CubaPLUS Magazine

Abel Santamaría House Museum, the intimacy of heroism

By: Amanda Bedia
Aug 31, 2023
Abel Santamaría House Museum, the intimacy of heroism

A kind of intimate corner and austere expression of the life of a great hero of the nation, assassinated in 1953, is the so-called Casa Museo Abel Santamaría Cuadrado, located on the sixth floor of a building in the Vedado, in Havana, place where the person we name above resided there.

Abel Santamaría House Museum, the intimacy of heroismThe institution is located at 164, 25th Street, between O and Infanta, Plaza municipality and currently occupies apartments 603 and 604 of the property, although only the first of those old houses was the residence of the brothers Abel and Haydee Santamaría Cuadrado, prominent revolutionaries.

The home of the Santamaría brothers, born at the center of the country, was essential in the preparations for the armed uprising of 26 July 1953. Meetings and appointments were held there for the secret connection of young people who decided to fight head-on for freedom, honoring the Apostle José Martí.

All headed by Fidel Castro. The irreproachable and active young revolutionary Abel Santamaría was elected second in command of the daring action, which cost the life of a savagely, sadistically tortured by assassins of the tyrant Batista.

That is why this House is an endearing place and of high historical value. Museum that reflects the great and noble soul of that Cuban. As of 1964, once the house was recovered, work began to make it a place of memories and honor. Since 1973 in functions of Museum and from 1980 the site is declared a National Monument.

There, a bureau belonging to Fidel Castro is exhibited, and it is conserved with care, part of the simple furniture that corresponds to the historical events honored by the institution.

It is not the only place in Cuba dedicated to the memory of the hero who outside Abel Santamaría, because in Santiago de Cuba, where they took out the main events of July 26, there is another museum located in the ruins of what was the Saturnino Lora hospital, which bears the young man's name.

The birthplace of the brothers Abel and Haydée Santamaría, in the town of Encrucijada, former province of Las Villas, was also turned into a museable institution.

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