By Annolan Marichal

This October 20 will be the 154th anniversary of the notes of our national anthem being sung for the first time. This fact constitutes the first celebration charged with identity and Cubanness, which arose in the heat of the independence struggles.

Our Anthem of Bayamo is a combat anthem that invites us to fight for the liberation of the country and had in its beginnings five stanzas that fervently expressed the need that our people had to fight for their independence.

The history of its lyrics and its music go back to August 13, 1867, when Pedro Figueredo (Perucho) received in his own house the proposal to compose our Marsellesa. Thus, at dawn on the 14th, the Cuban composer on his piano would create the melody for which, on May 8, 1868, Figueredo asked the musician of the Iglesia Mayor, Manuel Muñoz Cedeño, to perform its orchestration.

On October 20, 1868, within the framework of the taking of Bayamo, the first victory of the Liberation Army, is where the march of war and freedom of Cuba is sung. At that moment Perucho Figueredo, sitting on the saddle of his horse, writes the lyrics of the Anthem.

112 years later, the Council of Ministers approved on August 22, 1980, through Decree number 74, that this date be chosen to celebrate the Culture of Cuba, convinced that no other event would better represent our identity, roots and idiosyncrasy, than the day in which the Anthem of Bayamo was sung for the first time (October 20).

Since then, every year in our country the Day of Cuban Culture is celebrated from October 10 to 20.