![]() Unswervingly loyal, she became his shadow, displaying endurance equal to any in the guerrilla band. Immediately, she became an indispensable part of Castro's life, taking on the role of personal manager. Sanchez returned to the rebels' mountain retreat several times, finally joining their growing band permanently before the end of the year. It was clear from the start that she was extremely intelligent and practical, able to argue the fine points of politics and even weapons, of which she had expert knowledge. Castro was fascinated by the dark-haired and attractive Sanchez not only physically, but intellectually. Joined by fellow rebel leaders Frank Pais and Fidel's brother Raúl, the four talked animatedly until high noon, when for security reasons they decided to move to a nearby canefield where they lunched on delicacies the visitors had brought with them. Neither of them ever described this first meeting, but the mutual impression must have been formidable, for it marked the birth of an association that would last 23 years, to the day of her death. Celia, whose code names were "Aly" and "Norma," had walked all night with a rebel guide to reach the site. Shortly after 5 am, on February 16, 1957, Sanchez and Castro met for the first time in the middle of a pasture, several hundred yards from a friendly peasant's farmhouse. She had provided his group with coastal charts and maps of the region, and after the pitiful remnants of Castro's group reached the relative security of the mountains, she provided food and supplies, and established a network of friendly local peasants that enabled the guerrilla band to live off the land. Sanchez, who had planned to meet the group on their arrival, had been arrested that morning in nearby Campechuela, and never made it to the beach.Īlready at this nascent stage of his eventually successful revolution, Castro had been given important support by Sanchez. Less than 20 of the original group were able to escape to the nearby Sierra Maestra mountains. Soon the invaders found themselves being attacked by a much larger unit of Batista's troops. Sailing from Mexico in a leaky vessel named Granma, he and 81 other revolutionaries, including Ernesto "Che" Guevara, went aground on December 2, 1956, south of Niquero near Belic, at Playa de los Colorados. Castro was determined to topple Batista's brutal rule. He, however, survived and was released from prison in an amnesty several years later, going into exile in Mexico. The attack failed, and many of Castro's colleagues were killed or executed. On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro and a small band of militants attempted to spark a national uprising against the dictator by seizing the Moncada barracks in the city of Santiago, capital of Oriente province, the historical cradle of Cuban independence. Like many liberal Cubans, Celia Sanchez was profoundly opposed to the Batista regime, but like virtually all of them she also felt powerless against the dictatorship, which had almost unlimited power on its side. In March 1952, however, Fulgencio Batista seized power and rapidly transformed the island republic into a dictatorship based on terror and corruption. The Sanchez family's political allegiance was to the Ortodoxo (Orthodox) Party, founded in 1947 to bring honest government and social reform to Cuba. ![]() When Celia was an adolescent, her father took her up Cuba's highest mountain, Pico Turquino in the Sierra Maestra, to place a bust of revolutionary martyr José Martí, Cuba's George Washington, at the peak. Working as a company doctor at a sugar mill, he saw firsthand the inequities in a colonial society. Her father, a physician, was patriotic and socially conscious, and he impressed on his five daughters the necessity of striving for a more just world. Manuel Sanchez Silveira had four sisters.īorn in 1920 in Manzanillo, Cuba, Celia Sanchez grew up in a large family far removed from the poverty that afflicted most of the nation. ![]() Born in 1920 in Media Luna, near Manzanillo, Cuba died in Havana on Janudaughter of Dr. Name variations: Celia Sanchez Celia Sanchez Mandeley or Manduley (revolutionary names) Aly and Norma. Cuban revolutionary leader, one of the key personalities in the movement to overthrow Batista, who was a political and personal intimate of Fidel Castro's for two decades.
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