By: Arelys García Acosta, Radio Habana Cuba correspondent in Sancti Spíritus

Vigor and greatness came naturally to them both. They were warriors who never slept while seeking paths for their homeland. The reverence for Martí before the epic of the Mambi hero was born so vibrantly, as was the praise for the Argentine guerrilla. They were born on June 14. "Chance could not have devised something better," said Fidel when speaking of Antonio Maceo y Grajales and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna. One was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1845, and the other in Rosario, Argentina, in 1928.

Two great men, two extraordinary patriots. Maceo was a paradigm of insurrectionary struggles and a legendary figure. With his more than 20 scars and 800 military actions, not to mention the virile Protest of Baraguá, he raised camps and refused to dismount to negotiate peace.

Che was a fervent defender of freedom and justice and a distinguished son of Latin America. One fine day, he went to sea on an expedition aboard the Granma yacht. Then, in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra and the Escambray, as well as in the Congo and Bolivia, he grew in stature as a commander and heroic guerrilla.

"Pay attention to what he says because Maceo has as much strength in his mind as in his arm!" His thoughts are firm and harmonious, like the lines of his skull. He leaves no sentence unfinished, nor does he use an impure voice," wrote Martí on October 6, 1893, in an article in the newspaper Patria.

Che was "a man of complete integrity, supreme honesty, and absolute sincerity; a man of stoic and Spartan life; a man whose conduct was practically unblemished. Because of his virtues, he was a true model of a revolutionary," said Fidel in his memorable October 18, 1967 speech at the Plaza de la Revolución.

Sometimes on foot and sometimes on horseback, Antonio Maceo and Ernesto Guevara traveled through common mountains and trails, sometimes hungry and with leaky campaign suits, to reach the Homeland.