Granma

Fidel is there with his brother, Raúl Castro, and you have...

They're, they're building up a base, and their, their plan is basically to send a, some troops on a boat, the famous Granma, uh, which by the way, was just named Granma after [laughs] the previous owner honoring his own grandmother.

So that's where that name comes from.

The...

But it, the, the Granma boat b- uh, becomes this, you know, famous ship.

It has a capacity for something like, uh, 60 people on it.

It was way overloaded.

You know, each of the cells, when you're doing underground work, it's like they're autonomous, and they're not in communication with each other.

Uh, Cruz said he still believes in their cause, but they needed more resources to carry out a successful armed struggle.

He compared their failed incursion to Fidel Castro's 1956 landing in Cuba aboard the Granma.

He said, "I'm convinced that everyone in Cuba wants change.

We still have many of the same problems we faced in the 1950s, and those problems will inevitably give rise to revolutionary movements fighting for a just cause." Rodriguez said he did not regret joining the operation, although he lamented watching his companions die, the suffering his detention had caused his family, and quote, "Having failed all those Cubans who want a free Cuba," unquote.

The child, a daughter named Hilda Beatriz, was born in February 1956.

Ten months later, in late November 1956, Guevara, the Castros, and approximately 80 supporters set sail for Cuba on board the Granma, an old converted cabin cruiser ship.

It was an inauspicious beginning.

They were attacked a few days after landing on the eastern end of the island, and three-quarters of the men were either killed or captured.