It was on this day, in 1953, that a group of rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Cuba and failed miserably. A number of the rebels were captured and executed immediately by the Cuban military, but not their leader, a lawyer named Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. He escaped to the countryside and was later captured. He was put on trial but allowed to speak for four hours giving a speech that outlined his political views and that ended with the phrase “History will absolve me.”

Many people at the time thought that Castro was not a communist and, in fact, they were probably right. Castro had promised the Cuban people a democracy that redistributed wealth more justly, but now we know that he was simply lying. My grandfather was amongst those people and he, like many others, joined in the struggle against then-dictator of Cuba Fulgencio Batista only to later realize the terrible mistake they made in supporting Fidel Castro.

During the struggle, on the 13th of March 1957, a group called the Directorio Revolucionario (Revolutionary Directorate) would attack the presidential palace and also fail. Fidel Castro hated this group for not joining his 26th of July Movement. Interestingly enough, my grandfather was recruited to participate in the assault on the palace, but for whatever reason the assault went ahead without him. Could that one extra person have made the difference between victory and defeat? We will never know… but if that attack was successful, Castro would not have been able to torture the Cuban people for these 50 long years.

While many Cubans fought for the 26th of July Movement, many more Cubans died because of it. My grandfather hoped that the 26th of July would mean a renewed life for the Cuban Republic but instead it meant the death of Cuban freedom… and ultimately, in an ironic twist of fate, my grandfather died a few years ago on this very day, the 26th of July, never seeing a free Cuba. I will forever remember this day as the day when the forces of tyranny won out over the forces of freedom, the day that took away from me a true revolutionary and a true freedom fighter: my grandfather. Castro will stand out in history books as a great warning to the free people of the world: do not be fooled by great speeches or promises of utopia. And by no means will history absolve anything having to do with the atrocities that started that day: the 26th of July.

-AG