El Memorial 'Los Malagones'

Valle de Viñales


Los Malagones, from the community of El Moncada, was the first rural militia in Cuba. It comprised 12 men who rooted out a counterrevolutionary band from the nearby mountains in 1959. A mausoleum and memorial fountain inaugurated in 1999 contains niches dedicated to the 12 militiamen (all but one are now dead).

It is crowned by a stone re-creation of their leader, Leandro Rodríguez Malagón, copied from a famous photo by Raúl Corrales. The water features are designed to replicate (with unerring accuracy) the sound of machine-gun fire. A tiny museum is on-site.