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SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba. – A floral offering on behalf of the Cuban people was deposited this Friday in homage to Moncada heroines Haydee Santamaria and Melba Hernandez, in the pantheon of the Martyrs of July 26 at Santa Iphigenia Cemetery, in Santiago de Cuba.

The tribute evoked the unity of Haydee and Melba in the struggle that life bonded even more to coincide on this day the 96 years of Melba´s birth and 37 years of Haydee´s physical disappearance.

Before their niches together with the fallen in the Moncada exploit, women and combatants of the Revolution kept silent and spoke on the lives and participation in the libertarian strife of the two valuable women.

Orlando Guevara, a fighter and journalist, said Haydee Santamaria and Melba Hernandez were the only two female members of the Centennial Generation in Santiago de Cuba.

In Memory of Greatness

En esta jornada, los cubanos recordamos la entrega y la disposición de Haydee Santamaría y Melba Hernández, quienes fueron protagonistas del ataque al cuartel Moncada en Santiago de Cuba.

Journalist Orlando Guevara noted they participated in the defense of the old Saturnino Lora Hospital, and the name of Haydee is inextricably linked to the clandestine struggle along with Frank Pais and other young people, in the preparations for the November 30 uprising.

Both women under Fidel’s command, edited, printed and secretly distributed the self-defense plea History Will Absolve Me, and after the triumph of January 1, 1959 they took on important responsibilities.

In the trial for the Moncada events Fidel praised the attitude of them, when he said, “It was never put in such a high place the heroism and dignity of the Cuban woman