Across the steep slopes of the Sierra Maestra and the sunbaked plains of eastern Cuba, the legacy of Raúl Castro’s lifelong leadership of the Cuban Revolution is etched into every community of Santiago de Cuba. For more than 85 years, the revolutionary leader has walked alongside the people of this province, building a legacy of mutual respect and affection that persists to this day, documented by thousands of personal stories from residents and former guerrillas alike.
One of the most intimate of these stories dates back to September 1958, when Fulgencio Batista’s air force launched indiscriminate bombing raids across Cuba’s eastern mountains. The attacks targeted not only anti-Batista rebel fighters but also the peasant communities that openly supported their cause. In one of these violent strikes, a young girl named Ana María Poll suffered severe wounds to her forehead and leg, and received care at a field hospital operated by the revolution’s Second Eastern Front Frank País García. When Raúl learned of the attack, he and his lifelong partner Vilma Espín traveled immediately to the site, held the injured girl, and vowed that the regime’s brutal crimes would soon be brought to an end. Decades later, every time Raúl visits the town of Mayarí Arriba, he asks after Ana María, who still loves him as a father figure.
That same deep devotion can be found across Santiago de Cuba, where Raúl has long lived as just another resident: warm, gregarious, and unflinchingly brave. As Francis Rondón Gómez, a self-identified follower of both Raúl and Fidel Castro, puts it: “These are the men who, fighting alongside the Cuban people, won us true national independence.” That is why local musician Cándido Fabré penned his iconic lyrics reminding Cubans that those who stand against Fidel also stand against Raúl.
It is no overstatement to say there is not a single municipality in Santiago de Cuba province where Raúl has not stood at the forefront of revolutionary struggle and progress. His connection to these lands first began in 1939, when a teenaged Raúl enrolled at the prestigious Dolores School, a Jesuit institution in Birán. Over the following decades, that connection deepened through every defining chapter of the Cuban Revolution: the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, his imprisonment in San Luis, the founding of the Second Eastern Front that liberated dozens of Santiago’s towns and cities, the proclamation of revolutionary victory on January 1, 1959, his marriage to Vilma, and eight decades of ongoing work to advance the province’s development.
### Raúl’s Life in Santiago
When young Raúl arrived at Colegio Dolores to study between 1939 and 1945, he followed in the footsteps of his older brothers Fidel and Ramón, receiving a holistic education that introduced him to the history of Oriente province—then Cuba’s eastern capital—and the 1898 betrayal that saw U.S. military forces bar Cuban independence fighters (the Mambises) from entering the city after Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American War.
Eight years later, Raúl returned to Santiago as part of the Generation of the Centennial of José Martí, Cuba’s iconic founding father. In the early hours of Saint Anne’s Day 1953, he stood firm at Siboney Farm, leading the contingent of revolutionaries that supported the attack on the Moncada Barracks from the city’s Palace of Justice. When the attack faltered, Raúl escaped to the home of family friend Dr. Ana Rosa Sánchez, a local pharmacist, where he warned her about the brutal massacre being carried out by Batista’s loyalist henchmen.
On July 27, he reached the outskirts of the Algodonal sugar mill, and made the independent decision to trek toward Birán. Following the Central Railway line, cold, exhausted, and soaked through, he covered roughly 10 kilometers to the San Rafael River bridge, where he was spotted by Batista’s soldiers, who arrested him and held him at the San Luis barracks before transferring him to Palma Soriano. What followed was trial, productive imprisonment, exile, and the historic Granma landing that marked the start of the full-scale guerrilla war against Batista.
As the rebel struggle gained strength and consolidated control over eastern Cuba, Raúl established the Second Eastern Front, named in honor of fallen revolutionary leader Frank País García. When the 20th-century Mambises (as the revolutionaries called themselves) entered Santiago on January 1, 1959, a new chapter began for Raúl, then a commander in the Rebel Army.
Just weeks later, on January 26, in Raúl’s own words: “I put on a new guerrilla uniform and went to Vilma’s wedding (…) the best and most beautiful thing I’ve ever done in my life.” The ceremony took place at the Rancho Club, which overlooks most of the city, uniting Raúl with a Santiago-born revolutionary who had worked in hiding before joining the Second Eastern Front and seeing the fight through to Batista’s defeat.
From that point onward, Raúl spent decades working to advance Santiago’s progress: he inaugurated new schools, hospitals, and production hubs; visited iconic revolutionary sites including La Granjita, the Moncada Barracks, and El Escandell; spent time working alongside residents of Palma Soriano; collaborated with fellow revolutionary commander Juan Almeida Bosque on countless party and national defense initiatives; and stood as a parliamentary candidate for the Segundo Frente municipality. All the while, he pushed forward socioeconomic development for the province and restoration work for the city, which was declared a Hero City of the Republic of Cuba in 1984.
Two years before that designation, Operation Heredia—an initiative personally directed by Raúl—laid the groundwork for a host of new public buildings and community spaces for Santiago, including the modern Heredia Theater. After the Aguilera Theater was destroyed by fire and the Oriente Theater closed, the city had lacked a large performing arts venue for decades. Under Raúl’s direct oversight, thousands of workdays of construction culminated in the theater’s inauguration on August 13, 1991.
That same year, Raúl convened the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba from Santiago, with the core mission of preserving the nation, the revolution, and the Cuban socialist project—a goal the gathering successfully achieved in October 1991. Throughout this period, alongside Fidel, Raúl was present for the inauguration of dozens of transformative public projects across the province.
Whenever his duties allowed, Raúl returned to Santiago. In December 2007, he joined Venezuelan revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez Frías for a historic visit to the city. When Hurricane Sandy devastated large swathes of the province’s infrastructure and housing in 2012, then-Cuban President Raúl Castro provided consistent, on-the-ground support. Recalling his visit, local resident Israide Mora Osoria said: “He announced the revolutionary government’s new pricing and subsidy policies for construction materials; he shared firsthand stories of the day Batista’s army surrendered at the La Maya barracks, and he called on all of us to keep fighting for the Cuban people.”
In 2016, the then-First Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee surprised Santiago residents with an early-morning walking tour of the Enramadas Heritage Corridor. Standing at an impromptu podium, he told the crowd: “Those who saw Santiago after Hurricane Sandy can’t believe how splendid it is now.” In 2019, alongside current President Miguel Díaz-Canel, he inaugurated the Cuba-Vietnam Solidarity Special School. “He has always had a constant concern for our living, studying, and working conditions,” said school director Iriobis Rodríguez Madariaga.
### The Second Eastern Front: Raúl’s Revolutionary Legacy
On March 11, 1958, Raúl fulfilled Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro’s order to found the Second Eastern Front Frank País García, which operated as “a small revolutionary state within the old regime” across some 12,000 square kilometers of territory, covering most of the Santiago municipalities of San Luis, Songo-La Maya, and Segundo Frente.
First Colonel Alberto Vázquez García, a Hero of Labor of Cuba who now directs the historical complex and mausoleum holding the remains of fallen Second Front fighters (and which reserves a space for Raúl alongside Vilma’s monument), recalled: “I was one of the seven members of Column 6 that marched from Pata de la Mesa to Piloto del Medio. Throughout that long, hard march, Raúl was always the first to get up and the last to go to bed, and he never stopped encouraging all of us. He always had unwavering faith that we would win.”
Beyond combat operations, the Second Front built a full framework of revolutionary governance: it established departments of Justice, Rebel Health, Public Works, Treasury, Propaganda and Inspection, and Education, alongside agrarian and labor bureaus. These institutions forged unity among fighters and local residents, laying the groundwork for the revolutionary government that would take power after victory.
In just nine months and 20 days of operation, the Second Front captured 31 military barracks and Rural Guard outposts, seized roughly 2,000 weapons from Batista’s forces, established 20 field hospitals and medical posts, and built nearly 400 new schools. “It was thrilling to see the insurgents defeat the soldiers who had committed so many terrible atrocities against us. Raúl and Vilma entered San Luis in December 1958, greeting and hugging everyone. The joy was impossible to overstate,” recalled long-time resident Henry Reyes Rodríguez, who witnessed the entry.
It was also Raúl’s initiative that led to the creation of the municipality of Segundo Frente, transforming Mayarí Arriba from a small hamlet controlled by a handful of wealthy landowners into a vibrant, thriving town with its own schools, hospitals, and paved access roads. “Everything here is 100% the work of the revolution,” said local resident Pablo Campos Batista. “He was one of our representatives in the National Assembly, and he won more votes than any other candidate in the last election. He has always given us confidence, and reminded us that unity is our greatest strength. He is so kind, he loves sharing stories and anecdotes, and he passes on knowledge to current and future generations with so much modesty, selflessness, and altruism.”
In his most recent address, marking the 65th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Raúl reaffirmed his lifelong commitment to the cause: “From heroic Santiago de Cuba, we reaffirm that we remain steadfast and ready to charge with machetes, alongside the people and as one more combatant.” For the crowd gathered to hear him, the response was unanimous and thunderous: Long live Raúl!