Unique tribute for December 2

Marta Rojas

ON the perimeter wall of the Aracelio Iglesias Workers’ Social Circle in Jaimanitas, Havana, visual artist José Fuster has reproduced the Granma yacht, to mark another anniversary (December 2) of its historic crossing from Mexico to Cuba. The Granma and Cinco Palmas, the place where Fidel and Raúl were reunited to reinitiate the revolutionary struggle, have been reproduced on more than one occasion by the ceramic artist and painter.

The Fuster Granma of this year is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the rebel assault on the Moncada Garrison July 26, 1953, and the 160th of the birth of José Martí, the intellectual author of the attack. This was expressed by the artist in a brief interview, as he was completing the work, "because without these events, the Granma landing, which initiated the victorious struggle led by Fidel in the Sierra Maestra, would not have been possible."

The colorful mural, created in Fuster’s particular tile mosaic style, also expresses the artist’s way of honoring the December 2 anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the day on which it was inaugurated at 4:00pm on 226th Street in Jaimanitas.
This new mosaic version of the Granma yacht shows in the foreground Fidel, as leader of the expedition, Che, Camilo [Cienfuegos] and Raúl, and Fuster stated that he introduced an expeditionary with a guitar, to symbolize, in a unique way, Juan Almeida and his song "La Lupe," which he describes as a "beautiful anthem of farewell to Mexico."

"The day that I received the Máximo Gómez Machete award I thought again about expressing historic themes within the highly diverse body of work which I do, insofar as the Revolution is the continuation of 100 years of revolutionary struggle on the part of the Cuban people.