The Holguin City Hymn

The letter of The Holguin Hymn was composed by the Lieutenant Colonel of the Liberator Army Pedro Martínez Freyre, May 17 of 1870 in Holguin City. The music is attributed to the composer and musician from Holguin: José María Ochoa.

Holguin Hymn, considered warrior hymn, it was good to ennoble the purest feelings in the mambises in Cuba that they intoned it in several occasions.

When it was still fresh the fact of Demajagua, surrounded of the town of Holguin that for the expectation of armed expeditions were living true moments of patriotic euphoria, his author, for the sake of freedom, improvised the verses of Holguin Hymn that it clamored for the emancipation of the island of Cuba of the Spanish yoke, calling to the town of Holguin to incorporate to the Liberator Army.

The conserved score of Holguin Hymn was made by the musician of Holguin City Porfirio Sánchez, according to the soldier mambí’s testimony Sigifredo Urbino Guillén, musician of The Manuel Avilés' orchestra.

Holguin City Hymn

in spanish original

A la lid, holguineros valientes
No temáis del tirano la saña
Ni dobléis como siervos la frente
Ante el déspota inicuo de España

Somos libres. Lo anuncia el sonido
Que se esparce del viento en las alas
Del cañón el tremendo estampido
Y el continuo silbar de las balas.

Libertad, libertad. A tu nombre
Late el alma de gozo en el pecho
Libertad, libertad. Por ti el hombre
Deja alegre su bien y su techo.

Que es mil veces más dulce una fosa
Que la vida en silencio profundo,
Y en la paz del esclavo oprobiosa
Justa befa y escamio del mundo.