Frank Isacc País Garcia. Teacher. Cuban revolutionary combatant. Chief of Action and Sabotage of the 26th of July Movement and member of its National Direction. He organized the November 30th uprising in Santiago de Cuba in support of the landing of the yacht Granma, coming from Mexico under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Frank provided a vital support to the guerrilla during its nomadic phase. He was assassinated by the repressive forces of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship on July 30, 1957.
He was born in Santiago de Cuba on December 7, 1934. Son of the marriage of Reverend Francisco País and Doña Rosario García. During his school life he developed a curious experiment that he called Democratic School Republic, consisting of emulating a government similar to that of the country within the classroom.
He graduated as a teacher from the Normal School of Santiago de Cuba. Since the first years of his college course he occupied different responsibilities until he became President of the Students Association of the Normal School. When he graduated as a normalist teacher, he created a school for the improvement of the workers.
During his student stage, fe became a student leader, he led youth demonstrations, distributed anti-government propaganda, and wrote articles condemning Fulgencio Batista and those who held him in power.
When the assault on the Moncada Barracks by Fidel Castro failed, on July 26, 1953, he toured the city of Santiago de Cuba trying to find survivors and help them. He then elaborated a plan to rescue the attackers imprisoned in Boniato Prison but he failed to do so because he did not have the necessary resources.
In 1954 he founded a revolutionary organization, National Liberation Action, which advocated armed struggle as a solution to Cuba’s problem.
Together with Felix Pena, he founded Eastern Revolutionary Action (ARO) and later became a member of National Revolutionary Action.
He resigned his post as a teacher to assume the national leadership of action of the 26th of July Movement and to organize the Uprising of November 30, 1956 in Santiago de Cuba in support of the landing of Granma.
When Fidel Castro established a small guerrilla nucleus in the Sierra Maestra, Frank País guaranteed the shipment of supplies of weapons, medicines and men that allowed the survival and subsequent development of the guerrilla.
In the most difficult moments of the guerrilla led by Fidel Castro, in February 1957 he went to La Sierra Maestra in the company of Haydée Santamaría, Faustino Pérez and other members of the National Direction of the 26 de Julio Movement to coordinate support from the grassroots, and guide New York Times journalist Herbert Matthews to Fidel’s presence. The publication of the journalist’s interview with the guerrilla leader would demolish Batista’s propaganda based on Fidel’s alleged death.
On June 30, 1957, his brother Josué was assassinated by the repressive forces of the dictatorship. Despite the pain he felt, Frank ordered his brother Agustín not to take any action:
In the midst of a fierce persecution, Frank País was surprised, on July 30, 1957, along with Raúl Pujol in the Callejón del Muro, in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The repressive forces immediately machine-gunned them.
Upon learning of the news of his death, Fidel said:
“What barbarians, they hunted them in the street cowardly, using the advantages they enjoy to persecute an underground fighter! What monsters, they don’t know the intelligence, the character, the integrity that they have murdered!
From the house of his girlfriend América Domitro, on Clarín Street, the funeral cortege that accompanied Frank País’s corpse walked away. This last trip was a manifestation of popular pain and mourning for the murder of the young man. He was buried on July 31, 1957 in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery.