For 66 years now, one of the last nights of January is lit up with torches to recall Martí.

In Havana last night, a sea of youth advanced down University Hill to the Fragua Martiana, near the city’s waterfront, to celebrate a date all Cubans know: the birth José Martí.

On January 28, 1853, the most universal of all Cubans was born "in a modest house on Paula Street, where the wall overlooked the port," as writer Jorge Mañach describes it.

One hundred and sixty years later, the people once again light the streets, as part of a tradition that began with a group of young patriots, when, 100 years later, this date was celebrated in 1953.

On the anniversary of José Martí’s birth in 1960, Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara said that there are many ways to honor Martí. "Marti can and must be honored in the way he would like, when he said at the top of his lungs: The best way to say, is to do," as Raúl Alejandro Palmero, president of the Federation of University Students remembered when he called on those present to join recovery efforts in Havana in the wake of a devastating tornado, and to defend the Revolution approving the country’s new Constitution on February 24.

In addition to torch lit marches across the country, floral wreaths in the name of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and Cuban President Díaz-Canel were placed alongside the Apostle’s mausoleum in Santiago de Cuba’s Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, plus others from the Councils of State and Minister and the Cuban people.