Cuba coat of arms within a laurel wreath. The Cuban coat of arms is the official heraldic symbol of Cuba. It consists of a shield, in front of a Fasces crowned by the Phrygian Cap, all supported by an oak branch on one side and a laurel wreath on the other. The coat of arms was created by Miguel Teurbe Tolón and was adopted on April 24, 1906.

The shield is divided into three parts:

In the chief, a key charging a blue sea between two rocks, symbolizing Cuba’s geographical position between Florida and the Yucatán Peninsula. A bright rising sun in the background symbolizes the rising of the new republic. A key is a symbol of Cuba as Cuba is the key to the Americas.

On the left are the stripes of the flag of Cuba but turned so as they are bendwise.

On the right is a common Cuban landscape, Royal Palm tree, a symbol of Cuba with mountains in the background.

Portrait of Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán and motto "Homeland or Death".

Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (1932–1959) was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana. Raised in an anarchist family that had left Spain before the Spanish Civil War, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro. In 1957 he became one of the top leaders of the revolutionary forces, appointed to the rank of "Comandante". In 1958, with the defeat of Operation Verano (Summer), Cienfuegos was put in command of one of three columns which headed west out of the mountains with the intention of capturing the provincial capital city of Santa Clara. Che Guevara was in command of another column and Jaime Vega was in command of the third.

Later, Cienfuegos would serve in the Cuban Army's high command, fight anti-Castro uprisings, and play a role in agrarian reforms. On October 28 1959, Cienfuegos's Cessna 310 ('FAR-53') disappeared over the ocean during a night flight from Camagüey to Havana. By November the search was called off and Cienfuegos was presumed lost. He quickly became a new hero for the Cuban revolution. Cuba has named a socialist order, the “Order of Cienfuegos”, after Camilo Cienfuegos.