Work on Haydée Santamaría Presented at Book Saturday in Cuba

January 7, 2024

"One Must Defend Life" is the title of the volume about Cuban heroine Haydée Santamaría that was presented at the Book Saturday space, on Calle de Madera, in the historic center of the capital.

At 11:00 a.m., local time, the traditional gathering took place, where the attending public learned about this compilation of texts, co-edited and published by Casa de las Américas and Ocean Sur, about the Cuban revolutionary and intellectual (1922-1980).

The work of researchers Jaime Gómez Triana and Ana Niria Albo shows how for Haydée the assault on the Moncada barracks (July 26, 1953), the actions against the Batista dictatorship, exile, the revolutionary triumph of 1959, and her work at Casa de las Américas were all part of the same struggle.

The book includes letters, encounters with the population, interventions, articles, among other texts that shaped this 600-page work, in which the essential aspects were gathered, according to the specialists.

Other materials were included in Casa magazine, with an important photographic selection, in two issues following its launch on December 15, 2022.

According to the Cuban institution, of which she was a founder, the text highlights the invaluable collection that the publication constitutes, based on the author's papers, carefully preserved and with great professional care by the historical team of Casa de las Américas, especially by her closest collaborators.

In remarks about the book, Albo drew attention to the coherence between the acts, conduct, and leadership of the Heroine of Moncada, as she was also known, who was admired by politicians, artists, and intellectuals from Cuba and around the world.

She stated that in that woman, "passionate and upright," her faith in justice never wavered, which is reflected in the work, where her defense of the liberation struggles of peoples in the Latin American south appears, Salvador Allende's Chile, Sandinista Nicaragua, anti-colonial Puerto Rico.