Born On December 21, 1920, in Redención, a working class neighborhood in the municipality of Marianao – into a modest family established by Army veterinarian Antonio Martínez Arredondo and Ernestina del Hoyo y Lugo, a fine seamstress – this illustrious Cuban, in her early years, found in dance the calling that would guide her throughout her life.

Her stellar trajectory, which began in the Pro-Arte Musical Society of Havana’s Ballet School in 1931, was forced to take a new direction when she was obliged to travel abroad due to the low level, prejudices and elitism faced by ballet at the time in Cuba. Tracing her professional career is a mammoth task; including musical comedies in Broadway, the Ballet Caravan, the Ballet Theatre of New York, the Washington Ballet, and the Russian Ballet of Montecarlo, triumphing as a guest star in the most important companies, festivals and galas of this artistic genre worldwide. Her exceptional status as prima ballerina assoluta did not come from a capricious, unjustified reputation, but from her mastery of a vast repertoire of 134 works that ranged from the great ballets of the romantic and classical tradition, to creations of contemporary choreographers.

On November 28, 1995, in the Masini Theater in the Italian city of Faenza, she ended her career as a performer, having already established a record that would be hard to match, not only for the length of time she danced, but also for the excellence of her performances.

The greatness of Alonso, for her people, lies not only in her representing us successfully in 65 countries, receiving standing ovations, too many to count, from Helsinki to Buenos Aires, from New York to Tokyo and Melbourne, but in placing all her honors at the service of her homeland, among them 266 international awards and prizes, 225 national awards, and the 69 chorographical creations – romantic, classical and contemporary – she created, seeing the fruits of her work as her modest contribution not only to Cuban culture, but to world dance.

Over 50 years ago, upon her return to Cuba bearing foreign honors, she said without hesitation, “All my hopes and dreams consist not of going abroad to represent any other country, but my own national flag and my own art. My desire is that there is no one left who does not shout: Bravo for Cuba! when I dance. If I can’t do that, sadness would be the reward to my efforts.”

This patriotic position led to the foundation, together with Fernando and Alberto Alonso, on October 28, 1948 of the now Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC), and in 1950, of the Ballet Academy, with her name, where she had the historical task of training the first generation of dancers under the technical, aesthetic, and ethical values of the now worldwide renowned Cuban School of Ballet. For 71 years, particularly after the triumph of the Revolution, with great determination she was able to place the BNC among the most prestigious companies in the world, set guidelines for a training system that has now spread throughout the country and is a guarantee for Cuban ballet, while promoting a movement of international cooperation that Cuba has taken to almost fifty countries in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She is Alicia, the guide and mentor, whose unifying gift made possible in 26 International Ballet Festivals, to bring together the most celebrated personalities of the dance in a celebration of art and friendship. And it is also the Alicia we have seen give her best as a teacher, either on the most prestigious stages or the most rustic platforms, in public squares, factories, military units, knowing that reaching the people, wherever they are, was always a way upward and never downward.

Those who had the privilege to be by her side, know the extraordinary human being she was, whose courage and firm discipline was never defeated by physical ailments, ups and downs, or misunderstandings.

She was our Alicia, the one who despite her cosmopolitanism, always longed to hear the roosters crow, enjoy the salty air of Havana’s Malecón, contemplate the mariposa and coralillo as the most exquisite flowers, or be fascinated with scientific advances and the mysteries of the universe. “A tenacious, frantic, heroic impulse – shot against illness and time – made perfection relentless,” as Juan Marinello once described her.

(Granma)

Figures from around the world mourn the poet’s farewell at 89 years of age. Setting aside the grief, they speak of gratitude and of his abiding presence. “Dear Roberto, thank you for leaving us your work, your lucidity, and commitment,” wrote Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez on his Twitter account.

“We are left with his ideas that inspire the path of free peoples who will keep his legacy of resistance alive,” said Evo Morales, president of Bolivia.

U.S. writer Margaret Randall commented: “Over the years, Retamar was always a beacon for us, a political and cultural reference, and a friend. We mourn his death and celebrate his life.”

“Retamar leaves us as a legacy his example of a self-sacrificing revolutionary, a sensitive poet, a dialogical intellectual, a man dedicated to humanity’s most noble causes. To his family and to my family at the Casa de las Américas, a fraternal embrace of resurrection,” wrote the Brazilian intellectual Frei Betto.

Ernest Pépin, the Guadeloupean writer, said that he will remember Retamar as a man who served a revolution that has always stayed the course.

With words from César Vallejo, Peruvian poet Hildebrando Pérez Grande insisted: “His cadaver is full of the world.”

Spanish writer Selena Millares is convinced his words will always be with us: “Something no one will ever be able to erase.”

Dominican poet Chiqui Vicioso remembered him as “a reaffirmation of our utopias;” and Venezuelan writer Freddy Ñañez summed up: “The words left by our host, our father Calibán, are arrows stopped in time that continue to extend his life with the possibilities left intact in poetry and pure ethical presence… there will be a future to follow in the footsteps of the great Roberto Fernández Retamar.”

(Granma)

“Fernandez is, without the slightest exaggeration, one of those exceptional beings. His sense of duty and ethical conscience were an infallible compass in each of his actions,” Machado Venturasaid before President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez; First Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa; Comandantes de la Revolución Ramiro Valdés Menéndez and Guillermo García Frías; and Esteban Lazo, National Assembly President; along with other members of the Political Bureau, mass organizations, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).

Among his personal characteristics, Machado Ventura highlighted the Gallego’s firmness in rejecting greed, selfishness, and competition among those who sought to ascend in a military environment under Batista’s corrupt government and dictatorship, recalling that he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the tasks of the Revolution, given the confidence inspired by Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz and the social project to be built after 1959.”With tenacity, discipline, intelligence, effort, and results, he avoided the many obstacles he faced again and again, given his firm decision not to accept unprincipled proposals and to be guided only by his conscience,” Machado Ventura emphasized, speaking before those paying tribute to Fernándezat the cemetery, among them many FAR cadets and students from military academies.

Also present was Asela de los Santos, his eternal companion and colleague in leadership tasks, along with high performance athletes and sports legends, family and friends. Floral wreaths were sent by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, PCC first secretary, various institutions, and the diplomatic missions of sister countries, while many of the decorated Hero of the Republic’s medals and distinctions were displayed.

Machado Ventura concluded his comments with a quote from a book that will be published soon containing Fernandez’s main experiences, and stated, “Thanks for the example you leave us! All who knew you and our entire people will remember and admire you forever, dear compañero Fernández. ”

(Granma)

Familiarly known as “El Gallego Fernández,” he was born November 4, 1923, in Santiago de Cuba. From a young age he participated in the revolutionary struggle against the Batista dictatorship, in conspiratorial movements with different military and political groups. He was imprisoned for almost three years on the Isle of Pines for these activities.

With the triumph of the Revolution, he joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces, participated in the fight against counterrevolutionary bandits, as well as in the direction of the battles in Playa Girón, under the orders of the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz.

Fernández held different responsibilities within the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, including director of the Rebel Army Cadet School, the School of Militia Officers of Matanzas, and the Militia Battalion Schools of the province of Havana, and was head of the Combative Training Directorate and FAR deputy minister.

He also served as deputy minister and minister of Education, as a vice president of the Council of Ministers, and as advisor to the President of the Councils of State and Ministers. He presided the Cuban Olympic Committee from 1997 to October 2018, the year in which he was elected as its Honorary Life President.

He was a Founder of the Communist Party of Cuba, a member of its Central Committee since the First Party Congress in 1975, and was an alternate member of the Political Bureau from 1980 to 1991.
He was also a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power from its constitution in 1976, and member of the Council of State between 1981 and 1993.

Bachelor of Social Sciences and Professor of Merit of the Enrique José Varona Pedagogical University, he was awarded honorary doctorates in Education from the University of Havana; in Military Sciences from the General Máximo Gómez FAR Academy; and in Physical Culture and Sports Sciences from the University of Physical Culture and Sports Sciences; as well as the PhD in Historical Sciences from the University of Oriente.

Fernández received numerous orders, medals and awards. In 2001, he was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba.
His final resting place will be the Frank País Second Eastern Front Mausoleum, Holguín.

(Granma)

Maceo -Mariana Grajales’ son- was educated, along with his brothers under strict disciplinary rules, work, neatness in dress, courtesy, respect for the elders, honesty, solidarity, courage, tenacity and patriotism.

Several historians call him a master of military tactics, and it is estimated that he took part in more than 600 combat actions against Spanish colonialism, including around 200 battles of great significance.

These confrontations left 26 war scars on his body, of which 21 were received in the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878).

It is also remembered by the Protest of Baragua, a historical event that demonstrated the decision of a revolting nation to live without owners or chains.

Maceo died in combat on December 7, 1896 in San Pedro, Havana province, and his mortal remains rest in the monument of El Cacahual. mh/abo/mem/joe

Accompanied by the permanent representatives of Cuba and Vietnam to the UN, Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo and Dang Dinh Quy, respectively, the President wrote: ‘The Cuban people and Government will always remember with gratitude compañero Quang for his permanent contribution to the strengthening of the historic relations between our countries.”

And he added: “Our most sincere condolences to the people, Government and to the relatives of compañero Quang.”

As soon as the Cuban people learned of his death, their leaders and organizations expressed their condolences. The First Secretary of the Communist Party, Raúl Castro, and the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel, sent messages to the Asian nation, in which they requested that the condolences be extended to the Vietnamese government and people, as well as to the President’s relatives and close friends.

Just days ago, despite being seriously ill, Tran Dai Quang held a meeting with Cuban First Vice President, Salvador Valdés Mesa, to whom he expressed the sentiments of infinite friendship of the Vietnamese people toward Cuba.
Tran Dai Quang was the last dignitary received by Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, in November 2016, shortly before his death.

(Granma)

At 6:50 in the morning, the ashes of Fidel Castro enter the gate of the Cemetery of Santa Ifigenia. It is a splendid Sunday morning, unusually cool in this Caribbean city, as if the winds had been confabulated to receive the Commander in Chief over the land of Cuba.

When in front of the administrative building of Santa Ifigenia the military armor that has been passing through most of the Island with the cedar urn stopped, the members of the Political Bureau are already lined up with Army General Raúl Castro Ruz at the head near the esplanade opposite the austere monument where the ashes will rest. The mausoleum is a polished stone, just like those that abound on the banks of the Rio Cauto, but this one is granite, weighs more than 2,400 kilograms per square centimeter and comes from the site of Las Guásimas, east of Santiago de Cuba. In the heart of the rock, there is a square block where the urn goes, protected by a plaque bearing a single word: Fidel.

There are other details from this site that moves, delimited by ferns, palms and the purple caliphs of the Sierra Maestra, which also accompany the Mausoleum of the Combatants of the Second Front, where lies Vilma Espín. To the right, a concrete wall where you can read in golden letters the concept of Revolution that Fidel expressed on May 1, 2000 and that Cubans have endorsed in these days of mourning.

Fidel is not alone in Santa Ifigenia. He is accompanied by Cubans whom he worshiped in life, beginning with José Martí, the martyrs of the Moncada barracks and those killed in internationalist missions. On the horizon, the mountains of the Sierra Maestra. A few steps from his tomb, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Mariana Grajales, 32 generals of the wars of Independence against Spanish colonialism, brothers Frank and Josué País ….

When the band performs the notes of the cantata “Eterno Fidel”, the small urn that was kept inside the cedar box, reaches the hands of Dalia Soto del Valle, his wife, who is the emblem of dignity and pain. Behind her is the family and just opposite, on the other side of the Mausoleum, more than 40 international guests, friends of the Commander and personalities who attended the event yesterday in the Antonio Maceo Plaza. When the ark with the ashes reaches Raúl, his hands no longer tremble. He places it against his chest, raises it to the hole in the interior of this great stone and allows a long sigh. This moment of the ceremony lasts no more than three minutes, but they weigh as hours on the shoulders of all present. There are tears in the faces of the tanned guerrillas, the women and men who are here. But there are no regrets, no shouts, no gestures that distract the solemnity of these moments.

In the distance one can only hear the march from the Antonio Maceo Plaza to the nearby necropolis: “I am Fidel”, “I am Fidel”, and that is the only sound that will alternate, like an echo from afar. This resounded throughout the ceremony with the National Anthem, the mournful march, the steady steps of the soldiers of the Department of Ceremonies of the Armed Forces and the salutes of the artillery.

After placing the cap on the niche, everything happens much faster. Attention. National anthem. 21 artillery salutes. A recording with the voice of Fidel that returns to us the concept of Revolution. The changing of the guard of honor, both the one previously formed before the Mausoleum of Martí, and the one that escorts the place of rest of Fidel. Those present, including escorts and companions who took care of the leader of the Revolution in his later years, deposit white roses at the base of the pantheon. The line begins with Raúl and ends with the Argentine Diego Armando Maradona, and between one and another the presidents Nicolás Maduro – Venezuela-, Daniel Ortega – Nicaragua-, Evo Morales – Bolivia-, Denis Sassou-Nguesso – Congo-, Malatu Teshome- Ethiopia-, Alfred Marie-Jeanne- Martinica- and the former leaders, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, from Brazil.

As previously announced, it has been a solemn and private ceremony. Moreover, although it was not said in the note that announced the farewell in Santa Ifigenia, it is not surprising that it is also deeply moving, the ceremony being escorted by its beloved beings and those who have passed away, without more luxury than the rocks and ferns of the mountains. At 7:40 in the morning the last mourners at the cemetery of Santiago de Cuba left. Fidel rests in peace. Until forever, Commander.

Present at the event will be heads of state and important figures from all parts of the world. Speaking in the name of our people will be leaders of mass organizations, social associations, and the Young Communists League.

The central remarks will be made by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and President of the Councils of State and Ministers.

Cuban radio and television will broadcast the event live.

(Granma)

Crowds filled Céspedes Park in the center of the city, where Fidel addressed the population January 1, 1959, announcing the revolutionary victory, from a city hall balcony, pictured here.

(Granma)

Minutes earlier, the crowds of people gathered since dawn very close to the Jimaguayú Hall, in the Plaza’s memorial complex, silently observe the accompanying convoy, made up of senior officers and combatants of the FAR and Minint, as they make the preparations for the departure.

The planned route sees the caravan pass through the old Plaza de la Caridad, a historical site from where Fidel first addressed the people of Camagüey on January 4, 1959, in a brief and unforgettable stop during his triumphal march toward the country’s capital.

The words of that night, spoken from the balcony of one of the surrounding buildings, acquire a touching relevance: “From now on the people will win all their battles, because the people learned how to win on having not only triumphed with the Revolution, but having secured it for themselves.”

The flags seem to wave with more force; the national anthem is heard clearly and vibrantly; a veteran salutes the urn as it passes; faces express equal sorrow and resolve; everyone, almost in unison, shouts passionately: ¡Hasta siempre, Comandante! ¡Fidel, el pueblo está contigo! ¡Viva Cuba libre!

“We have experienced very impressive scenes over the past days, but they are still small in terms of the tribute that a man who has done so much for us and for the Revolution deserves,” says Jesús Zamora Sánchez, director of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Camagüey, founded by Fidel 27 years ago.

“The key tribute,” he adds, “will be in our daily actions, in the efforts that we scientists dedicate to bringing the research, technological development projects and productive advances with high added value, to a successful conclusion, in order to consolidate the prestige of Cuban biotechnology.”

Laura Castelló, a junior high school student, speaks on behalf of all pioneers: “We, the younger generation, have always placed in Fidel an infinite trust, because he represents that light that guides our people, that keeps our dreams alive, the man responsible for millions of smiles.

“We children were always your priority and your concern. All I can do now is fulfill the dream of honoring you with my actions, with my revolutionary commitment, which is the dream of all Cuban pioneers. For you, Fidel, my Fidel, the purest of my kisses,” she adds emotionally.

The funeral procession finally heads toward the eastern end of this historic city, and proceeds along the Central Highway with its precious cargo of love until it completes the 163 kilometers of the extensive plains of Camagüey, passing through the municipalities of Jimaguayú, Sibanicú and Guáimaro.

(Granma)