cubaninsider: Two Cubans: Yoani Sanchez & Melba Hernandez

With Two Very Different Stories
{Updated: Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013}

The above AFP photo shows Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez arriving in Brazil on the first leg of her 80-day worldwide anti-Castro tour Monday, February 18, 2013. As she debarked at Recife, she said, "Long live democracy. I want this democracy in my country, too" according to the AFP article from Sao Paulo on Feb. 19th. She was "welcomed by friends, supporters and journalists...and also by pro-Cuban protesters who waved signs accusing her of being 'Yoani: agent of the CIA.'" She said she didn't think the Cuban government would prevent her returning to the island at the end of the tour. "I want to stay in Cuba, to help the Cubans," she said. "I don't want to be a migrant Yoani Sanchez in another country."

Melba Hernandez, the legendary Cuban depicted above, says, "Yoani Sanchez, once she gets to Miami on her world tour to demean Cuba, should stay forever in Miami. That's where she belongs."

Melba Hernandez knows more about Fidel Castro, Cuba, dictators, and democracy than Yoani Sanchez will ever know. Melba was born in 1921 in Cruces, Las Villas province, Cuba. She graduated from the University of Havana Law School in 1943 and was known as a fierce children's advocate.

The above photo shows Melba Hernandez standing behind the bench in the white blouse next to her best friend, Haydee Santamaria. The two women sitting on the bench are Haydee's sisters, Aida and Ada. This iconic photo was taken by young journalist Marta Rojas and the original is kept today in the Archives Section of Casa de las Americas, the famed Latin American journalism/arts foundation that Haydee created in Havana in 1959, with similar branches later opening in Paris, France, and Madrid, Spain.

The above Marta Rojas photo shows Melba Hernandez on your left with Haydee Santamaria. By the time this photo was taken, Melba and Haydee had made an indelible vow: They would overthrow the U. S. - backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba or they would die trying. At these moments in time, the two young women were conspiring with Haydee's brother Abel and with a young lawyer named Fidel Castro to make their first audacious rebel attack against the Batista-Mafia regime. Melba and Haydee not only helped plan the attack, they were participants. Melba, Haydee, Abel, and Fidel rented a farmhouse in Oriente province outside the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba. In that farmhouse the plan was finalized for 138 rebels to attack the Moncada Army Barracks on the edge of Santiago while 26 other rebels, led by the then teenage Frank Pais, attacked a smaller Batista barracks in Bayama as a diversion.

The Moncada Attack began at 5:00 A.M. on July 26, 1953.

It was a disaster for the rebels because Batista's Moncada soldiers {above} were far better armed and they had been tipped off about the attack. All of the rebels were either killed or captured. As was Batista's custom, each prisoner was tortured, to solicit information, and then murdered. As that grim process unfolded, the New York Times and other media exposed it, creating embarrassment in Washington. Among the prisoners were Melba Hernandez, Haydee Santamaria, and Fidel Castro. Haydee's brother Abel and her fiance were tortured to death and then their warm testicles rubbed over Haydee's chest while she was tied to a chair. But before Melba, Haydee, and Fidel were tortured and then murdered, the U. S. induced Batista to cease the gruesome torture-murders, at least while the media was managing to chronicle them. Thus, Batista conducted show trials and sentenced Melba, Haydee, and Fidel to prison.

While in prison, Fidel Castro got word to urban underground leaders Celia Sanchez and Frank Pais to make the failed Moncada attack the theme of the rebellion. Thus, "M-26-7" posters -- meaning "Moncada 26th of July" -- became ubiquitous and, to this day, that symbol is used to define the revolution.

To appease his supporters in Washington, Batista allowed trusted journalists to interview the two imprisoned females, Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria. In the photo above, that is the young, black Havana journalist Marta Rojas talking with prisoners Melba Hernandez, in the middle, and Haydee Santamaria! Marta was also permitted to interview the imprisoned Fidel Castro. Unknown to Batista, Marta supported the rebels. Amazingly, Marta took notes Fidel had written to Celia Sanchez from his cell in her bra and got them into the underground and on their way to Celia far away in the Sierra Maestra!

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959, the young journalist Marta Rojas {above} introduced Fidel Castro for his very first televised speech to the Cuban people!

A young Marta Rojas was already a renowned Latin American journalist.

Marta Rojas {in the center above} was an award-winning Vietnam War correspondent.

On the left above, Marta had some close calls on the Vietnam War front-lines.

Marta Rojas today -- as a journalist, author, and historian -- knows more about Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and Cuba than any soul alive, including Yoani Sanchez. My favorite Marta Rojas book -- "Tania: The Unforgettable Guerrilla" -- was first published by Random House in the 1970s. Of course, no one is sponsoring a world tour for Marta to express her views on Fidel Castro or Cuba.

The above Tracey Eaton photo shows Marta Rojas in her Havana home.

From July-1953 till May-1955 Fidel Castro was Prisoner #3859 on the Isle of Pines in Batista's Cuba. But the Moncada attack had made him the super hero in the eyes of the vast majority of Cubans.

Herbert Lionel Mathews {left}, a key writer for the New York Times, loved Fidel Castro and hated Fulgencio Batista. His scathing articles embarrassed the U. S. to such an extent that Washington induced Batista to free Fidel from prison. Batista complied but, of course, put a team of assassins on Fidel's trail with the intention of killing him on the outside beyond the prying eyes of journalists like Mathews.

Thus, on May 15-1955 Fidel Castro {above} left Batista's prison!

As a free man, although quite cognizant of the murder squads tailing him, Fidel's first order of business {above} was to meet and comfort Melba Hernandez {left} and Haydee Santamaria, the two female rebels who had been unmercifully tortured for almost two years in Batista's prison.

Haydee Santamaria then rushed to the Sierra Maestra where she and Celia Sanchez would carve out niches as history's two all-time greatest female revolutionary warriors. The photo above shows Haydee and Celia leading a guerrilla detail in the Sierra Maestra. Their facial expressions, fearless and determined, defined both of them as well as the revolutionary war that defeated Batista.

In December, 1956 -- after his recruitment exile to the U. S. and Mexico -- Fidel Castro finally joined the two female guerrilla fighters in the Sierra Maestra. In the above photo, that is the heavily armed Celia Sanchez {center} and Haydee Santamaria showing Fidel how to handle a weapon they gave him.

Two weeks earlier {above} Celia Sanchez had given Fidel his first telescopic rifle in the Sierra Maestra. This is the first photo ever taken of them together although, via the exchange of notes while he was in prison, they had already become everlastingly worshipful of each other.

And never in his long life would Fidel Castro forget that Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria {above} were the two greatest warriors, male or female, in the revolutionary war against Batista.

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959, the three most powerful people in Cuba were the three soul-mates pictured above -- Fidel flanked by Celia and Haydee. That fact, of course, is conveniently denied to this day by the losers of the Cuban Revolution who re-established their ultra-powerful dictatorship in nearby Miami. In all the decades since 1959 the Cuban exiles in Miami have found it convenient to demonize the macho men of the revolution but impossible to demonize Celia and Haydee, the angelic female guerrilla fighters who opposed the Batista regime because of its abuse of Cuban children, a glaring mistake that eventually doomed the powerful Batista-U.S.-Mafia rule in Cuba. Celia died of cancer on Jan. 11, 1980. Shortly, devastated by Celia's death, Haydee committed suicide.

Celia Hart Santamaria {above}, the daughter of Haydee Santamaria and fellow rebel Armando Hart, confirmed in a famous 2005 essay about Haydee and Celia that her mother's suicide was solely because of Celia Sanchez's death. Celia Hart, who was named after Celia Sanchez, became a prolific writer but she and her older brother Abel, who was named after Haydee's brother Abel, were both killed in a car wreck in Havana on September 7, 2008, as they drove to assist Cubans left homeless by three back-to-back hurricanes. In her 2005 essay Celia Hart also identified Reynaldo Coloma as Haydee's finance that was tortured to death, along with Haydee's brother Abel, when they were Batista prisoners in 1953.

The repetitious murders of children in Batista's Cuba, intended as a warning to potential dissidents, infuriated the female half of the Cuban population and eventually spelled defeat for Batista's dictatorship. Quite clearly, as explained by historian Terence Cannon in his book Revolutionary Cuba, Cuban women -- Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, Vilma Espin, Melba Hernandez, Tete Puebla, Marta Rojas, etc. -- provided the decisive edge in the war against Batista. In the year 2013, women are the majority in Cuba's National Assembly. And since 1959 there have been no murders of children to quell dissent.

The photo above shows Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria in Batista's prison.

The above photo shows Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria as Batista prisoners. It was a day in which they were being taken back to their cells after having been unmercifully tortured in the basement.

Melba Hernandez is still alive and therefore a living legend in Cuba and around the world. Two modern countries -- Vietnam and Cambodia -- have recently awarded Melba their highest civilian honors and medals for her yeoman work on behalf of children in those two countries. As an anti-Batista warrior and as a humanitarian obsessed with the welfare of children, Melba has a plethora of memories...about Celia, Haydee, Batista, Fidel, the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. She is a Cuban treasure.