The July 26 is for Cuba a day full of history and heroism: in 1953 there was an armed action by young Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro as with attacks on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks.

On the date, considered as the Day of National Rebellion , many pages have been written, so today Cubaliteraria recommends three books about the event itself, its antecedents and protagonists:

• El Moncada, the necessary response , by Mario Mencía Cobas: On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the assaults, its author –Premio Nacional de Historia– expands and updates another volume previously presented. According to a review by journalist Fernando Rodríguez Sosa¹:

In this edition (...) the author returns to a topic that has occupied him for decades, to propose a renewed approach, in which he delves into both the meaning of the coup d'état of March 10, 1952 and the background and consequences of the assaults on both fortresses of the Batista regime.

These pages reveal, among other information, the economic cost of the preparations and execution of the July 26, 1953 plan; the factors, until now unknown, that prevented the success of the planned action, and the result of an exhaustive socioeconomic, political, family, educational and labor investigation of the revolutionary detachment that was the protagonist of the momentous event.

Mencía is the author of other volumes related to July 26: The cry of the Moncada and The Fertile Prison .

• The passion that led me to the Moncada , by Yolanda Portuondo: Its author, known as «the underground biographer», leads the reader through the life of Haydée Santamaría, Yeyé, from her birth and until May 1955 when she meets Fidel again and the Moncada assailants, when they were released from the prison in Isla de Pinos. Its more than 300 pages include testimonies, photos, maps and graphics, which help to get to know the Cuban heroine, and the passion that led her to the Moncada.

• Before the Asalto al Moncada , by various authors: It is a volume published in greeting to the IV Congress of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (Upec), and that pays tribute to the workers of that sector. Five glories of Cuban journalism intervened in its writing: Marta Rojas, Julio García Luis, Mario Mencía, Aldo Isidrón del Valle, and Santiago Cardosa Arias. The text is divided into several chapters: "Prologue", "Fidel's fight for the vindication of the La Damajagua Bell" (November, 1947), "Fidel Castro in the" bogotazo "" (April 1948), "The protest announcing future battles "(March 11, 1949)," Patriotic I accuse! of Fidel "(December, 1950)," 7 months before the attack on the Moncada "(December, 1952)," The manifestation of the torches and the parade of January 28, 1953 "(January, 1953), and finally" Graphic Sheet ».

Grades:

1- «El Moncada, the necessary answer», by Fernando Rodríguez Sosa. In: www.habanaradio.cu/articulos/el-moncada-la-respuesta-necesaria/