When Jorge Luis Aneiros Alonso, president of the National History Congress, inaugurated the 26th edition of the conclave, first to be held on Las Tunas soil, it was impossible not to feel a dose of pride for our homeland.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The ceremony took place on the very date and in the same place where the insurrectionary struggle began in these lands, 157 years after the memorable moment when the troops of Major General Vicente García González raised the cry of independence.

There, on the grounds of El Hormiguero, moments were dedicated to local art. It was said that the Congress is a tribute to the Lion of Santa Rita, and significant absences were noted, as the late Doctor of Science Eduardo Torres Cuevas and Las Tunas' Plácido Cruz Infante, Víctor Manuel Marrero, and José Guillermo Montero.

The event takes place under the motto "United by the bond of patriotism," a frank allusion to a saying by the great mambí of Las Tunas. Its committees feature 87 professional and 14 student presentations, with representatives from all provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth).

The first day's work sessions take place at the University of Las Tunas. There, in addition to the central panel dedicated to Fidel Castro and book presentations that took place in the morning, the Faure Chomón Mediavilla History Room was inaugurated.

The name, directly associated with the man who gave birth to Higher Education in Las Tunas, is intended to be a space inextricably linked to the history of the province and its many committed men and women.

This was made clear as the ribbon was cut and Professor Rogelio Díaz Castillo, Doctor of Merit from the university, introduced the participants to the daring work that gave birth to higher education here.

The Congress, which will run until Wednesday the 15th, is dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the restart of the War of Independence and the death in combat of José Martí, as well as the centenaries of the founding of the first Communist Party of Cuba (1925) and the birth of Fidel Castro (1926).