La Bayamesa

The story

"La Bayamesa", officially the "Himno de Bayamo" (Bayamo Anthem), was first performed in 1868 during the Battle of Bayamo. On 20 October 1868 Cuban forces obtained the surrender of the Spanish colonial authorities in Bayamo, and the jubilant townspeople surrounded Perucho Figueredo, who had taken part in the battle, and asked him to write an anthem to the melody they were humming. He wrote the words there and then, in the saddle of his horse; the original was longer than the official version of today. He composed the melody together with Antonio Rodríguez Ferrer, who contributed its opening notes.

Two years later Figueredo was captured by the Spanish and executed by firing squad. Just before the order to fire, he shouted a line of his own song.

The song originally had three verses. When Cuba adopted it as its national anthem in 1902, on the foundation of the Republic, the last two were left out, because they were seen as excessively anti-Spanish and too long compared with the first. The anthem was kept after the revolution of 1959.

Two other well-known Cuban songs share the name. The first "La Bayamesa" was composed in 1851 by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and José Fornaris at the request of their friend Francisco Castillo Moreno, who is sometimes also credited with its words; after 1868, during the Cuban war, a "mambí" version with the same melody and different words became popular. In 1918 the composer and trovador Sindo Garay of Santiago de Cuba wrote "Mujer Bayamesa", which popular use shortened to "La Bayamesa".

What it says

A call to the people of Bayamo and of all Cuba to take up arms for the homeland and throw off Spanish rule, holding that to die for one's country is an honour and no cause for fear. The mood is urgent and martial.

The words