Amid the lilies, ferns, orchids and Bougainvillea of these Santiago de Cuba mountains, her voice was again heard, singing lullabies to her children, reciting "Sin Tí" and in the performance in her memory of "Damisela Encantadora" and "El Mambí" by local arts instructors.

In a tribute to her legacy as a guerrilla, loyal revolutionary, women’s leader, good mother, exemplary wife and honorable Cuban, a wreath was placed at the monument in the name of the Cuban people, and female students at the Camilo Cienfuegos Military School in Santiago de Cuba provided the honor guard.

As the mountain fog lifted and the first rays of sunlight broke through, her compañeras and compañeros in the struggle and life’s work, young people and children arrived at the site, with flowers in their hands.

Her friend and comrade-in-arms, Asela de los Santos, led the placement of the roses, she so loved, by the niche containing her ashes, followed by members of the Central Committee, Yolanda Ferrer Gómez, general secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), General Onelio Aguilera Bermúdez, head of the Eastern Army and Lázaro Expósito Canto, first secretary of the Communist Party in the province.

Recalling Vilma’s legacy of determination, humanism and responsibility, Surina Acosta Brook, a member of the Council of State and leader of the provincial FMC, affirmed that Cubans have the privilege of moving ahead in making her dreams come true and drawing on her teachings, as changes in the country are made.

These ideas were emphasized in the colloquium about her political thinking, held later at the historic headquarters of the guerrilla command, of which she was a part, along with the founder of the Second Front, Comandante Raúl Castro Ruz.