Writing of courage and dedication in the prime of youth is not difficult when talking about Noel Fernández Pérez, who notably stood out as head of action and sabotage of the July 26th Movement in the province of Camagüey.

He took his first steps in the municipality of Vertientes where he was born through the love of José Ramón and Emma, ​​on September 26th, 1936.

His first studies were in the public school of his hometown, then, in that same place, his parents paid for English, typing and shorthand classes, he continues his studies at the Episcopal School of San Pablo, in Vertientes.

He returned to Aguilar again until his family moved permanently to Camagüey city.

In 1952, at the age of 16, he continued his studies and obtained his eighth grade certificate at the private school El Salvador, and entered the pre-commercial course at the Professional School of Commerce.

Other tasks

He worked at the Portilla Warehouse, Hnos. Y Cía., López Betancourt y Cía., And La Defensa, all of them importers of food and liquor. When the repression of the Batista tyranny began to be felt in Camagüey, Noel, like many young people, joined the clandestine struggle.

In different digital sites and historical articles it is said that he began such activities in 1957 by carrying out numerous sabotage, such as the burning of several local buses in central parts of the city.

His first important revolutionary work was the planting of a bomb in the nightclub called “Moroceo”, a fact that was carried out as a unique way of making people understand that it was not fair that while many died fighting or suffered imprisonment, others had fun, ignorant, indifferent to the critical moment that Cuba was going through.

Revolutionary labor

The calendar marked December 31st, 1957, the date on which the head of action and sabotage of the M-26-7 in the municipality of Camagüey, Lester Delgado, was arrested, whom Noel replaced. He planned and carried out with great success the fire of the Audiencia at the head of a revolutionary command, in in plain sight because of the situation of the building in the center of the city, on Cisneros street, while evading the surveillance police force that was numerous in those surroundings.

At that time, all kinds of revolutionary leadership had dissolved in the city to organize the work that had to be carried out and as Noel was already known in the underground as a brave boy, so he was entrusted with the task of forming a militia of which he himself would be the head and which would be given weapons to organize a revolutionary strike.

Eighty young people entered it and gathered at his house, and later, on April 9th, 1958, news broke that the weapons had not arrived, and several companions were arrested.

Knowing that he was wanted by the police and having repeatedly searched his house, it became necessary for him to hide in Aguilar town.

While he was in Aguilar, he carried out different revolutionary activities, including some sabotage. Upon being summoned to trial, he returned again to the city. From this he was acquitted and returned to his work again.

Already at this time the Directorate of the M-26-7 was formed in the province, and there were different uprising revolutionary groups with whom he had close contacts, sending them weapons, merchandise and medicine.

He also helped move important comrades from the M-26-7 from the capital to the outpost of the rebel troops in the Sierra Maestra.

He burned a gascar that was heading to the railway station, after having evacuated its occupants.

Noel disarmed many watchmen and policemen with the help of other companions who served as support.

He was able in a week in downtown streets to disarm 9 policemen.

And after much fighting, the opportunity finally came for Noel to free the political prisoners, among whom was Lester Delgado. And so he fulfilled his promise on the afternoon of September 16th, 1958, in which the prison car that was driving 9 political prisoners who were released by Noel and other comrades was attacked.

The action, carried out a few blocks from jail and in the center of the city, was undoubtedly the most relevant of those that took place in Camagüey city during the fight against Batista.

Days later, on 25 de Julio Street, next to the house where he was hiding, gunshots were fired between him and the police, since they had recognized the car.

He managed to escape arriving at a house where he identifies himself as a member of the M-26-7 and jumping several adjoining walls they provide him with a bicycle in which he manages to quickly escape from the place.

To evade persecution by the police, he dyes his hair blonde, wears glasses and a long-sleeved shirt, and continues to direct several attacks on government elements.

October and its penultimate day tints a promising future ocher color, on the eve of the electoral farce repudiated by the people, Noel is preparing to hinder its realization by planning a fire on the train that carried oil to the power plant of this city in order to paralyze it and therefore sabotage the holding of the elections.

In the midst of the shooting, he accidentally died while trying with a group of young people to disable the power plant that provided service to the provincial capital.

His death was a hard blow for the Agramontinian revolutionaries of that insurrectionary stage and for all of us who, in love with our history, reread the pages of heroism that Noel wrote.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García