Abel Santamaría Cuadrado would turn 93
Abel Santamaría Cuadrado, was described by Fidel Castro Ruz as "the soul of the Movement" during the trial of the assailants of the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, would turn 93 this October 20, although 67 years ago he passed into immortality assassinated by henchmen of the Batista dictatorship.
At only 25 years old at the time of his death, Abel was already then the second head of the revolutionary movement that began the struggle on July 26, 1953, led by the young lawyer Fidel Castro, and demonstrated in his revolutionary life his courage, organizational capacity, proven seriousness and absolute discretion.
He was born on October 20, 1927 in Encrucijada, the former province of Las Villas, in the central part of Cuba, about 400 kilometers from Havana. Son of a married couple of Spanish origin established in the Constancia plant, Benigno Santamaría and Joaquina Cuadrado, he, head of the plant's carpentry, and she, a housewife in the same plant where the great leader of the sugar workers Jesús Menéndez worked in their colonies.
His first years were spent at the central working as a cleaning waiter and merchandise dispatcher and later as an office worker. In 1947 he moved to Havana to live together in a room with a cousin of his named Fito, entered the Professional School of Commerce by opposition and, by the same route, in the Institute Number 1 of Second Education.
He attends both studies until he continues only high school until completing the second year when he gets a job as a clerk in the Ariguanabo Textile Company, and later in the representative agency in Cuba for Pontiac automobiles, where he keeps the accounting and cash register.
The salary from this new job allowed him to rent a small apartment, 603 in the building on 164 O Street in El Vedado, where he brings his sister Haydee Santamaría to live with him and acquires a used car on credit.
Abel was always a tireless reader, when he arrived in Havana he had a sixth grade schooling and rudimentary knowledge of accounting and within a few months he was already arguing with his cousin Fito about accounting systems, so he took the entrance exams in a school of commerce approving them and, got to study until the third year of the accounting career. Furthermore, around the same time he began to study Lenin's works, actually embracing the revolutionary theory of the proletariat. Like his predecessors in the struggle, he studied, interpreted and deeply loved José Martí.
He joined the Cuban People's Party (Orthodox) and joined the Peasant Affairs Commission with his friend Jesús Montané, who occupies a position similar to his at General Motors. Together with his sister Haydee, in Havana, he joined the fight, first against the corruption of the authentic government of Carlos Prío and then against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista.
The unsuspected meeting between Abel Santamaría and Fidel Castro, on May 1, 1952 at the Colón Cemetery, sealed the fates of both young people. From this moment on, they traveled together in thought and action for the preparation of the revolutionary struggle. The Santamaría residence at 25 and O streets, Vedado (Plaza de la Revolución), later became a meeting place for the group that, led by Fidel, would carry out the heroic feat on July 26, 1953.
From the first moments, he became the second head of the Movement, integrating the civil and military committee of this organization, and intervened in the preparation of the assault plan on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks. From Fidel, Abel assumed the tactics and strategy of struggle in such a way that he was occupying every day greater responsibilities within the project that, now with his collaboration as second in command, Fidel matured; with José Martí as the center and model of the best and purest currents of our revolutionary, anti-imperialist, internationalist and national liberating heritage. The ideological purposes of this project also assimilated the conceptions of Marxism-Leninism and its methodology for social change.
He participates in all lines of activity, organization and discipline, cell training, propaganda, mobilization of groups towards street demonstrations, military training, search for economic resources and purchase of weapons, uniforms, availability of men's transportation to Oriente province, personally taking charge of the conditioning of what will be the headquarters of the Granjita de Siboney in Santiago de Cuba, and the transit accommodation of the men in that city and in Bayamo. Abel had the same style of work as Fidel and his conviction was so deep that he never thought about it having an adverse result been sure that the revolutionary cause would one day triumph.
In the July 26 action by order of Fidel, Abel, who was then 25 years old, carried out the capture of the Saturnino Lora Civil Hospital near the "Moncada" with 19 other men (plus Dr. Mario Muñoz, Haydee and Melba Hernández). Fidel had ordered such an action, trying to avoid greater dangers so that if he (Fidel) fell in combat, Abel would be the one to replace him in command of the movement. However, Abel was taken prisoner after successfully completing his mission to take over the hospital and fail to take over the barracks by failing the surprise factor. He was savagely tortured by Batista henchmen and murdered on July 26, 1953.