Granma (yacht)

Granma

The Granma in the Revolutionary Museum in Havana

Ship data flag  Cuba Ship type Motor yacht Launch 1943

Ship dimensions and crew length 19.2 m ( Lüa ) width 4.6 m

Machine system machine 2 Gray diesel engines from GM Top speed 9 kn (17 km / h) propeller 2

Transport capacities Permitted number of passengers Theoretical capacity of 20 passengers

The Granma ( short form of English grandmother , corresponds to "grandma") is a motor yacht , with a total of 82 armed fighters of the Cuban " Movement of July 26 " under the leadership of Fidel Castro on November 25, 1956 from Tuxpan ( Mexico ) Translated Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. One of five non-Cubans was the Argentinean Ernesto "Che" Guevara . With the landing of the Granma in Cuba, the guerrillas of the Cuban revolution began .

A Cuban province and the party organ of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) are named after this yacht .

The Granma Expedition

preparation

The yacht belonged to the Mexican arms dealer Antonio del Conde , who bought it second-hand in October 1956. Del Conde helped Fidel Castro obtain weapons for the planned expedition and gave him the Granma for the crossing, in which he originally wanted to take part himself.

Crossing

The route of the Granma from Tuxpan (Mexico) to Las Coloradas

During the crossing, the completely overloaded boat got into a storm. Almost all of the equipment except the guns and ammunition was thrown overboard to make the ship lighter. Almost the entire crew was seasick.

On December 2, 1956 - two full days later than planned - they reached Cuba in a mangrove swamp two kilometers from the Playa Las Coloradas beach, which was chosen for the landing (south of the city of Niquero in today's Granma province, named after the yacht ) . The landing site is now part of the Desembarco del Granma National Park named after the landing . It was planned that after the guerrilla troops landed , the Granma should continue to Cayman Brac , the closest island outside of Cuban waters, but this was impossible due to the completely depleted fuel.

Due to the considerable delay in the crossing, a reception team equipped with trucks had already withdrawn. In addition, the arrival of the yacht did not go unnoticed by the authorities: On December 5, the 82 men were attacked by naval aviators and ground troops.

Breaking up of the troops and partial regrouping in the Sierra Maestra

In this first battle near the village of Alegría de Pío, the first three expeditionaries fell. As a result of the subsequent persecutions, the number of fatalities among the invaders who landed with the Granma rose to 21 by December 15, the majority of whom are said to have been shot immediately after their arrest. 22 guerrillas were arrested by government forces and later brought to justice. Several of the scattered remaining expedition members moved in different groups to the Sierra Maestra , where 21 of them reunited by the end of the year and, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, founded the rebel army to take up the armed struggle against the Batista dictatorship. In those early days, the first mountain farmers of the Sierra Maestra joined this initially poorly equipped nucleus of the guerrilla force. Three other expeditionaries only integrated into the force in February 1957, after they had previously hidden from the government troops in the nearest town of Manzanillo . The remaining 15 participants on the crossing left the region without joining the Sierra Maestra guerrillas or being tracked down by the authorities. Some of them joined the urban underground, which fought parallel to the rebel army active in the mountains and provided them with substantial supplies and support.

The trial against the arrested expedition members

In April and May 1957 a court hearing took place in Santiago de Cuba with great public attention, in which 22 expedition members arrested by the army after their landing and participants in the armed uprising of November 30, 1956, which originally took place at the same time as the landing, had to answer should. A total of 222 people were charged in the trial of the "Causa 67", of whom 109 were acquitted and the Granma expeditionaries and another 91 people were sentenced to the respective minimum sentences of between one and eight years in prison. The chief prosecutor had not requested a conviction. The most prominent defendant was the then national chairman of the July 26th Movement, Frank País , who coordinated those elements of the underground organization that were not part of the immediate responsibility of the emerging rebel army from Santiago and was acquitted for lack of evidence. The until then little-known judge Manuel Urrutia caused a stir with his published minority opinion in the three-member judges' panel, according to which all defendants were to be acquitted because their actions were covered by the constitutional right of resistance against an illegitimate government. He later applied for his retirement and went into exile, from where he returned to Cuba shortly before Batista was overthrown as president of the revolutionary leadership.

Official memorial culture

The original yacht is now in a glass hall in the garden of the Revolution Museum of Havana . It had its last ride in 1974 before it was preserved as a museum piece.

At a celebration to mark the 20th anniversary of the Granma expedition, Cuba presented the Republic of Mexico with a seaworthy copy of the yacht in Tuxpan in 1976. The boathouse there, which the arms dealer del Conde acquired in 1956 as a storage space for equipment and as a landing stage for the Granma , has served as a museum for Cuban-Mexican friendship since Fidel Castro visited in 1989. Only the engines of the replica of the yacht originally exhibited there have been preserved.

An almost original-sized model stands in front of the museum in the Desembarco del Granma National Park ( Lage ). It was presented at the anniversary parades in 1976 and 1996 on Revolution Square in Havana. Another model was made for the 50th anniversary in 2006, which was housed after its use on the parade for the exhibition in the pioneer palace "Ernesto Che Guevara" in the Lenin Park of Havana.

As a symbol of the Cuban Revolution, smaller models and images of the Granma are presented by the Cuban government both on visits abroad and as an award to deserving citizens. In 1989 a separate unit of the Cuban armed forces was formed, which has since been engaged in the production of Granma models in various designs.

Well-known participants in the Granma expedition

The participants in the Granma expedition (Castronauts) included:

management

• Fidel Castro , Organization and High Command
• Juan Manuel Márquez Rodríguez (1915–1956), deputy leader of the expedition, is said to have been captured and executed on December 15, according to the victorious revolutionaries.

General Staff and Group Leader

• Juan Almeida , later comandante of the rebel army and longstanding member of the government
• Efigenio Ameijeiras Delgado (* 1931), later General of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR)
• Raúl Castro , later Comandante of the rebel army and Cuban President until 2018
• Ernesto "Che" Guevara , later Comandante of the rebel army and member of the government
• Jesús Montané Oropesa (1923–1999), later longstanding member of the state and party leadership
• Faustino Pérez (1920–1992), later comandante of the rebel army and member of the government

Other participants

• Mario Chanes de Armas , later opponent of Fidel Castro and imprisoned for 30 years as a political prisoner
• Camilo Cienfuegos , later Comandante of the rebel army and 1959 Chief of Staff
• Jaime Costa Chávez (1933–2015), later Comandante of the rebel army and an opponent of Fidel Castro in prison for six years
• Luis Crespo (Castro or Cabrera?) (1923–2002), later Comandante of the rebel army
• Julio Díaz González (May 23, 1929 - May 28, 1957), chief of the rearguard, later lieutenant in the rebel army, took part in the first attacks in the Sierra Mestra, killed on May 28, 1957.
• Raúl Díaz Torres (approx. 1918–?), Later Comandante of the rebel army, active against Castro after 1959 from exile
• Gino Donè (1924–2008), the only Italian non-Latin American expedition member
• Calixto García Martínez (1928-2010), later Comandante of the Rebel Army and General of the Revolutionary Armed Forces ( FAR )
• According to the victorious revolutionaries, José Morán Losilla (1929–1957) is said to have been executed by the rebel army in 1957 in Camagüey province for "banditry"
• José Ponce Díaz (1926–2001), appointed Comandante of the rebel army after Batista was overthrown
• Ciro Redondo García (1931–1957), posthumously appointed Comandante of the rebel army
• Armando Rodríguez Moya , took part in the first battle of the rebel army on La Plata ( Guamá ) on January 17, 1957 , deserted in mid-February 1957.
• Horacio Rodríguez Hernández (1928–1959), posthumously appointed Comandante of the rebel army
• Universo Sánchez Álvarez (1919–2012), later Comandante of the rebel army
• Pedro Soto Alba (1935–1958), posthumously appointed Comandante of the rebel army
• Ramiro Valdés , later comandante of the rebel army and long-time member of the government

Web links

• Epopeya del yate Granma (description of the ship, route and list of expedition participants on http://www.bohemia.cubaweb.cu )
• Juan Carlos Linares Balmaseda: El mito del desembarco del Granma, in: Cubanet from September 1, 2011 (Spanish)

swell

1. ↑ Epopeya del yate Granma (description of the ship on archived copy ( memento of the original from September 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ) 
2. ↑ Epopeya del yate Granma (description of the ship on archived copy ( memento of the original from September 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ) 
3. ↑ El verdadero dueño de “El Granma”, in: BBC Mundo, August 1, 2009, accessed June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
4. ↑ Nancy Pérez Medina: Salieron, llegaron y triunfaron, ( Memento from October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in: Somos Jóvenes from 2010, accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
5. ↑ Luis Hernández Serrano: La travesía del siglo, in: Juventud Rebelde of December 2, 2013, accessed on June 4, 2014 (Spanish)
6. ↑ Combate de Alegría de Pío, in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 4, 2014 (Spanish)
7. ↑ Los caídos, short CVs of the killed expeditionaries, in: Bohemia Digital , accessed on June 6, 2014 (Spanish)
8. ^ Richard Gott: Cuba: A new history. P. 155, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2004 (English)
9. ^ Ernesto "Che" Guevara: Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria: Cuba 1956-1959. Edición anotada. P. 22, Editora Política, Havanna 2005 (Spanish)
10. ^ Bert Hoffmann: Cuba. CH Beck, Munich 3rd edition 2009, p. 60
11. ^ Ernesto "Che" Guevara: Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria: Cuba 1956-1959. Edición anotada. Editora Política, Havanna 2005, p. 22f (Spanish)
12. ^ Hace 55 años: Se abre una nueva etapa en la guerra. in: Boletín Oficina de Asuntos Históricos del Consejo de Estado No. 10 / February 2012 (PDF), p. 8 (Spanish)
13. ↑ Juicio Causa 67, in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 4, 2014 (Spanish)
14. ^ Antonio de la Cova: The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. P. 340, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia 2007 (English)
15. ↑ Manuel Urrutia Lleó, in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 4, 2014 (Spanish)
16. ^ Heberto Norman Acosta: A toda máquina, rumbo a Cuba, in: Granma from December 2006, accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
17. ↑ ^{a b c d} El 'Granma' tiene sus hijos, in: Bohemia , accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
18. ↑ Museo de la Amistad Méjico-Cuba, ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the city of Tuxpan, accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
19. ↑ Fidel Castro cumple 84 años, in: La Prensa of August 13, 2010, accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
20. ↑ Obsequia Presidente cubano réplica yate Granma a museo ruso , in: Radio Rebelde from January 29, 2009, accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
21. ^ Relief image of the yacht "Granma", object in the holdings of the German Historical Museum, accessed on June 11, 2014
22. ↑ Celebran aniversario 55 del desembarco de los expedicionarios del yate Granma y Día de las FAR, ( Memento from June 11, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) in: Cubaweb from December 2, 2011, accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
23. ↑ Silvio Rodríguez prefiere el "Granma" al "Grammy", ( Memento of October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in: Cubanet of September 17, 2007, accessed on June 11, 2014 (Spanish)
24. ↑ This is the representation of the victorious revolutionaries. The three government soldiers who were accused of murdering him (Celso Torres, Arnaldo Jiménez, Pitágoras Ferrer or Pérez) are said to have been sentenced to death in Santiago in 1961 (p. 129)
25. ↑ Juan Manuel Márquez Rodríguez in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 8, 2014 (Spanish)
26. ↑ Los caídos, short CVs of the killed expeditionaries, in: Bohemia Digital , accessed on June 6, 2014 (Spanish)
27. ↑ Article about Efigenio Amejeiras Delgado in Wikipedia (Spanish)
28. ↑ Jesús Montané in: EcuRed , accessed on June 5, 2014 (Spanish)
29. ↑ Article about Faustino Pérez in Wikipedia (Spanish)
30. ↑ Wilfredo Cancio Isla: Combatientes del Moncada se sienten traicionados, ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in: Nuevo Herald of July 27, 2009, accessed on June 4, 2014 (Spanish)
31. ^ Fidel Castro: La victoria estratégica. La contraofensiva estratégica. Akal, Madrid 2012, p. 572 (Spanish)
32. ↑ Luis Crespo Cabrera in EcuRed: Enciclopedia_cubana , accessed June 7, 2014 (Spanish)
33. ↑ Julio Díaz in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 8, 2014 (Spanish)
34. ↑ Enrique G. Encinosa: Escambray: La Guerra Olvidada. ( Memento of October 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved from LatinAmericanStudies on June 6, 2014 (Spanish)
35. ↑ Carlos Martinez: Few Of Castro's Original Rebels Stay With Him (PDF), in: Watertown Daily Times of April 5, 1966, accessed on June 6, 2014 (English)
36. ↑ Maurizio Chierici: "E Fidel Castro mi disse: vai a salvare il Che", in: Corriere della Sera from August 19, 2001, accessed on June 4, 2014 (Italian)
37. ↑ Calixto García Martínez in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 5, 2014 (Spanish)
38. ↑ José Morán Losilla in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 5, 2014 (Spanish)
39. ↑ Sepultado el combatiente José Ponce Díaz, in: Granma of February 19, 2001, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on June 5, 2014 (Spanish)
40. ↑ Ciro Redondo in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 9, 2014 (Spanish)
41. ↑ Attack on the barracks of La Plata , in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 9, 2014 (Spanish)
42. ↑ Armando Rodríguez on page 58 in the Cuban Diary by Ernesto Che Guevara, Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag successor, 6th edition 2003, ISBN 3-89144-005-7
43. ↑ Horacio Rodríguez Hernández in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on June 5, 2014 (Spanish)
44. ↑ Adriel Bosch Cascaret: Pedro Soto Alba: Símbolo de responsabilidad, ( Memento from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in: Venceremos from June 26, 2013, accessed on June 6, 2014 (Spanish)

Coordinates: 23 ° 8 '27.55 "  N , 82 ° 21' 25.08"  W.