The President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, presides over the award ceremony for Cuban women deserving of the Mariana Grajales and Ana Betancourt orders.

The ceremony takes place this Monday, as part of the activities for the 62nd anniversary of the Federation of Cuban Women.

Due to his tireless work in various spheres of creative work, the president imposed the Mariana Grajales Order on five companions.

Her contributions to the development and defense of the country make them exceptional examples of doing for the Homeland.

“Many congratulations on your decorations and on the new anniversary of the Federation!” Diaz-Canel told everyone at the end of the ceremony.

She was great for this and much more: the mother of the Maceo and the Homeland.

She devoted her life to Cuba’s struggle for independence, to which she gave her children, with the love of a mother and pride of a patriot, and encouraged her husband to follow them, becoming an uncompromising Mambi patriot.

Cuba’s national hero, José Martí, was impressed by Mariana Grajales, who he met in Jamaica as an older woman, with the same mettle and memory of her youth, writing: “What is it about this woman, what glory and mystery is to found within this humble woman, what sanctity and devotion within the heart of a mother, what decorum and greatness within her simple life, so that when writing of her it is from the depths of the soul, with the serenity of a child and profoundly moved? She endures in history, smiling at the end of her life, surrounded by the sons who fought for their country, raising her grandchildren to fight.”

What good fortune that Martí left these words describing Mariana Grajales for posterity in the newspaper Patria, honoring her after her death in Kingston, Jamaica, November 27, 1893.

All Cubans know, or should know, that this woman was on war footing for ten years of fierce strife, climbing steep mountains, fording rivers, and healing the wounded, walking with bleeding feet through the bush. And above all, insisting that she did not want mourning, but rather a response for the enemy, when a son of hers, or any other Cuban, fell in battle or was shot by the enemy army.

It is well known that one day he said to the youngest of her sons, in the midst of dramatic circumstances that greatly hurt her as a mother: “And you, get going, because it is time you head to the camp!”

(Granma)

Minutes before the ceremony began, Raúl and members of the Party Political Bureau paid tribute in a guard of honor to the two independence heroes, known as the Father of the Homeland and the Mother of all Cubans.

October 10 marks the 149th anniversary of the launch of the War of Independence at the Demajagua sugar mill, providing an apt occasion for the ceremony in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery, Santiago de Cuba. Céspedes and Grajales’ remains have been relocated to the central area of the cemetery, in order than visitors may pay tribute to both patriots more expeditiously.

More than 350 guests from the eastern provinces and Camagüey are participating in this event, and from 9.00 am the people of Santiago, representing all of Cuba, will be able to pay tribute to Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Mariana Grajales, José Martí and Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, in Santa Ifigenia’s central area.

(Granma)