Cuba’s March of the Torches

Photo Feature by Elio Delgado

HAVANA TIMES, Jan. 29 — On the night of each January 27, the day before the birth date of Jose Marti, Cuba’s National Hero, university students carry out a torch light march beginning from the expansive stairway of the University of Havana.

The midnight march concludes at the Fragua Martiana monument where Marti, barely a child, carried out forced labor as part of his sentence imposed by the Spanish colonialists for his patriotic activities demanding freedom for his country.

The first march took place in 1953 on the hundredth anniversary of Marti’s birth.  Participating back then were some of the young people who were planning the assault on the Moncada and Cespedes garrisons in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo, which would take place six months later.

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