November 27, 1871 marked a sad event in Cuban history, the date on which eight first-year medical students at the University of Havana were unjustly shot.
This tragedy that occurred on a day like today was originated by an innocent student mischief that was barbarously punished by the colonial regime, without any relation to the struggle that Cubans were waging for their independence at that time.
The death certificates of the youths shot were not registered in any parish church. It was not until after two and a half months that their burial parties were settled in the books of the Colón cemetery, where it appears that the corpses were buried for alms.
This allows us to understand how humiliating he wanted to take everything concerning the execution of the eight first-year medical students.
The dark event was an exemplary lesson that Spain wanted to give to the insurrectionary development to unleash terror and thus demonstrate the extent of the extremes to which a dying system could go.
Both the heinous crime, as well as the inconceivable judicial process that preceded it, contributed to strengthening the independence sentiment of the Cubans.
In memory of the young people shot unjustly, there is the Monument to the eight medical students, at the exit of the Tunnel, to the left of the Malecón in Havana.
On the Caribbean island, the date of November 27 is celebrated as a day of National Mourning, numerous university students descend from the steps of the University of Havana and go to the esplanade of La Punta to pay homage to those innocent students today sadly reflected in the pages of our history.