Saint Clara.. Welcome to Che Guevara’s city Tourism and travel
If you mention the revolution, you mention Cuba, and if you mention the revolution, you mention Che Guevara, whose image is still engraved in the heart of a monument representing the defense of the homeland in the city of St. Clara.
The monument is located on a high peak in the city and is surrounded by a group of trenches dug by the revolutionaries to defend the city, which gives the visitor a dose of history and fresh air alike.
According to the episode of the “Al-Musafer” program, which you can watch at this link, the city is located on the banks of a small river and has a population of 250,000. Saint Clara was founded in the seventeenth century by two large families who decided to move away from the coast to take shelter from pirate attacks.
These families still live in St. Clara, which soon established theater and music halls, a chamber of commerce, and a public library, which became an essential stop for travelers thanks to its location in the center of the country.
To this day, horse-drawn carriages have been operating effectively for 400 years without interruption and are considered a cheap and fast means of transportation that gives travelers contact with the city’s air, sun and spirit.
An important site in Cuban history
Saint Clara has a site that represents great importance in Cuban history, and it is the place where Che Guevara used a bulldozer to block a train that was carrying government soldiers to confront the revolutionaries.
If you visit the city, you will find the bulldozer that Guevara used and the train that was targeted in a way that led to the death of 350 soldiers and prompted the dictator leader Fulguscio Batista to flee, thus beginning the first pages of the Cuban revolution.
Guevara attacked the train with 18 of his comrades with Molotov cocktails in a two-hour battle that culminated in a crushing victory for the revolutionaries. Near the bulldozer and the train stand an obelisk inscribed with a description of the battle and a memorial made of random concrete fragments emerging from the ground depicting the explosions that occurred during the confrontation.
After the revolutionaries took control of St. Clara, Dictator Batista immediately fled Cuba, and with his escape began the era of revolution that leader Fidel Castro would lead for the next 50 years.
The red train car contains a museum containing maps, belongings of the warring parties, and pictures of the aftermath of the battle, including weapons, military clothing, and Molotov cocktails.
Che Guevara Museum
A few more blocks away, there is a statue of Che Guevara holding a child, symbolizing the next generation, along with many other monuments and murals, such as Guevara’s motorcycle. Revolution Square in Santa Clara is an open space overlooked by a huge bronze statue of Guevara located above his museum and shrine.
Che Guevara was executed by Bolivian forces at the behest of the American Intelligence Agency (CIA). His burial place remained a secret, but it was discovered in the 1990s. His comrade Castro ordered the remains to be returned to St. Clara, and they have been lying there ever since.
Saint Clara is a tourist attraction that derives its value from the monuments left there by Guevara. There is a huge statue in the middle of the square, which has become an icon of the city and a shrine for revolutionaries and those resisting dictatorship in various parts of the world.
Below the statue platform, there is a majestic shrine containing the remains of Guevara and 16 of his fellow revolutionaries who were killed in 1967 during the Bolivian Revolution, and next to them are the remains of their fellow leaders of the Cuban Revolution. If you enter the shrine, you will find their pictures engraved on the walls.
In a museum attached to the shrine, there are photographs, drawings, writings, and memorabilia, all of which convey scenes from Guevara’s life from childhood until his death, through many stages of his life filled with revolution and defense of the oppressed.
In this museum, you can navigate the life of that young man, the son of the wealthy family he left behind and chose to live in caves in defense of the oppressed peoples of Latin America.
The museum includes rifles, bombs, and communications devices that Guevara used in his wars against dictatorships, and it puts you in front of the image of the human being, the friend, the adventurer, and of course the leader who still represents a symbol of the revolution in the imagination of many generations.
