26 July Celebrations

Cuba is covered with communist banners, posters and official graffiti running up to the annual 26 July Celebrations. Fidel Castro's ill-fated 1953 assault on Santiago de Cuba's Moncada Barracks stamps this as the most important date on Cuba's revolutionary calendar.

The attack failed and the dictator, Batista, was not overthrown until 1959. The date was chosen by Castro, however, because it was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Cuban writer and patriot Jose Martí. The date coincides with a number of local carnivals and was once a good chance to see El Comandante speaking, albeit from a long distance. At the Moncada barracks, the names of the martyrs of the revolution are read out and guns are fired. A customarily long speech is broadcast on national television. ¡Viva el veinte-seis!