Nicosia, Cyprus. April 20, 2026. Cypriots and Cubans—doctors, musicians, workers, artists, retirees, union members, and members of the Cyprus-Cuba Friendship Association—together with staff from the Cuban diplomatic mission in this capital, commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory this Sunday, April 19.
Gathered at the historic Omonoia Sports Club “Vorios Polos” in the charming Kaimakli neighborhood of the Cypriot capital, the date made possible this long-awaited reunion between those who once traveled from this Mediterranean island to that other Caribbean island. Today, they preserve and cherish that shared friendship, born from their first trip to Cuba, and choose to do so with an admirable day of historical remembrance, music, song, and poetry.
Girón arrived hand in hand, with the verses and melodies of a distant island, yet one dear to the hearts of ordinary men and women, who, from ancient Greek to the rhythms of a rich Cuban son, reconstructed stories lived in that other latitude of the Antillean archipelago.
This gratitude was also reiterated by Rubén Pino Martínez, Cuba's ambassador to Nicosia, who echoed the spontaneous and collective desire to honor and remember the men and women who, on April 19, 1961, 65 years ago, made possible the survival of a human and socialist project like Cuba's. He also thanked all those present for making this necessary and heartfelt day of solidarity with Cuba possible, a day of deep connection, despite the approximately 10,434 kilometers that separate our two islands.
They sang of reunion, of shared culture and values, in remembrance of the fallen, and in solidarity with those present, those who today resist all kinds of hardships and storms in the face of policies of economic strangulation and threats of war imposed by the United States but who, “without losing their smiles, out of resilience and dignity”—as some of the participants said—continue to build their nation. A phrase spoken by Fidel Castro in 1961 resonated particularly strongly among the participants: “What the imperialists cannot forgive us for is that we are here. What the imperialists cannot forgive us for is the dignity, the integrity, the courage, the ideological firmness, the spirit of sacrifice, and the revolutionary spirit of the Cuban people.” This time, the phrase was recalled by Andreas Chrysanthou, a physician and specialist in gynecology and president of the Cyprus-Cuba Friendship Association.
A welcoming evening that included a Cuban-Cypriot musical performance by the duo "Havana Vitral," comprised of Salvador Rodríguez and Marjorie Montero. They were responsible for filling the evening's musical repertoire with guaracha, mambo, Cuban son, and many other musical delights, alongside other local musicians and exponents of Cypriot popular song.
Like them, at the historic Cypriot club "Varios Polos" in Omonoia, many others laughed, recited poetry, sang, danced, and made that unique day of April 19, 2026, their own. There, football gave way to poetry, allowing the memory of José Martí, Nicolás Guillén, Pablo Neruda, and the Heroic Guerrilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara to take shape, voices, and harmonies from this hidden corner of Cyprus where warmth, hospitality, culture, and friendship were entrenched in unison.
Embassy of Cuba in Cyprus