August 13, 1957 was a sad day for the residents of San Juan y Martínez, in the westernmost Cuban province; at dusk, when they were about to carry out an action to pay homage to the birthday of leader Fidel Castro, Sergio and Luis Saíz Montes de Oca, young revolutionaries and fervent Martianos, were vilely assassinated; before leaving the house they had told their mother: «do not be afraid, someday you will be proud of us»
The Saíz Montes de Oca brothers, 18 and 17, respectively, were members of the directive of the Association of Students in the Secondary School of Pinar del Río and later they were members of the 26th of July Movement; at the same time with the revolutionary activity they showed gifts for the cultivation of poetry and narrative; their worries for the situation that the country was living were reflected in the writings that they left.
One of them, «»¿Por qué luchamos?», from 1957, is considered their political testament, in which they stated «(…) We only have our lives, endorsed with the honesty of their just thinking and an immense work to carry out and as an offering of devotion and detachment we have deposited them in the arms of the Cuban Revolution -just, great, renovating, honest, socialist-, with no other hope than seeing these dreams come true«.
The Saíz Montes de Oca brothers were born allies of the workers of the countryside and the city; identified with them, they enjoyed their victories and suffered their setbacks; As general secretary of the Association of Students of the Special English Center of San Juan y Martinez, Sergio, together with other comrades, promoted the opening of a night school for workers and farmers where, in addition to the first grades of elementary education, they provided them with notions of Constitutional Law, Moral and Civics, and Political Economy, which was enough for the government to decree its closure.
The funerals of Luis and Sergio Saíz Montes de Oca constituted a true demonstration of popular condolence in solidarity with the parents of the heroic young men and repudiation of the abominable crime; a crowd, without distinction of classes, marched behind the two coffins, singing the National Hymn, and then, at the request of the mother overwhelmed by pain and wanting to avoid a massacre, they kept an impressive silence when passing in front of the barracks of the Rural Guard.
In eternal memory of the young martyrs of San Juan and Martinez, the Cuban youth artistic vanguard takes the name of Hermanos Saiz Association.
