President Raul Castro has led tens of thousands of Cubans in a pledge to defend the socialist legacy of his brother Fidel Castro, who died last week aged 90 and will be interred in the city where they launched the Cuban Revolution.
But Fidel Castro's image will not be immortalised with statues nor will public places be named after him, Raul Castro said on Saturday, in keeping with his older brother's wishes.
"This is the unconquered Fidel who calls us with his example," the president told a crowd that had burst into chants of "I am Fidel."
"Yes, we will overcome any obstacle, turmoil or threat in the building of socialism in Cuba," the 85-year-old Castro said in a speech before Santiago's packed central plaza.
His ashes will be entombed near the remains of Cuba's independence hero Jose Marti in a simple ceremony beginning on Sunday morning (local time), concluding nine days of national mourning.
Raul Castro was joined on the stage by leftist foreign dignitaries and the Cuban political leadership to bid farewell to the man known to most Cubans as "El Comandante" - the commander - or simply "Fidel."
"The loss of El Comandante does not mean we will go stagnant," said Ansel Hechavarria, 61, a mechanic hoisting a large Cuban flag just before the 90-minute ceremony began. "We are going to continue his legacy."
After two days of events in Havana, Castro's funeral cortege departed on a three-day, 1000 kilometre journey east, retracing the route that the triumphant rebels took upon overthrowing the US-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Raul Castro said "millions" had come out to pay tribute along the route.
Castro's critics have kept a low profile during the official mourning period but dissident writer Yoani Sanchez tweeted criticism of the tributes.
"The reality has gone from 'delirious' to 'hallucinatory,' like a nightmare that does not end and worsens if we turn on the TV," she said.
Although billboards with Castro quotes stand throughout the country and his portrait hangs from numerous government buildings, there are no statues or landmarks named after him.
"The leader of the revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality," Raul Castro said.
Castro began his revolution on July 26, 1953, with a failed assault on the Moncada barracks in the eastern city of Santiago.
He went on to build a Soviet-sponsored Communist state 145km from the United States and survived a half century of US attempts to topple or kill him.
Castro's socialist government survived the fall of the Berlin Wall, but at the cost of more than a decade of great economic hardship that was relieved by the largesse of his political disciple, the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Over the past two decades a clutch of leftist governments rose to power in Latin America inspired by his ideas and fierce opposition to the United States.
High-profile friends of Castro, including Bolivian President Evo Morales and former Brazilian Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, arrived for the sendoff.
