Frank Isaac País García

A reformist student leader, teacher and Cuban revolutionary who fought against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista as a member of the Movimiento 26 de Julio. His assassination by police in the streets of Santiago de Cuba on July 30, 1957, when he was 22 years old, sparked a wave of protests throughout the country and was a decisive event in driving the Cuban Revolution. Considered in Cuba as a martyr of the revolution.

He was born in Santiago de Cuba. His father was Francisco Pais Pesqueira, a Protestant pastor married to Rosario García Calviño, both from Marín, province of Pontevedra Galicia (Spain), who emigrated to Cuba. Francisco Pais Pesqueira is listed as the first convert and baptized member of the Evangelical Church of Marín and was one of the founding members of the first Baptist Church of Santiago de Cuba.

When his father died, his mother took charge alone, when he was 5 years old along with his brothers Agustín, 3 years old, and Josué, 2 years old. He left his architecture studies to enter the Normal School of Teachers of Oriente where he graduated on July 6, 1953.

He stood out as a student leader, was one of the main leaders of the Association of Students, and was a supporter of the Latin American University Reform movement, joining the Bloque Revolucionario Estudiantil Normalista (BREN), establishing the Local Federation of Secondary Education Centers and participating in the Directorio Estudiantil Revolucionario.

In 1952, when the coup d'état that brought Fulgencio Batista to power occurred, he went with other young men to the Cuartel Moncada to request arms in order to defend the democratic government of Carlos Prío Socarrás.

He began working as a teacher in 1954 at the Colegio del Salvador, where he stood out for the passion with which he spread nationalist, democratic and Christian ideas, especially the thought and work of José Martí, showing an apparent contradiction between the religiosity he professed and the revolutionary ideals that were justified in his belief in Man and the future as well as his desire to achieve a better society without abandoning his Christian beliefs.

He created the Centro La Flor Martiana and put into practice the República Escolar, based on concepts of democratization of the school and student participation.

On March 10, 1952 he went, along with other students, to the Cuartel Moncada, in response to the batistian coup that led to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. This fact was the turning point that would make him a fighter for freedom and against the batistian dictatorship.

In 1954, Frank País, Pepito Tey and other young people from eastern Cuba created Acción Revolucionaria Oriental (ARO) in order to organize armed struggle against Batista's tyranny. A few months later they changed the name of the organization to Acción Nacional Revolucionaria (ANR).

In 1955, when Fidel Castro, recently amnestied, and the group that had attacked the Cuartel Moncada formed the Movimiento 26 de Julio, Frank País requested and obtained the admission of ANR members to the M-26-7. He went underground under the pseudonym David.

Initially País was part of the M-26-7 leadership in Oriente, and in 1956 was appointed Chief of Action and Sabotage of the M-26-7 throughout the country. On November 30, 1956 he led the armed uprising in Santiago de Cuba in support of the landing of the yacht Granma from which Fidel Castro and a group of guerrillas were to disembark in order to establish themselves in the Sierra Maestra.

On March 9, 1957 he was detained and tried with the survivors of the Granma and the fighters of the uprising of November 30, being acquitted in May 1957, amid great popular unrest. From that moment on he was one of the main organizers of support for the Sierra Maestra guerrilla and the extension of the insurrection throughout the island.

On June 30, 1957 his brother Josué País was murdered and exactly one month later he himself was assassinated in the Callejón del Muro of Santiago de Cuba, along with Raúl Pujol.

Journalist Pedro García recounts the moment of his assassination as follows:
"At noon, after lunch, he met with two boys from the Movement. They brought him the book he had requested: Entre la libertad y el miedo, by Germán Arciniegas. One of the women noticed that Batista's police were conducting searches a few blocks below, house by house, going up the Santiago street San Germán. He made a decision: he ordered the two young men to leave in the car. He argued that it would be much easier for him to get away on foot.

He handed some documents to the women. 'They cannot fall into the hands of the tyranny,' he said. He left with the owner of the house, the fighter Raúl Pujol, going up San Germán. 'Hey, stop those two,' shouted a henchman. The uniformed officers surrounded them. 'But don't you know who this is, colonel?' –a well-known informant smiled cynically–. It's Frank País.' They began to beat them. When they finally machine-gunned Pujol, the young man was already unconscious. They pushed Frank to the Callejón del Muro and there they riddled him with bullets. 'Everyone here has to shoot, in front of all Santiago,' bellowed the colonel. The henchmen emptied their weapons on the bodies. They threw a 45 pistol with two magazines near Frank; later it was seen that they were of a different caliber. It was July 30, 1957.

In response, a general strike was declared throughout Cuba and his funeral was organized as a defiance of Batista's dictatorship and achieved a massive turnout that made it the largest popular demonstration known until then in that city.

Frank País' body was dressed in the olive green uniform and the black and red armband of the Movimiento 26 de Julio. The mobilization of July 30, 1957 is considered one of the decisive dates of the Cuban Revolution and the fall of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. That day has been instituted in Cuba as the Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution.