Cuban Independence Day is celebrated on different days for different reasons. Like many Caribbean countries, Cuba has had a long struggle to be free and independent.
Cuban Independence Day From Spain, Día de la Independencia, is October 10, 1868
Cuban Independence Day October 10 celebrates the start of the wars of independence from Spain on October 10, 1868.
It was the day when sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes rang the bell at his La Demajagua sugar mill, freed his enslaved workers, and invited them to fight for independence. They became the first Cuban army to fight the Spanish. Manuel de Céspedes is a founding father of Cuba. Interestingly, “yara” means “place” in the Indigenous Taíno language. So Yara is the place where the long struggle for freedom began.
The country celebrates with a series of events that climax on Cuba’s National Day of Culture (Jornada de la Cultura Cubana) on October 20.
Spain was finally pushed out by the Spanish-American War of 1898, but then the Americans came.
Cuban Independence Day From the United States is May 20, 1902
Cuban Independence Day on May 20 celebrates the end of the U.S. occupation of Cuba on May 20, 1902. This day celebrates the founding of the Republic of Cuba and the first Cuban flag raising over Morro Castle (Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro) at the entrance to Havana Bay.
It is pretty much ignored in Cuba because the Americans forced the Cubans to write American means of control into the Cuban Constitution. It wasn’t true freedom and self-determination. That’s why the Americans still control Guantanamo. It’s wrong. We should give it back. It’s kind of shameful actually.
Cuban Day of National Rebellion is July 26, 1953
The Cuban government celebrates the start of the Cuban Revolution on July 26, 1953.
Cuban National Day is January 1, 1959
The Cuban government celebrates the end of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959.