delivering yet another double-digit increase.

“For artists, songwriters, and fans, this strong and sustained growth signals a time of incredible opportunity – with new formats, styles, and sounds rising up across innovative platforms and emerging ways to listen. As new services continue to get fully licensed at rates reflecting music’s incredible value, revenue for artists and songwriters will only continue to grow.”

“As music continues to soar and bring Americans together in new ways, new challenges continue to emerge – led by the mushrooming threat of generative artificial intelligence that, absent thoughtful and effective guardrails, put this dynamic growth and cultural reach at risk. No one has moved more quickly than the music industry to embrace responsible uses of this technology to create new possibilities and push human artistry forward,” continues Glazier. “Used responsibly, generative AI tools can take human creativity to new places. But irresponsibly, it could stifle a generation of artists across all mediums. RIAA and our members are committed to staying on the field every day, fighting with the music community for a pro-human, pro-creator future. Artists, songwriters, and their fans deserve nothing less.”

Head here for the full report.

VIP+ Analysis: Are DVDs Headed Down the Tubes? Data’s In

More From Our Brands

Happy air max day: here are the 10 best pairs of all time, ranked, brunello cucinelli’s new line of glasses brings italian style to eye level, messi clothing line sold to blackstone-owned centric brands, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, whoopi goldberg halts the view to scold audience member — watch, verify it's you, please log in.