• Submitted by: admin
• Santiago de Cuba
• 01 / 30 / 2007

By: Odalys Riquenes Cutido

The Rafael Maria de Mendive High School, where Fidel Castro and his brothers Raul and Ramon studied, was re-inaugurated after being renovated as a gesture of respect for Cubas national hero Jose Marti on the 154 anniversary of the independence leaders birth.

Workers from the Heroes of Moncada Construction Group, together with local construction companies, the Office of the City Conservationist and support from the people of Santiago de Cuba, labored for four years to affect structural repairs and general rehabilitation of the 90-year-old facility.

The school is attached to the countrys values because the Castro brothers and other outstanding youth studied there - such as Renato Guitart, a martyr of the 1956 attack on the Moncada Barracks.

During the ceremony, presided over by the highest leaders of the Party and the government in the province, it was noted that the educational facility, with an enrolment of 1,447 students, underwent the renovation work as a real monument all the conditions to promote the transformation of the educational Revolution.

The director of the renovated center, Raul Manuel Arteaga, explained that the building has 22 classrooms; well-equipped biology, physics, and chemistry labs; television sets and VCRs, four computers labs, one library, a theatre and game areas.

These options complement the teacher staff of which there are a high number hold Masters Degrees or are enrolled in a Masters program.

Original construction of the building began in 1907 and was inaugurated as the Jesuits Dolores School in August 1913. In 1961, with the nationalization of education in Cuba, it functioned as a secondary school until the 1977-1978 school year, when it became high school. Since that time on, over 15,000 students have graduated from the school.