Cuban Anthem 145 Years Old Today

HAVANA TIMES — On the morning of August 14, 1867, in the eastern Cuban province of Bayamo,  independence leader Perucho Figueredo composed the La Bayamesa military march, which became Cuba’s National Anthem.

That same night, Figueredo played the piece on the piano for the first time during the founding of the Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo, which together with the Revolutionary Council of the East enabled the initiation of the first Cuban war against Spanish rule the following year.

The people of Bayamo and the liberating army heard the words to the march on October 20, 1868, while its official premiere took place two weeks later when it was sung in the vestibule of the main parish by a choir made up of six black girls and six white ones.