The words Hasta la Victoria Siempre translate as 'always faithful to victory' and the Cuban people have been. As a visitor there is a sense that the revolution is still ongoing, and in one sense it is. In the other communist countries we have visited the ( Vietnam and Cambodia) the revolution has been and gone, leaders dead or deposed. In Cuba, however, the Castro's, Fidel and Raoul, are very much still in charge.
Everywhere you go in Cuba the revolutionary heros stare down at you, usually, but not always, in their younger incarnations
you can find them on houses, as street art and on the front of garages.
Even on doors.
Che, Fidel and co are also to be seen imortalised in metal in the more formal setting of the Revolutionary Square in Havana
While Che and Castro are fathers of modern Cuba, the man looked on as the founding father of the nation is Jose Marti. Marti founded the Partido Revolucionario Cubano which united Cuban forces in favour of independence. He died in battle against the Spanish in 1895 and is buried in a mausoleum in the cemetery of Santiago de Cuba ,where an armed guard is maintained ceremonially changing every 30 minutes. Marti is the only individual or institution in Cuba so honoured.
and finally this is how the Cubans show the American base at Guantanamo on their maps