Cuba evokes today the legacy of student leader Julio Antonio Mella, considered one of the emblematic figures of the revolutionary process in the first half of the 20th century, on the 121st anniversary of his birth.
Born in Havana, Mella developed in his short life a political activity that turned him into a leader of international stature.
In 1923 he organized and directed the First National Congress of Students and inaugurated the José Martí Popular University, with the purpose of providing political and academic instruction to workers.
The University Student Federation, created on December 20, 1922, was another of his spaces of defense of the country, and from there he contributed to organize the student body to reform the university, but also joined forces with the workers' movement to fight against the tyranny of Gerardo Machado (1925-1933).
The radicalization of his thinking and his identification with communist ideas led him to be part of the group that on August 16, 1925 constituted the first Communist Party of Cuba, a militancy that he defended until his death.
For his actions and rebellion he was expelled from the University of Havana, arrested by the authorities (in prison he went on hunger strike) and forced into exile, from where he joined the international movement.
After being shot twice in Mexico City on January 10, 1929, he said as his last words: "Machado ordered me to die. I die for the Revolution", in reference to the dictator in power in the then Cuban neo-colony, Gerardo Machado.
The historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, considered him as "the Cuban who did the most in the shortest time".