On January 1, 1959, a young Fidel Castro proclaims the beginning of the Revolution. “The road has been long,” he says before a crowd to which he adds: “But we have arrived”. “It was a triumphant entry, accompanied by the other leaders, including Ernesto Che Gevara,” explains Anna Ayuso, senior researcher for Latin America at the Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB).

Thus, a triumphant, unprecedented revolution took place, which began to take shape six years earlier. “Those bearded men who had been in the Sierra Maestra entered the city. It was not seen as the arrival of the communists“More like national liberation,” details Eduardo Saldaña, co-director of the media outlet ‘El Orden Mundial’. Part of the Cuban people rebelled against the regime of Fulgencio Batista.

Also against US imperialism. “The island had become a territory for the enjoyment of the United States and a Cuban elite that had no connection with the people,” added Saldaña. A new era began then under the communist yoke.. Cuba would soon become one of the most important theaters of the Cold War.

Key battles took place there, such as the bloody landing at the Bay of Pigs, or the missile crisis. These, installed by the Soviets, were on the verge of unleashing a third World War. “When the entire Soviet bloc fell, it was seen that despite the successes they had in aspects such as healthcare or education, economically it was a disaster,” Ayuso pointed out.

Even so, the island of tobacco and rum, casinos and brothels, went down in history as the one that stood up to imperialism, becoming a reference for the rest of the guerrilla movements in Latin America.