We arrived at the Enrique José Varona park in front of the well-known Casino pre-university, several members of the Combatants Association were gathered there early, the occasion is a dream come true for many, finally El Rubio Che’s guerrilla, has a face between the Camagüeyans.

A bust sculpted in clay with the heart and skill of the artist Roberto Estrada and turned into bronze by the Cagüayo Foundation, at the request of his fellow fighters, is now a reality, thanks to the Office of the Historian of Camagüey city, always ready to keep alive the memories of this city.

As I approached, several stories of Jesús Suárez Gayol surfaced from the memories of his fellow fighters, who were witnesses and accomplices, of the meetings in that place, at the exit of the former Secondary School, the scene of those young people for overthrowing the tyrant Fulgencio Batista.

Before his expectation to see Gayol’s face, I remembered my great-uncle Enrique Atiénzar Peláez (father of the Adelante journalist, Enrique Atiénzar) who was also a member of those student struggles and always brought with great admiration, a new story of the revolutionary.

The ceremony begins

The park was filled with young people from Álvaro Morell pre-university, teachers, Party and Government authorities in the territory, artists, journalists and people in general.

The Camagüeyan singer-songwriter Antonio Batista, performed a song to the essentials, then Antonio Fontes Carvajo, on behalf of the combatants and companions of Suárez Gayol; he recalled some qualities of the young fighter.

About Suarez Gayol

A boy born in Las Tunas, of Asturian parents, who almost without knowing how to read discovers José Martí and clings to his teachings; that even his foreign parents, he managed to make them stand up out of respect for the Cuban national anthem. He jokingly told his mother Doña Aurora Gayol that she was his “Galician Mariana Grajales”.

He stood out for his position against the Batista dictatorship, he organized the Federation of Secondary Students in this city, where he lived for more than a decade, and was one of the founders of the July 26th Movement in the town, some of his fellow fighters still they remember him with his convincing speeches surrounded by young people, in front of the former Institute, with his joy and vitality.

He knew the police prisons of the dictatorship and was a victim of torture and beatings. He traveled from Mexico to Cuba in 1958 on El Corojo expedition, it was there, under the command of El Che, that he obtained the rank of Captain and after the triumph of the Revolution, he held various positions within the sugar industrial sector.

He was Vice Minister of Sugar at the time of Che’s call to join the Bolivian guerrilla. His blood was the first to fertilize those sister lands.

The unveiling

The moment generates tensions, the emotion in Fontes makes his hands tremble, accompanied by Federico Hernández, First Secretary of the PCC in the province, and Governor Yoseily Góngora, also together with his partner Eduardo Rivero, unweave the ties and fabrics that cover the bust, at dusk, the shine of the bronze gives us his look.

A closed applause and moisture in the eyes of those present, welcome the young athlete, turned guerrilla, with deep ideals and a sweet and simple heart.

For posterity

At the end of the formal event, like the young people who were in those years of revolutionary effervescence, gathered before the pedestal, Gayol’s companions want a photo, they ask Federico (secretary of the PCC) and Joseíto (director of the OHCC) to accompany, lamenting those who are no longer.

Then I remember uncle Enrique again, who, like Gayol, was a straight man, with unshakable ideals and forever faithful to his revolution, I feel that he is missing in that photograph.

As well as the snapshot, there remains the bust in homage to Jesús Suárez Gayol, who will speak to future generations about the necessary sacrifices for a common good. That brave boy inspired the young people of his time, showing his strong opinions. That is why from today, on the land where his thought developed, we will feel the need to “serve from the vanguard positions”.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García