The Sierra Maestra has a long history of guerrilla warfare, starting with the resistance of the Ta�nos under Guam�, the Cimarr�n Neo-Ta�no nations escaped slave cultures, the Ten Years' War and the Cuban War of Independence, and various minor conflicts such as the Race War of 1912, and Antonio Guiteras's uprisings against Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista. After Fidel Castro returned to Cuba from exile in Mexico, he and the few other survivors from the failed attack on Moncada Barracks hid out in Sierra Maestra. They were able to expand the 26th of July Movement, starting a revolution throughout the region. They built up guerrilla columns, and in collaboration with other groups in the central provinces, Escopeteros on the foot hills and plains, and the urban resistance, eventually overthrew Fulgencio Batista
