Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel today presided over the main commemoration ceremony for the 153rd anniversary of the beginning of the independence struggles, held in the main hall of the University of Havana.

Havana, Cuba.- During the ceremony, the Alejo Carpentier Medal was awarded to two outstanding personalities in historical studies, the Distinction for National Culture to other notable historians and the National History Award 2020.

During the day, the president evoked the significance of the beginning of the struggles for independence from Spain on October 10, 1868, and affirmed that then the island began to be a homeland.

He recalled that 153 years ago, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declared everyone free and equal, without distinction of class or skin color. This action forever undermined the decayed foundations of a slave-owning and patriarchal society.

Meanwhile, at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, floral offerings by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and Díaz-Canel presided over the tribute to the heroes of the homeland at the tomb of José Martí, on the 153rd anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban independence struggle by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

In the tribute held in the Corridor of Honor, flowers were placed on behalf of the Cuban people at the tomb-monument of the Father of the Homeland, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, and of Mariana Grajales, and the leader Fidel Castro Ruz

The activity was attended by Party and Government authorities in Santiago de Cuba, as well as Brigadier General Ricardo Rigel Tejera, chief of the Eastern Army. (RHC)