Having participated in the attack on the Moncada Barracks, Haydée Santamaría is among a relatively small group of people who were involved in every phase of the Cuban Revolution, from its inception to its fruition.

The eldest of five children, she and her siblings Aida, Abel, Aldo, and Ada were raised in a petit bourgeois family that had emigrated from Galicia, Spain to Cuba in the area formerly known as Las Villas Province.

After her release she helped to found the 26th of July Movement, joining the guerrilla forces led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the Sierra Maestra mountains.

[1] The speech History Will Absolve Me was converted into a written manifesto by Fidel Castro using lemon juice to write between the lines of letters during his imprisonment after the assault on the Moncada Barracks.

In an earlier letter written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara to Haydée Santamaría, he alludes to her cultural achievements and then chooses to recall a specific incident in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra: "I see that you have become a literati with the power of creation, but I will confess that how I most like you is on that day in the New Year, with all your fuses blown and firing cannons on all sides.

"[4] Her commitment to the cultural development of Cuba allowed her to meet many new and interesting people, but she was to be plagued by the tragic losses of her loved ones to the end of her life.

Haydée Santamaría killed herself at the age of fifty-seven in the home she and her children shared on July 28, 1980, two days after the 27th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks.

[3] The events of the Cuban Revolution left an indelible mark on her, causing her to lose many people to whom she had been close and ultimately contributing to the lifelong depression from which she suffered.

In a letter published by Casa de las Americas in 1968, she wrote to Che Guevara after his death: "Fourteen years ago I saw the most intensely beloved human beings die—I think that I have already lived too much.