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It was the early morning of January 17, 1957, 69 years ago, when 29 guerrillas of the nascent Rebel Army attacked the La Plata military post of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, who had to acknowledge to the world that Fidel Castro was still alive and fighting.

Rubén Martínez Villena, that young man with a sleepless gaze against social injustices, died 92 years ago on January 16, 1934, when he was only 35 years old, and left in Cuba an impressive body of work as a revolutionary and intellectual.

Of humble origins, self-taught, a carpenter and cabinetmaker, and a communist from a very young age, Severo Aguirre del Cristo became Doctor Honoris Causa, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party since its founding, president of the Cuban Parliament and ambassador of our country in the former Soviet Union.

Raúl Ferrer Pérez, a modest teacher and poet who was the national vice-coordinator of that historic feat and later led its continuity and the National Reading Campaign, participated in most of the events held in Cuba in 1961 to declare a Territory Free of Illiteracy.

Celia Sánchez Manduley's slender figure, her friendly manner, simple clothing, often with comfortable espadrilles, and the fact that she drove a small plastic jeep herself without an escort, made it difficult to associate her with the heroine of the Republic of Cuba and one of the essential figures of the Revolution.

The city of Bayamo is a historical symbol of Cuban rebellion, marked especially by the fire its own inhabitants set on January 12, 1869, rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the Spanish colonial army. This extreme act, after three months as the first capital of the Republic in Arms, demonstrated their determination to prefer destruction to submission. The birthplace of the War of Independence in 1868, where the Cuban flag was first raised and the national anthem sung, Bayamo maintained its revolutionary tradition during the struggle against the Batista dictatorship in the 20th century, solidifying its legacy as a bastion of national independence.

The Cuban student leader and anti-imperialist Julio Antonio Mella, founder of the Federation of University Students (FEU) and co-founder of the Communist Party of Cuba, was assassinated on the night of January 10, 1929, in Mexico City, where he was living in exile. The crime was ordered by the Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado to silence his intense revolutionary work. In his mere 25 years, Mella left a profound mark by organizing the student struggle, founding the José Martí People's University, and promoting the continental anti-imperialist movement. His last words, "I die for the Revolution," encapsulate the legacy of a man who became a martyr and an enduring symbol of the fight for social justice.

Argentine journalist Rodolfo Walsh, co-founder of the Prensa Latina news agency in Cuba, is remembered for his crucial work in 1961 when he infiltrated Guatemalan military training camps disguised as a priest to confirm the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. After returning to Argentina, his political evolution led him to a militant commitment against the military dictatorship, distinguishing himself as a pioneer of testimonial journalism with works such as "Operación Masacre" (Operation Massacre). He died in combat on March 25, 1977, after being gunned down by forces of the dictatorship following the publication of his famous "Open Letter to the Military Junta," a denunciation that solidified his legacy as a writer and revolutionary.

In late 1960 and early 1961, faced with the growing threat of a direct US invasion that culminated in the severing of diplomatic relations, Cuban leader Fidel Castro ordered the first major military mobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the National Militias. Simultaneously, and despite the wartime context, the National Literacy Campaign was officially launched, a social priority that continued unabated. The assassination of volunteer teacher Conrado Benítez in January 1961 by counterrevolutionary groups reinforced the determination to carry out the literacy campaign, and the youth brigades were named after him. This duality between defense and education materialized in two emblematic victories that same year: the defeat of the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón in April and the declaration of Cuba as a Territory Free of Illiteracy in December.