Today is the anniversary of the prelude to the Cuban Revolution: The 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. 
The attack on the Moncada barracks came as a response to the coup by Fulgencio Batista who had overthrown the Second Republic the year before.
While Batista is most famous for his dictatorship in the 1950s, his political career actually began in the 1930s, during which time he largely ruled behind the scenes.
He also was briefly president during the early 1940s but had supposedly left politics after his mandate.
He also was briefly president during the early 1940s but had supposedly left politics after his mandate.
Batista's plan had seemingly been to return to political life in order to get himself elected to a second presidency by the early 1950s.
However, it seemed apparent that the Orthodox Party was well on its way to victory in the coming elections.
However, it seemed apparent that the Orthodox Party was well on its way to victory in the coming elections.
The Orthodox Party was itself an offshoot of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano - Auténtico, born in the 1930s after the overthrow of dictator Gerardo Machado.
However, by the late 1940s it was seen as corrupt and insufficiently radical, leading its Left wing to split off.
However, by the late 1940s it was seen as corrupt and insufficiently radical, leading its Left wing to split off.
One of the candidates running for office as a member of the Orthodox Party was a young lawyer named Fidel Castro.
He was son of a Spanish immigrant sugar cane farmer and a Cuban woman and grew up in Holguín. He was then educated in the country´s premier institutions.
He was son of a Spanish immigrant sugar cane farmer and a Cuban woman and grew up in Holguín. He was then educated in the country´s premier institutions.
Batista's coup overthrew the relatively progressive Constitution of 1940, inaugurated an almost decade long period of brutal repression, and spoiled the political ambitions of many current and aspiring politicians.
The decision to attack on July 26th wasn't made casually.
The attack was planned by Fidel and his co-conspirators to take place in the middle of Carnaval in Santiago de Cuba, in the hopes that the fireworks would conceal the gunshots and slow down military reaction time.
The attack was planned by Fidel and his co-conspirators to take place in the middle of Carnaval in Santiago de Cuba, in the hopes that the fireworks would conceal the gunshots and slow down military reaction time.
I've had the opportunity to hear Cuban journalist Martha Rojas tell the tale. At the time she was a young journalist enjoying summer vacation.
As she told me circa 2011 in her Havana apartment, she really did think the first gunshots were fireworks.
As she told me circa 2011 in her Havana apartment, she really did think the first gunshots were fireworks.
The attack on the Moncada barracks - and the simultaneous attack on the barracks in Bayamo which are not as well known - was ultimately defeated.
Some of the combatants were killed, some captured, and some fled into the mountains.
Some of the combatants were killed, some captured, and some fled into the mountains.
Part of the scandal from Moncada wasn't that the military killed combatants during the fighting but rather that they began torturing and killing attackers who had been captured and who had surrendered themselves.
One of the attackers, Haydée Santamaría, was famously shown the eyeball of her brother and the testicles of her boyfriend as a part of her torture.
After the news of the treatment of prisoners got out, public opinion sided with the guerrillas more firmly, leading to the government ceasing - for the most part - its brutal mistreatment of prisoners.
At this point Fidel and others surrender themselves.
At this point Fidel and others surrender themselves.
Fidel Castro took the opportunity of his trial to make the now famous history will absolve me defense which he also managed to sneak out of prison & have clandestinely published. It was a manifesto against the failures of the second republic and call to restore 1940 constitution
Eventually Fidel was sent to the jail on the Isle of Pines - now the Isle of Youth - in a facility known as the Presidio Modelo (Model Prison) based on the principle of a Panopticon.
Fidel and his co-conspirators, now with growing popular support, would eventually be pardoned, leading to them fleeing to Mexico.
Using this as their base they then planned the famous Granma expedition to Santiago de Cuba and created a new organization: The 26th of July Movement
Using this as their base they then planned the famous Granma expedition to Santiago de Cuba and created a new organization: The 26th of July Movement
While, militarily speaking, the Moncada Barracks attack on the 26th of July 1953 was a failure, politically speaking it turned Fidel into a national figure and helped inspire the underground resistance which would last until Batista flee on the cusp of 1959
Fun fact: the Communist Party of Cuba (then known as the PSP or Partido Socialista Popular) initially denounced the attack as a "putschist" attempt by a bourgeois adventurer. "Putschist" being an explicit comparison to Hitler, given his "Beer Hall Putsch"
