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Fotograma del videoclip La Bayamesa, de Joseph Ros.

Next October 20, when the “Cuban Culture Day” will be celebrated, the pride of conjugating the roots of western Europe, the black continent, Asia and Arab lands, pounds to give birth to an original, diverse identity and with the power of projections towards the future.

This celebration was instituted because on that day, but in 1868, 151 years ago now, the words of the National Anthem were first sung, in the heat of the entrance of the independence fighters in the city of Bayamo.

Its official premiere took place on the following November 8, performed by Manuel Muñoz Cedeño`s orchestra, and a choir composed of six white youths and an equal number of blacks, in a ceremony to bless the flag raised in La Demajagua, when the War of the Ten Years broke out.

The “Cuban Marseillaise” had as its author the Cuban independence fighter Perucho Figueredo. Its orchestration was done by Muñoz Cedeño, and sung as the “Himno de Bayamo” (Anthem of Bayamo,) a name given to it at the beginning, after the taking of the referred city by the nascent Liberation Army.