Cuba pays tribute to Celia Sánchez Manduley on 39th anniversary of her death

Cubans remember the Cuban heroine Celia Sanchez Manduley (1920-1980), a distinguished Cuban woman who fought alongside Fidel Castro until the final victory.

From the very same assault on the Moncada barracks led by Fidel, Celia went underground. On his initiative, several actions were carried out to collect money for the prisoners who were in the old Isla de Pinos (Today Isla de la Junvetud).

In 1955 she traveled to Mexico where she founded the July 26 Movement. She was one of the first women to take up arms to fight against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista.

Together with Frank Pais in Santiago de Cuba, she prepared the uprising to support the Granma landing in the former province of Oriente, where she organized the peasants of the south-eastern coast to offer support to the expedition members.

Transcendent missions in the supply of the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra, Celia carried out to later become a guerrilla fighter. From 1959, with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, she assumed important responsibilities that enabled her to participate in significant moments of the first decades of the revolutionary period until her death on January 11, 1980.

Written by Jorge Lora