Every April 17, members of Brigade 2506 remember and pay tribute. This year is the 60th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the main scene of evocation was the monument at Tamiami Airport, in western Miami-Dade County.

In front of an Air Force B26, located in the center of the airport, the stage was raised, under some immense and improvised tents; from where the speakers of the commemorative event to the epic that began on April 17, 1961 on the beaches of the south of the island, in the province of Matanzas, intervened.

Long before 10 in the morning, when the event began, the seats were already occupied and the youngest relatives of the surviving brigade members and also those who had already died were gathered on both sides of the tents.

The wreath in front of the historic war plane was placed by Captain Amado Cantillo, one of the expedition’s frogmen who was in the first group to set foot on the sands of the Bay of Pigs and one of the last to leave the area after raiding to rescue the wounded and scattered brigade members.

Humberto Cortina was the master of ceremony, and the invocation was made by Reverend Guillermo Revuelta. The opening words of the event were in charge of the current president of the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association, Colonel Johnny de la Cruz, who remembered those who fell in the Cuban sands, in the Rastra de la Muerte, and those who died in these “six decades of resistance and struggle ”.

Several of the legislators present used the floor, such as Federal Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, Senator Marco Rubio; also Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez.

The guest speaker at the 60-year celebration was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who recalled in his speech the sacrifice of those young Cubans in 1961 and the subsequent contribution of the brigade members to the American nation.

Tamiani airport is located on 137th Avenue and 128th Street named after Captain Eduardo Ferrer, one of the pilots of the Liberation Air Force, a component of Brigade 2506.

Roll Call members of Brigade 2506
Every year, next to the Brigade Monument on Calle 8 and 13 Avenida, the historic Roll Call is held, always at 5 pm. A loud exclamation of Present is accompanied by the mention of the names and surnames of the members of that group of young Cubans, killed in combat, killed, absent or present at the event. On this occasion, around the monument in Little Havana, dozens of people gathered and federal congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, and Miami commissioners Joe Carollo and Manolo Reyes intervened.

And at 6:00 pm, on the premises of the 2506 Brigade House / Museum, located at 1821 SW 9 Calle, the customary Holy Mass was celebrated.