Vilma Espín participates in the Santiago uprising

Fidel Castro and José Antonio Echeverría agreed to coordinate opposition to Batista while maintaining their organizations’ autonomy.

Eighty-two revolutionaries sailed from Tuxpan aboard the overcrowded yacht Granma to begin an armed struggle in Cuba.

Inside Cuba, Sánchez and the Oriente underground organized guides, supplies and contacts for the expedition expected from Mexico.

Frank País led an armed urban uprising intended to divert Batista’s forces and support the Granma expedition.

Urban fighters openly confronted the dictatorship, demonstrating that resistance extended beyond the future rural guerrilla front.

The expedition landed late at Las Coloradas in difficult mangrove terrain, far from its planned meeting with the urban underground.

Local residents and organizers helped scattered expeditionaries evade government patrols and reach the Sierra Maestra.

Batista’s troops surprised and dispersed the exhausted expeditionaries. Only small groups survived to regroup in the Sierra Maestra.

Fidel and Raúl Castro’s groups met again. Their small surviving nucleus became the foundation of the Rebel Army.

The guerrillas captured a small army post on the coast, their first military victory after the Granma disaster.