Antonio Maceo was educated alongside his brothers under rules of discipline, work, neatness in dress, courtesy, respect for older people, honesty, solidarity, courage, tenacity, and love for his country.

Son of Mariana Grajales, considered in Cuba as the Mother of the Homeland, Maceo was one of the great military strategists of the Cuban Liberation Army, reaching the rank of Lieutenant General, the second-in-command of the island’s independence forces.

Several historians describe him as a master of military tactics, and it is estimated that he participated 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, 21 of which he received in the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878).

About Che, in the book “Fidel y la Religion” (Fidel and Religion) by Frei Betto, the historical leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro expressed, “He was already a trained revolutionary; moreover, a great talent, a great intelligence, a great theoretical capacity.”

Ernesto Che Guevara landed in Cuba in 1956 along with Fidel Castro and 80 other expedition members on board the Granma yacht to start the guerrilla war against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959).

After the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959, Che served as president of the National Bank and Minister of Industry of the emerging revolutionary government of the island.

From 1965 to 1967, the Argentine-Cuban guerrilla fighter fought in Congo and Bolivia, where he was captured and executed by the Army, under the orders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States.

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