The life of a man is marked by his actions, those that in extreme situations attest how brave he is and test his commitment to a just cause. That was, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a mortal who knew how to enter the heart of the country with a heroic hand and did at every moment what had to be done to free Cuba from Spanish yoke.

The continuous ring of the bells of the Demajagua mill, that morning of October 10, 1868, marked 149 years ago, the beginning of an independence period in which Mambí blood was shed in the battlefields of colonial Cuba.

In that moment and before his slaves gathered there he expressed: "citizens, until this moment you have been my slaves. From now on, you are as free as I am. Cuba needs all its sons to gain independence."

"Those who want to follow me do it; those who want to stay, will remain as free as the others."

Those words of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo showed the importance of abolishing slavery to continue with the liberation of the country.

The cry of independence that October 10, 1868 set the course for the Cubans. In the action, Céspedes demonstrated the emancipation of all as a way to overthrow the Spanish government prevailing in Cuba.

And about freedom on the 28th anniversary of the Young Communists League  on April 4, 1990, the Historical Leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro expressed: (...) Only in freedom, in honor, in dignity, in high goals that the human being can propose, will be the real joy, can be real happiness.

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