The Pinilla rum warehouse in the former Victoria de las Tunas, now the 26 de Julio Memorial Museum, was the place chosen by the revolutionaries of the seventh zone to create the M-26-7.

Shortly before the attack on the Moncada Barracks, the people of Las Tunas had begun to show their dissatisfaction with the coup regime installed in Cuba on March 10, 1952. The high orthodox leadership hardly contested that traitorous coup. But its most radical members did. Consequently, several of them met in January 1953 on the upper floors of La Cubana bar to break with the politicking that undermined the party founded by Chibás.

There they decided to take action through propaganda, the first stage of which consisted of distributing materials taken from publications such as Alma Máter and Aldabonazo, with a revolutionary orientation, and recruiting new members for the group. The revolutionaries from Las Tunas also aborted the school parade for the Martí centenary, for which, previously, they distributed flyers with this text: "Father, do not let your children go to the school parade, because there will be disturbances and their lives are in danger." 

They also threw anti-Batista leaflets with décimas of Jesús Rodríguez Vidal on the lunettes of the Rivera and Martí theaters, the Vicente García Park, and the police station in the city. Some copies were sent by mail to the residences of the main representatives and henchmen of the regime in the territory. That was what the group of revolutionaries of Victoria de Las Tunas was doing when the attack on the Moncada barracks took place. The news produced a wave of jubilation among its members, who decided to remain alert to take action when necessary.

Almost all the assailants passed through our city in the days before the attack on the military fortress, both in cars and buses. It is even said that Fidel stopped at the cafeteria El Néctar, at that time next to the area of the currently José Martí Plaza. What is confirmed is that several relatives of the attackers stayed at the Casino Hotel during those days, on their way to Santiago de Cuba.

When in 1955, after being condemned and imprisoned for that glorious event, Fidel was released from prison, Juan Pérez González, one of the revolutionaries from Las Tunas, traveled to Havana and met with him to put the group under his orders. Our leader replied that he would consider him when the time came. In the meantime, they continued to recruit new sympathizers, carried out sabotage, and distributed copies of La historia me absolverá, brought by Ángel Ameijeiras, from Chaparra.

The young people then made contact with Camagüey’s militants through Jesús Suárez Gayol and Cándido González, two youngsters from Las Tunas who at that time lived in that neighboring city. They also met with Pedro Miret, in the capital, to whom they expressed the group's fervent desire to join the July 26th Movement.

Later, Fidel went into exile in Mexico. But an envoy from the national leadership came here to assess the level of organization achieved by the anti-Batista members here. Together with a local commission, the visitor toured the towns of the regions that would later make up the Seventh Zone of the Movement. Thus, Jobabo, Manatí, Vázquez, San Manuel, Puerto Padre, Delicias, and Chaparra were visited. In the Aztec country, the leader was directed to move from political activity to revolutionary activity. Revolution, Revolution! Began to be heard.

At the end of 1955 Frank País, Léster Rodríguez, and other members of the leadership of the Movement in the East arrived in Victoria de las Tunas. They met with Las Tunas' revolutionaries in the Pinilla rum warehouse that existed at that time in Lucas Ortiz, on the corner of Juan G. Gomez.

After listening to the organizational report of the group, Frank directed the creation of cells by sectors, with no less than five members and no more than 10. That foundational meeting appears in the annals of local history as the one that incorporated the region into the 26th of July Movement.