“How can I forget those days of the Bay of Pig Invasion, I had just arrived from Santi Spirit after clearing the Escambray Mountains and I‘d been away from home for months and when I was told that we had to leave for Playa Giron, I had no qualms about going.”
“Afterwards we were mobilized and on our way, mercenaries aircraft bombed the bus where we were traveling, those were hard and sad days, because on the way we left family, friends and comrades killed, but nobody gave up.” Girón was the first Yankee defeat in Latin America.”
History will never be forgotten
At dawn on 18, Long Beach, nobody stepped back, So says Juan Martinez, who was born in Guanabacoa, but most of his life has lived in Guantanamo, where he raised a family.
“The men in my company we were fighting with courage and caught some prisoners in Cayo Ramona, I remember that some came half-naked, unarmed and wearing cap cooks and they all received the proper treatment, as Fidel had indicated, as it was always done during the insurrectional struggle.”
Battles in the Bay of Pig were strong and in the evening of the 19th victory of Playa Giron, the first major victory against US imperialism in America “was proclaimed.
When it was over, I went to my workplace in a foundry and in 1963 until 1973 I joined the brigade to cut cane, then I became member of the Youth Communist League (UJC), then of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and I spent most of my working life in agriculture in Santa Coloma’s sugar cane plan and supported the collection of potatoes, and other tasks.
I arrived in Guantanamo in 1976 because I got married with Carmen Rosa Milan and raised a family. Here I worked in different places until I retired in the beverage and Soft Drink Company in 2003 with 63 years.
As a PCC member for many years, he trusts that the Seventh Congress, which takes place on occasion of the glorious days of Palya Giron, “will offer new options to continue along the path we have chosen and defended, always on the basis of prosperity and sustainability as our people need.”
And before concluding, Juan Leonardo Martinez Peña sentenced “If I had to go fight again would not think it twice, take it for granted. I would be among the first to take the step forward and offer my life, as I did in 1961, because I will never forget that I fought in Girón for the Cuban Revolution and socialism”.
Translation: Liubis Balart Martinez
