Cuba E-Book

Ciro Bianchi Ross

• Herausgeber: RUTH
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 432

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Fun and refreshing text. Written in colloquial language that facilitates reading and seduces us from the front pages. Ciro Bianchi, chronicles that speak for themselves giving transcendental moments of our history. The text is structured in two parts, the first describes some chapters in the life of great characters of the island: Plácido, Francisco de Miranda, Manuel García, to finish clearing the darkness that surrounds the last hours of life of José Martí. The second section allows us to go, broadly speaking, history ranging from the Republic until the beginning of the year 1959. Loaded with anecdotes and references this is a must read book for those wishing to learn about the history, a clear example of this is that in its pages we discover where slept Fidel Castro during his first night in Havana after the revolutionary triumph. No doubt agree with Nara Araujo when referring to the work of Bianchi said: "(...) their stories teach, and also delight"

Leseprobe

Créditos

Original Title: Cuba. A different Story

Original Title in Spanish: Contar a Cuba. Una historia diferente

Cover Design: Eugenio Sagués

Computerization:JCV

Translation:J. F. Vera

© Ciro Bianchi Ross

©On the current edition: Editorial Capitán San Luis, 2013

ISBN: 978-959-211-427-2

Editorial Capitán San Luis, Ave. 38 No. 4717, entre 40 y 47, Kohly, Playa, La Habana, Cuba.

[email protected]

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To Mayra

I

I

A FRIEND IN NEED…

A FRIEND IN NEED…

Did you know that Cuba played a decisive role in the independence of the Thirteen American Colonies? George Washington could fight and defeat the English in Yorktown, on the coast of Virginia, thanks to the funds he received from Cuba and the assistance provided by troops from Havana and Haiti. As the saying goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed. But, this is a forgotten story. No plaque marks an event that is not even mentioned in the large Outline of the History of the United States produced by the State Department in Washington and generously given away by US diplomatic missions around the world. The support of Cubans helped to simultaneously displace England from many of its key enclaves in the Caribbean and cleared the affront of 1762 when English troops took over Havana. It was the first time that Cubans left their land to fight for the independence of another nation, albeit the protagonist of that heroic deed was Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan who heralded the independence of Latin America.

Rum: the fuel of the war

Rum: the fuel of the war

One of the forerunners of the American independence and second President of the United States of America, John Adams, used to say that there was no reason to be embarrassed by the admission that molasses played a major role in the independence of the United States.

The wise Cuban historian Eduardo Torres-Cuevas has written:“The development of a complex system of trade relations between Havana and the Thirteen Colonies created a bilateral connectionthat transcended the interests of their respective metropolises.In the decade of 1760-1770, Cuban molasses found its way to thirty distilleries in Rhode Island with an annual production of 1400 barrels of the already famous, ‘Antillean Rum,’ just for export to Africa. At the same time, the smugglers who moved between the three regions brought to Cuba major shipments of slaves that they often paid for with the rum produced in North America using molasses from the Cuban sugar mills.

“But, in 1764, just when such trade was growing faster, England enforced the Sugar Duties Act. One of the consequences of this action was the interruption of the molasses trade with the Hispanic and French Antilles. Soon the conflict broke out between London and the American rum manufacturers.”

In 1776, Americans proclaimed their separation from Great Britain and set out to establish relations with the Spanish authorities in Cuba. Following the old dictum that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’, Spanish King Carlos III welcomed this move and took steps to secretly help them. Weapons and ammunition left Spain for Havana, from where they were transferred to New Orleans and subsequently to the rebels.

It was really an exchange because the Peninsula received tobacco and other commodities from the colonies involved in the conflict, while Spain braced up for the war against Great Britain. In the spring of 1779, Carlos III decided to start the fight and gave London an ultimatum demanding the return of Gibraltar and Minorca, the withdrawal from Honduras and the evacuation of Bahamas, Jamaica and other British possessions, as well as the reversal of the privilege to extract dyewoods from Campeche. Subsequently, the Spanish monarch signed with France –which was already at war with England and also contributed to the cause of the Thirteen Colonies— a secret pact with the pledge of joining the conflict if his demands were not met. London did not accept Madrid’s diktats and hostilities broke out on June 23, 1779. It took almost a month for the news to reach Cuba where the event was proclaimed on the streets of Havana. Spain was at war with England.

Havana then became a source of supplies for the American independence fighters. War provisionsarriving in the Island from Mexico and the Corunna were re-embarked in Havana and sent to the rebels. Meanwhile, commerce grew between Philadelphia and the capital of Cuba. Two businessmen were behind both operations: on the continent, a slave smuggler by the name of Robert Morris,‘the financial mind of the United States’ Independence War,’as he was called; on the Island, Juan Miralles, a Havana resident who represented Spain in its dealings with the rebels. Years later Miralles passed away at the residence of George Washington, who said on the occasion that“he was universally loved in this country and thus his death will be lamented.”The assistance arranged by Morris and Miralles included the repair and supply of the squadron under the rebel Commodore Alexander Gulon at the Havana shipyard and arsenal.

On August 27, two months after the declaration of war, Spanish General Bernardo Gálvez advances on Florida leading an army of Cubancriollos1from one victory to another and, between September 7 and 21, he forces the enemy to surrender at Manchac, Panmure and Baton Rouge. He is then reinforcedwith members of the Regular Regiment and the Battalion of Blacks and Mulattos from Havana, and with these additional forces the following year he assaults and occupies Mobile, on February 12.One year later, Gálvez lays siege to Pensacola, again with the support of Cuban troops. This time the troops are led by a Cuban: General Juan Manuel Cajigal, who would be the first to enter that city. Both officers provide cover to the Mississippi river ensuring supplies to the rebels and spoiling the English plans to surround the independence fighters from their positions in the west. “The victories thus attained had other strategic features: they fueled the confrontation of the American native tribes with the English; the Bahamas Canal route was dismantled; the enemy lost its positions on the American Caribbean and Mexican coast and the operational capability of its forces was diminished as it had to use a significant number of troops in the confrontations,” writes Dr. Torres-Cuevas.

For his war merits, in 1781 Cajigal is appointed Captain General of Cuba thus becoming the firstcriolloto hold such senior position. He organizes an expedition against the Bahamas and rather easily seizes those islands, while the triumphant Gálvez is sent to occupy Jamaica, a mission intended to deal the British Empire acoup d’grâcein the Caribbean. But his mission fails. France and Spain make plans to concentrate in Cap-Haitien fifty-five battleships and 20,000 men. The British squadron under Admiral Rodney receives final instructions to prevent at all costs such concentration that could prove deadly to the fate of Jamaica and the British squadron. Eventually, he manages to catch up with the French and drag them into the naval battle ofLos Santos, on April 12, 1782. This ends up in disaster for the French and Spanish troops, asthe attack on Jamaica is cut short and the British reassert their domain on the Caribbean Sea. A few months later, in August, Rodney shows up in front of Havana but realizing that its numerous defenses make the city unassailable, he abandons the area quietly leaving the city untouched.

Francisco de Miranda

Francisco de Miranda

Alongside Cajigal we find Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Spanish Army and Aide de Camp of the Captain General.

Miranda (1750-1816) is the first Latin American of world historic dimensions. He is a learned man and a restless traveler who speaks several languages. He has a double virtue: he knows everything worth knowing and is not considered a foreigner in any country. He leaves Caracas at the age of 23 and his curiosity takes him to Moscow, Prague, Saxony, Stockholm and elsewhere. He fights the Moors in Morocco and the pirates in Algeria. A General in the armies of the French Revolution and a precursor of Latin American independence, Miranda ends up rotting in a Spanish jail. He makes an impressive physical presence but love to him is meant only to let off steam and never to get in the way of his most ambitious plans. His lovers, including the Czarina of Russia, Catherine the Great, can be counted by the dozen; and from every one of them he keeps a tuft of pubic hair, properly identified. In the first decades of the 20thcentury, the bizarre collection finds its way to the Venezuelan Academy of History where the Archbishop of Caracas would have it incinerated.

Cajigal and Miranda get along very well but such empathy barely conceals the predominance of the young criollo over the experienced veteran. Cajigal is the first to defend him, even when his former aide de camp becomes a conspirator. Miranda outstands as an officer in the siege of Pensacola but also as a skillful negotiator and diplomat in the discussion of the agreements leading to the incorporation of the Bahamian Islands to the Spanish crown. Furthermore, he becomes a champion fundraiser for George Washington who needs the money to continue fighting the English.

That money could only be raised in Cuba. Informed of the situation, Cajigal sends Miranda to meet with Washington to be apprised of the details and make the arrangements that would make possible such assistance. Torres-Cuevas has written about it: “On his return, the Venezuelan would start pooling the necessary resources. A large amount of funds come from public contributions in the Island, including Havana where women from important families relinquish part of their jewelry to support American independence. The money collected, amounting to one million eight-hundred thousand pesos of eight reales2, is handed over in Havana to the young French officer Claudio Enrique de Saint-Simon who would later become a celebrated author and a utopian socialist…

“Once the (French) troops receive their service pay and the expenses are covered Washington, reinforced with troops from Havana and Haiti, marches against the forces of British General Cornwallis in the Virginian area of Yorktown. After several days of combat the British surrender.” This is not the end of the war but the decisive victory certainly paves the way to independence.

There is rivalry between Gálvez and Cajigal. Additionally, the success of both generals arouses jealousy in the Court. Cajigal would soon find himself entangled in some messy imbroglio. It was said that on his return from Jamaica, Miranda, who had traveled there as a spy but pretending to be a Cuban merchant, had smuggled contraband by Surgidero de Batabanó, something very common at the time but that in this particular case could not be proven. Is it a conspiracy to move them out of the way? Miranda and his patron are detained. Cajigal, who defends his subordinate, is sent to Spain as a prisoner; Miranda manages to escape. The long trial that follows ends in acquittal in 1799 when Francisco de Miranda is already a personality of international renown and an irreconcilable enemy of Spain.

January 24, 2010

PLÁCIDO, TWO CENTURIES LATER

PLáCIDO, TWO CENTURIES LATER

If The Cucalambé is the only Cuban poet to have become an indivisible part of the true essence of the people, since the line separating what he wrote from what he is said to have written is blurred, Plácido, alongside Heredia, is the first to be liked by both the highly educated and the not so learned. As Lezama Lima put it, he combined spontaneity with a refinement whose essence is as pervasive as it is unknown. According to Lezama, “He was the joy of the house and the party, the guitar and the melancholy of the night. He held the key to the fête and the imaginary.”

The editions of his poems exceeded Heredia’s; he was the most publicized Cuban poet in the 19th century. He produced occasional poems made to order but his extemporizations make up the substance of his work. At parties and soirées that he was asked to attend, it was a common occurrence to give him a phrase from which he would easily improvise a poem. Citio Vitier has defined him as a minstrel but he was also a chronicler. Many of his verses, even those he composed ad-lib, are natural and clear. The spontaneity of hisletrillas3is beautiful and delicate, and his erotic sonnets, particularly the one entitledA una ingrata,reveal a strange quality. He composed odes of pure resonance and his ballads oozed his Cuban identity…

Spanish critic Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, who missed or could not appreciate the genuinely local and youthful pieces of this author, still praised him when he said that “The writer of the masterly and exquisite romance Jicotencal, which Góngora would not mind to call his own; the beautiful descriptive sonnetLa muerte de Gessler; the gracious letrilla La flor de la caña;and the inspired prayer he recited on his way to death, does not need to be a mulatto or to have been executed to be remembered by posterity…” It’s true, but as Cintio Vitier would say, we also remember him as the mulatto who was executed by firing squad due to the stupidity of Spanish colonialism and the ever-present racism.

Plácido became a very well known and popular figure of society in the province of Matanzas. People of all social classes demanded his presence in parties and celebrations. But, this same popularity would bring about his misfortune since the Spanish authorities felt that he had the capacity to lead one of the real or alleged conspiracies of blacks and mulattos shaking the Island in the 1840s. He was thus accused of being a member of one of them –the so-called La EscaleraConspiracy— and sent to prison, and although the accusations could not be proven, he was sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad in the city of Matanzas in 1844.

A biography

A biography

Plácido was born on March 18, 1809 in Havana, at a house on the Bernaza Street, in front across of what is todayLa ModernaPoesíabookstore. He was the son of Concepción Vázquez, a Spanish dancer born in Burgos, and Diego Ferrer Matoso, a mulatto hairdresser. They had met at the Principal Theater where both worked. The mother chose to have her baby in secret and soon abandoned him at the Orphans House located on Muralla and Oficios streets. Still, she gave him a name. In a note accompanying the infant, it could be read that his name was Diego Gabriel de la Concepción, to which the last name Valdés was added. This was common to all the children brought up in orphanages in Cuba. His godfather was a drugstore owner, Plácido Fuentes, whose name the poet would use as his famous pseudonym, although some say that he took it from the novelPlácido and Blancawritten by the Countess of Genlis.

Little is known of the dancer’s romance with the hairdresser. She made money with her trade and kept in touch with her son –who was taught to address her as “Madame”— but she always suppressed any expression of maternal love and saw him walk to his death without as much as a gesture of desperation that could erase her lifelong indifference. In his sonnet with the titleFatalidadPlácido wrote:“Between the mother bed and the cradle/ an iron wall of honor you raised…”

In his book namedPlácido, el poeta infortunado4, Leopoldo Horrego Estuch wrote that aside from the social challenge it meant for a white woman to have a baby born out of wedlock and fathered by a mulatto, Concepción, who wrote poems and even published them, wanted to devote all of her time to art. The hairdresser, on the other hand, felt remorse over the fate of the little boy and eventually took him out of the orphanage and had his mother and sisters care for him.

The resources of the Ferrer Matoso family were limited and Diego, who could win a carriage today on a bet and lose it the following day to another, was reckless and short-sighted. He loved his son but usually neglected his duties to the little boy. And so it was that the family’s financial difficulties and the father’s indifference affected the future poet who could not attend school until the age of ten. But then the hairdresser left Cuba and set residence in Mexico. Plácido studied in various schools, including the Colegio de Belén, which only admitted black and mulatto boys in its section for the poor. His teachers found him to be an amazing boy for he was lively and smart and popular among his peers, even though his discipline left much to be desired. He would eventually become a skilful and daring swimmer.

Diego attended school for only two years. At the age of twelve, when he already improviseddécimas5andcuartetaswith particular ease, he started working at a carpenter’s workshop. From there he went on to work as an apprentice with the celebrated portraits painter Vicente Escobar and later with José Severino Boloña in a printing shop where he found a favorable ambiance for his poetry as he trained in the craft of typographer. Later on, his low income at the printing shop led Plácido to become an ornamental-comb manufacturer. This was a rather lucrative job at the time since in Cuba, the same as in Andalusia, women considered the ornamental-comb an indispensable accessory. In just a few months, at Misa’s silversmith workshop on Dragones street, he became an expert artist of the tortoiseshell, which his hands transformed into elegant canes, ornamental-combs with graceful arabesques, and delicate bracelets.

The Poet

The Poet

The ornamental-comb maker evolves into Plácido, the poet. On the table of the silversmith shop, by his working tools, he keeps a book and a sheet of paper where he writes down his improvisations. From his days at the Boloña printing-shop, he is admired not only by those who listen to his impromptu poemsbut also by friends and colleagues who ask him to write sonnets and quartets which are then widely copied and circulated.

In 1836, he goes to Matanzas to work as an editor for the newspaper La Aurora. There he is in charge of the poetry section, a very important one in those years. He should publish one poem in every newspaper edition for a monthly salary of 25 pesos but Plácido supplements his income with special verses he writes and sells for weddings, birthdays and baptisms. It is said that he earned several gold ounces for some of his laudatory poems, which he offered printed in silk and framed with filigree and vignette, both very common at the time. And it was not unusual for lovers to ask and pay for a poem that they would later offer as their own.

Many criticized Plácido for trading his compositions, and for years some said that José Jacinto Milanés had drawn inspiration from this to writeEl poeta envilecido,a poem whose main character delights with his improvisations the guests of a party who pay him with the leftovers of the banquette that he must share with the house dog. But this is not true. Milanés always spoke of Plácido with respect and admiration, and the abovementioned poem, whether abstract or allegoric, was written without a particular person in mind. That much was stated in writing, in 1880, by José Jacinto’s brother Federico Milanés; and nearly ninety years later Cintio Vitier was glad to rectify such mistake:“ Plácido wasill-treated by all his critics, from Del Monte to Sanguily, however,it is worth saving Milanés from such an accusation of unfairness,”since he was very much praised by the poet.

In 1836, Plácido published his first bookPoesía6,and four years later he publishedEl Veguero7, containingletrillasand epigrams. In 1834, he contributed the poemLa siemprevivato theAureola Poéticadedicated to Spanish poet Francisco Martinez de la Rosa, who was also a minister of the Crown. Then this and another poet, Juan Nicasio Gallego, invited the Cuban bard to travel to Spain but Plácido declined. He felt he needed to stay in his own scenery.

About Plácido’s poetry, Lezama Lima wrote:“Plácido adds to our poetry a minstrel’s flair. Our poetry is leaving behind the drag of neoclassicism to enter the excesses of romanticism, and in comes Plácido’s smiling grace and joviality. No one can deny that his poetic verb describes many of the conditions found in our nature: transparency, water games, fine and subtle links.It’s difficult to find a poem, even among those written for the occasion, without a funny turn, an irate metaphor and like the mysterious presence of the four elements of our roots…He is a part of our own nature; he is delicate, sensual and moderate. He has a quality of the fine valleys of the Western provinces…”

Executed by firing-squad

Executed by firing-squad

Plácido’s girlfriend named Fela dies in 1833, during the cholera epidemic in Havana. Later, the poet moves to Matanzas wherehe marries María Gila Morales. He seldom visits the capital and when he does he stays with his mother. Then, in search for a better job he goes to Santa Clara with his wife. In 1843 he is in Trinidad, when on April 1stan anonymous note is addressedto the Political Governor of Las Villas –a document full of misspelled words that Horrego Estuch reproduces in his previously mentioned book— accusing him of involvement in a rebellion of blacks and mulattos that according to the note would soon break out in various parts of the territory. The anonymous author of the note offers the names of the alleged conspirators and warns that Plácido has come to Santa Clara to make contact with and organize the local rebels. Apparently, the snitch is well informed because he mentions the leader of the plot who he says is hiding in his home 350 pounds of bullets, gunpowder, fuses and rifles. He not only reveals names and other details but also suggests to the Governor how to suppress those involved asking him to act firmly against blacks and mulattos in the area, even if they are not involved in the conspiracy, and to enforce the rule preventing them from meeting and roaming the streets at certain hours.

It is because of this anonymous note that Plácido spends six months in jail in Trinidad. A document signed in that city on November 15, 1843 certifies that the poet was found innocent and acquitted in the trial before the Military Commission Court. However, the report warns that “it is advisable that the territorial authorities of the area where he sets his residence remain alert about his behavior and demand him to start working within fifteen days…” The officials in Trinidad don’t think highly of him: “…his behavior during the time he has remained free here…is quite bad: he is not known to have held any job; the man is a suspect and…his presence in the Island isconsidered harmful.”

This report seals his fate. A few months later, he is accused of participation in a conspiracy known as La Escalera. This time he is doomed. On June 28, 1844, at dawn, he is executed alongside ten other men.

Shortly before his execution the poet writes down his testament. He is so poor that he can only leave “his regards” to those who love him and to the poets he admires. During his last hours, he also writes a few poems, including Adiós a mi lira, Plegaria a Dios, and one dedicated to his mother. The poet himself hands these manuscripts over to his wife.

Nearly twenty thousand people watch the horrible execution. The slaves from the nearest farms are forced to watch as a lesson but many others are moved by the gruesome curiosity of seeing the poet executed. Plácido, who during the interrogations did not tire of claiming his innocence, recites his poem Plegaria… in a clear voice as he walks to his death, but a drum roll drowns his powerful voice as a platoon of forty four soldiers with their chiefs is aligned facing those sentenced to death. Four soldiers are assigned to each prisoner; two aiming at the head and two at the chest, and a priest for every man to be executed. The priests and the condemned say their prayers and Plácido still finds enough courage in him to challenge his prosecutors and executioners in the eyes of God and call their names. The order to open fire is given; “Good-bye, my beloved homeland…” he says. But, the first round hits him on the shoulder, and four soldiers are ordered to shoot again. This time they blow up his head.

March 1, 2009

MARTI IN THE EYES OF A SPANISH JOURNALIST

MARTI IN THE EYES OF A SPANISH JOURNALIST

She lived in Cuba during the final stage of the War of Independence, 1895 to 1898, when she gave free reign to her extreme fundamentalism. She was a secretary of the Red Cross and as a journalist she visited the battlefield in the area from Júcaro to Morón to write with other reporters El álbum de la Trocha dedicated to Valeriano Weyler and published in 1897. In her articles, she had no qualms to praise that bloody officer while she harshly carried on against the Cuban patriots. After the Spanish defeat in Cuba, which she took as a personal disaster, she left Havana and was never embarrassed to recall that “she wept profusely almost the entire voyage” back to Spain.

But in 1914, Eva Canel, the journalist, fiction and drama author, returns to Cuba at the invitation of some Spanish friends. This time she tours the Island with the purpose of writing about the former colonial enclave. But she has an obsession; she wants to visit the tomb of José Martí. In Havana, Mrs. Canel inquires into the rumors of his burial place but can’t find an answer. Someone tells her that perhaps in Camagüey. She travels to Santiago and at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery, after praying on behalf of the Spanish mothers for the soldiers killed at El Caney and San Juan, she resumes her quest.

In Santiago de Cuba, the watchman of the necropolis points out a place and says, “There, that’s Martí’s tomb.” Then she approaches the site, weeps and says prayers.

In 1891, the Apostle of the Independence of Cuba and the future inflexible advocate of the Spanish cause met in New York City and struck up a fleeting but close friendship. Martí helped her with the English language and opened the way to the great city for the journalist. He comforted her on the pain of leaving her son in a boarding school; it was the first time they were separated. It was easy for Martí to sympathize with such pain for he was living away from his own child. One day, as they had planned to go out together, he wrote her a note indicating the place of the rendezvous on the other side of the river, and in the short message he included this irresistible courtesy: “On my way there, I’ll be telling the flowers to dress up for you…”

The last time they met, Martí took to the rendezvous a beautiful box of chocolates.“Don’t write to me. I won’t write to you either,” Martí said. “But, why Martí?” she asked. And he answered, “Because I don’t write to those I love. It could be compromising. I don’t write to my mother, either, and see that I’m putting you on a level with her.”

Eva Canel wrote: “At the moment, I did not understand his generous decision, but I did later. I was heading for Cuba and he was preparing the revolution with the patience of a Benedictine friar that prevailed over his will beyond all troubles and disappointments.”

Lo que vi en Cuba

Lo que vi en Cuba8

At that time, Eva Canel, the woman from Asturias, was thirty-four years old, four years younger than Martí and a widow from the age of twenty-seven. Her real name was Agar Eva Infanzón Canel. At the age of fifteen, she had married in Madrid author Eloy Perillán Buxó. His political ideas were the cause of Perillán’s exile, first in Bolivia and later in Peru and Argentina where the couple led an intense life in the area of journalism. Perillán was a Republican, and so was Eva, seemingly, but she leaned towards conservatism and after her husband’s death she definitely sided with a nationalist and royalist right wing.

In 1891, she is in Havana collaborating with the Diario de la Marina newspaper and other publications. She is determined to find her way writing fiction and drama. She travels to the United States of America to cover the Universal Exhibition of Chicago for various newspapers and upon returning she is accused of publishing under her name several unedited novels written by Perillán. She then founds La Cotorra magazine of which she said: “As she cannot use the saber…she defends by pecking.” The publication wrapped up in 1893, the same year that saw the premiere of the play La mulata, which just like El indiano –that opened the following year— brought the author the enthusiastic applause and support of the audience.

Then the War of Independence breaks out. Her reports from the Júcaro-Morón Trail extol the courage and the sense of duty of the Spanish troops deployed along that fortified line. The invasion of the western part of the Island by the Ejército Libertador de Cuba [Cuban Liberation Army] elicits hard criticisms about the efficacy of that fortified trail built to hold back the advance of the independence fighters, that is, themambises9,and places the Spanish high command in Cuba in a very tight spot.

Subsequently, Captain General Martínez Campos is replaced by [Valeriano] Weyler who, in an effort to annihilate the rebellion and the civilian population, issues the Edict of the Concentration forcing the farmers into concentration camps in the urban areas, where many would starve to death or perish of various illnesses, the idea being to deprive the mambises of any help. Mrs. Canel tries to show in her reports that the trail is almost a paradise and that the decimated troops are happy of serving Spain. In 1898, she publishes the deeply anti-Cuban journal El Correo and is a contributor to other journals that defend the interests of the advocates of autonomist ideas.

Researcher Jorge Domingo contends that somehow the journalist found herself involved in the explosion of the battleship Maine in the Havana harbor, although the charges against her failed to materialize. Anyway, by that time, her days in Cuba were numbered.

After spending some time in Spain, Mrs. Canel returns to the Americas and settles in Buenos Aires, where she becomes the owner of a printing shop and the founder of such magazines as Kosmos (1904) and Vida Española (1907). Additionally, she contributes to major continental publications and lectures while cultivating her talents as a novelist and a playwright.

Back in Cuba, she embarks on a long trip throughout the country. She leaves Havana on a small ship that takes her to Santiago de Cuba with short calls on some ports along the northern coast, and from there she goes on to Guantánamo by train; then, again by train, she comes back west up to Havana. She had previously visited Pinar del Río.

The result of such a long journey is reflected in Lo que vi en Cuba10, an over three-hundred pages book originally published in Havana in 1916, and recently reprinted by Editorial Oriente containing only those chapters dealing with the east of the country –about one-hundred and fifty pages— but enhanced with the introduction and notes of José Abreu Cardet and Elia Sintes Gómez.

During the War of Independence, Mrs. Canel attacks the Cubans fiercely but in 1914 she doesn’t feel so bad among them here, where there is no hatred or resentment against the Spaniards, despite the war and the atrocities committed by the voluntarios11, and as a rule there is no rejection of the thousands of men and women from Spain who settle in Cuba after independence. In her writings there are no expressions of grief over the lost colony although for Spain this is not just one more Caribbean island, but its island. However, she is very critical of the US hegemony on the economy of the island nation. According to Eva Canel, Martí had advanced such notion during their meetings in New York. In her book Lo que vi en Cuba, she includes a chronicle about Martí that she publishes in the journal El Cubano Libre, from Santiago de Cuba, at the request of its editor.

America for Humanity

America for Humanity

Mrs. Eva Canel says that although they talked much about Spain –literature, personalities, events— Martí never spoke about Spanish politics or its policies in Cuba and Puerto Rico. “He avoided politics and, at that time, I lacked the experience to even approach the subject.” His main purpose, which he accomplished gracefully, was to teach the Spanish woman the good and the bad things about the United States.

One day he said, “Let’s take advantage of the good never allowing the imposition of the bad.” And he added, “If the independent life of my country depended on them, I would not want it because I know it would not mean life or independence.” Then, he turned to the woman with a joyful gesture and in a suggestive tone he asked, “Are you familiar with the story of the friar and the nail?” As she said she was, Martí commented: “Well, to Cuba these gentlemen would be the friars and the nail would be the direct protection they would offer.” When she visited the north coast of Cuba, she recalled the nail Martí referred to “where the nail of the friar was the United Fruit Company, also plunged into Central America and in Santa Marta, Colombia, and in Bocas del Toro, Panama, as well as in every other country where they grow banana, pineapple, coffee, cocoa and sugarcane.” That’s why she feels that Martí’s intellectual legacy is of paramount importance to perpetuate the Spanish race and character, and its language.

She makes a substantial clarification. The phrase “America for Humanity” gallantly said by Sáenz Peña, the Argentinean delegate to the 1st Pan American Conference, opposite that of “America for Americans” said by Monroe, is not his but Martí’s. “I heard it from the Apostle –a better qualification could not be given to him— a long time before the Conference.” Martí was the Argentinean Consul in New York and Sáenz Peña was still a young, romantic and determined Hispanophile. Such characteristics, that he held until becoming President of his country, favored his understanding with Martí who had an influence on him and who taught him his dialectics and his perception of what Mr. Blaine intended to accomplish with that conference. This is the reason why Sáenz Peña set obstacles along the road that the US Secretary of State had planned to walk smoothly.

How was Martí in the privacy of friendship? Eva Canel makes reference to this in her chronicle. She writes: “It was not through his words that Martí revealed to me his character and condition, his talent or soul, but rather through the observation of his very eloquent silences: Ah, the silences of Pepe Martí!

“Did he suffer? Did he rejoice? Did he doubt? Did he believe? Everything fitted in his mind but he did not show it. He had the powerful gift of letting others judge him without any effort onhis part. He was analyzed because an analysis was possible,as he was loved because he incited admiration, and love and admiration combined to give rise to the amazement of finding oneself face to face with a mystic man living within himself. He was not a Saint John of the Cross lost in another time or in a different civilization traveling throughout the centuries to the current age by miraculous reincarnation. He was a hermit Paul in flesh and blood living on the Tabor of infinite eagerness; eagerness for an ideal that not even the independence of his homeland would have quenched.”

After the publication of that book and that chronicle, Eva Canel never left Cuba again. She passed away in Havana in 1932.

January 27, 2008

THE WEDDING OF GENERAL JOSE

THE WEDDING OF GENERAL JOSE

The story is recounted by General Enrique Loynaz del Castillo in his book Memorias de la Guerra12. The War of Independence is about to begin in Cuba and General Antonio Maceo insists that his brother José should marry his fiancé Elena Nuñez before the onset of the conflict.

Loynaz arrives in Costa Rica and soon wins the heart of the Maceo family. In his book he writes: “All of the Maceo brothers, glorious champions of my homeland, decorated with the scars of the liberating struggle, soon compensated with their affection my admiration for their great virtues… But José, in particular, favored me with his confidence. Antonio used to say that José looked through my eyes.”

It was because of this confidence that General Antonio asked Loynaz to persuade his brother José to get married. Loynaz, who was then only 23 years old, did not waste a second before undertaking the delicate mission that the Titan trusted to his ‘diplomatic’ talents. One day at the house of Elena’s family he called the Lion of Oriente aside and said: “José, why don’t you marry this virtuous girl and make her happy before leaving for the war?” To which the other answered: “Ah! Antonio has sent you!” But, Loynaz responded: “Absolutely not, it just seems to me a very pleasant duty to fulfill. Elena could take care of the farm and in full right look after your interests here in Costa Rica, in addition to the great treasure that a good wife is for a good man.”

General José Maceo listened attentively to the stream of words and remained silent for a few minutes. He seemed persuaded by the reasons given by his friend but then spoke of how little confidence he had in the Spanish priests, such as the one who celebrated mass in Nicoya where his brother Antonio, with a group of Cuban officers, was bent on making a farm prosper in the lands granted by the Costa Rican government.

José also said that he disliked the complications of confession and communion that the church marriage demanded. He simply felt it was “foolish.” Still, he caved in to Lyonaz’s arguments and the latter chose to take him to the priest right away to make the necessary arrangements for the wedding before José had time to change his mind.

After all, it was not as complicated as José had assumed; but still the priest wanted to ask him two or three inevitable questions. First, he asked about the Christian faith of the groom and as José said he embraced it the priest moved on to the thorny issue of the Ten Commandments. The conversation progressed smoothly until the fifth precept, when the prelate said: “And, of course, my son you have never committed the sin of killing…” That’s when José lost his temper and retorted: “Look, father, you need to be a guanajo13to ask such question from a man who has been engaged in a war for ten years killing Spaniards. And even a priest once fell in my hands.” At this point, the priest asked in astonishment: “You mean you killed a man of God? That’s a mortal sin that I can’t absolve. We must ask Rome for a waiver!” To which José Maceo answered in rage: “It’s you who’s going to Rome now, through that window!”

Enrique Loynaz del Castillo writes in his Memorias de la Guerra that it was the window that saved the priest from the anger of the Cuban General.

El León de Oriente

El León de Oriente

By that time, José Maceo had not only known war but also prison.

He had joined the Ten Years War two days after the Grito de Yara marked its beginning and was progressively promoted from plain soldier to colonel, a rank he received after the Protesta de Baraguá. During the Short War, he spent ten months in campaign and was elevated to the rank of Brigadier General. Later, when he was forced to lay down arms, he thought the Spanish government would guarantee his leaving the country and, in fact, he was allowed to abandon the Island but only to be captured in the high seas and taken to Puerto Rico from where he was sent to the Chafarinas prison and two years later, in 1882, he was transferred to Ceuta.

He managed to escape and in Tanger, Morocco, he obtained permission from the American Consul to enter the United States, but during a stopover in Gibraltar he was detained and handed over to the Spanish authorities who took him to Algeciras and then to Ceuta, and subsequently to the prisons of Pamplona and La Estrella.

In 1884, he ran away again, this time from La Mola prison in Mahón, and sought refuge in Algeria. From there he went to France, the United States and Jamaica before joining Antonio in Panama, in December 1886. He would finally settle in Costa Rica where, in 1891, his brother received from the government a concession of lands to be labored by a group of veterans of the War of Independence in Cuba.

According to biographer Raúl Aparicio, General Antonio planned to reunite his entire family at Nicoya, in front of the Pacific Ocean. José would soon join him and the Titan only waited until he had a modicum of conditions to ensure the stay of his wife María. He also dreamed of bringing his mother, Aparicio has said, but Mariana was very attached to Jamaica where she lived with her son Marcos and was not keen on the prospect of making a voyage to the Pacific; she was already eighty years old.

It was from Costa Rica that Antonio and José Maceo came to fight for a free Cuba. On April 28, 1895, José was promoted to Major General, and on October when he was already the chief of the First Army Corps, Antonio handed over to him the command of the eastern province ad interim, a position in which he was confirmed by Máximo Gómez. The following year, in April, he was ordered to give up this command to Major General Mayía Rodríguez; he resigned but refused to relinquish power before receiving an explicit order from the General in Chief. He finally surrendered it to Calixto García and remained as chief of the First Corps. On July 5, 1896, a bullet hit him on the chest knocking him off his horse at Loma del Gato. He died four hours later at a farm named Soledad, in Ti Arriba.

For his fervent charges on the enemy and his extraordinary courage, José Maceo was called El León de Oriente (The Lion of Oriente).

The wedding’s best man

The wedding’s best man

It is said that guanajo was a word used by the Cuban aborigines. Anyway, this Cuban word serves to identify the turkey but it’s also a colloquial term applied to the fool or silly, while guanajada is also a local term synonym with stupidity or silliness. It’s not strange then that the priest of Nicoya did not understand what José Maceo had meant by calling him guanajo; still, Loynaz could not persuade him that such a word was used in Cuba as a delicate praise. The prelate felt that this explanation did not match up with the angry gestures that accompanied José’s phrase.

Patiently and tactfully Loynaz was able to iron out the differences between the envoy of God and the warrior. The priest accepted the 25 pesos he was promised that would spare him the long journey to Rome to ask for a waiver for the mortal sins of the groom.

So, the wedding was announced and the community headed by General Antonio converged at the bride’s home on the previously agreed date. The priest arrived and asked Loynaz in a whisper who would be the best man to “the beast.” It would be no other than Loynaz, who was then asked to stand by the groom, as the godmother stood by the bride, and the ceremony started; a rather quick ceremony which concluded without the wordamen. The wedding act seemed too short to Loynaz, and he told the priest who said:“And what else do you want for 25 pesos?”

At that moment, the priest took his money and left. He did not even wait for the Champaign to which the bride’s family treated their guests.

June 27, 2004

MANUEL GARCÍA, THE KING OF THE CUBAN COUNTRYSIDE

MANUEL GARCÍA, THE KING OF THE CUBAN COUNTRYSIDE

José Martí did not accept the eight thousand pesos that Manuel García offered for the war because they were the result of a kidnapping but the man was not denied the right to fight for the independence of Cuba. In this connection Martí wroteto Máximo Gómez:“In a sad and submissive letter, Manuel García said that he awaits orders.”And Gómez himself wrote to Francisco Carrillo, leader of the Revolution in Las Villas:“Count Manuel Garcíain.”

But, Manuel García died on February 24, 1895, the day the War of Independence broke out. He was murdered as he marched to join and lead the group of Juan Gualberto Gómez and Antonio López Coloma stationed at Ibarra. It is said that he was joining the forces with the rank of Captain; however, it seems to be true that clubs of Cuban emigrants in Key West had previously given him the star of Major. It has been said that before the onset of the war, Juan Gualberto had given the rank of Colonel to that man who, in his own way and alone, had encouraged subversion in the Island and that with his methods, be them right or wrong, had contributed funds to the insurrection.

Few Cuban personalities are as unsung or as lightly taken as that of The King of the Cuban Countryside. Perhaps no other is more controversial and polemic. Up to this day, many think that he was no more than a bandit. But, as he used to take from the rich to give to the poor his life is covered by a romantic and sentimental aura, –an image promoted by literature, films, poems, paintings and even comics— and an increasing number of people are coming around and considering him a patriot.

In 1886, García writes from Key West to Máximo Gómez, “My General, willing to return to Cuba’s countryside…I am at your service as a soldier of the cause of my homeland’s independence.” And, in 1891, in a manifesto addressed to the South American republics, and signed at the town of Melena del Sur in Havana, he writes: “Now, with deep respect, we ask from the foreign governments to remain neutral towards our civil war and if the reasons we have to fight are enough to arouse your solidarity, you may come and help us.” In this document, García describes the reasons leading Cuba to fight for its freedom and announces that the country has declared war on the Spanish monarchy. He then signs it as ‘General of the West Department,’ a title that he gave himself, the same as that of ‘The King of the Cuban Countryside and of almost the Entire Island of Cuba,’ as he signed the letter he forwarded around the same date to the newspaper La Lucha.

A public enemy

A public enemy

Who was this man? Unfortunately, almost everything known about his life was written by his enemies. From his christening certificate we know that he was born in Alacranes, Matanzas, on February 1st, 1851. His parents were born in the Canary Islands. The boy did not have the opportunity to attend school regularly. He was a reliable and determined young boy, and it was not long before he ran into difficulties with the Spanish authorities. He was sent to prison for a death threat he made against a Mayor who disrespected his wife, Charito Vásquez, and he later injured his stepfather with a machete when he found the man battering his mother. After this, the fear of another incarceration prompted him to take to the woods. Colonel Charles Aguirre from the Ejército Libertador wrote about it: “I always found an excuse for the damage he caused. He was justified. I don’t know of any action by The King of the Cuban Countryside that is not justified. Is there any greater justification than that which forced him to take to the woods and gave his destiny a different turn?”

Apparently, he joined the gang of a bandit named Lengue Romero and became a public enemy. When Governor Luis Prendergart bent on putting an end to banditry offered to pardon the ringleaders, facilitating their travel abroad and granting them a considerable sum of money, Manuel García left for Key West. The man who had supposedly robbed large sums of money had kept nothing for himself and to make a living he had to apply for a job at the cigar factory of Eduardo Hidalgo Gato, a friend of Martí. According to historians, this played a decisive role in the life of the former bandit since his relations with José Dolores Poyo and Brigade General Fernández Ruz, as well as other Cuban émigrés, channeled his rebelliousness to the struggle for independence. Soon, he became one of the four members of the expedition on the sloopDolphin, which landed in Puerto Escondido, east of Havana, in September 1887. The leader of the group died in combat almost immediately and García took command of the small force to start creating the conditions for the war of liberation.

Search and capture

Search and capture

As from then on he did not rest. In November 1890, the Captain General offered ten thousand pesos in reward for his capture and surrender to the authorities, and five thousand more for each member of his group. It was useless; nobody denounced him and nobody even tried to catch him. A large troop chased him and he was encircled by a ring of spies charged with on checking his every movement. But, García was not an enemy to be taken lightly. He had remarkable natural talents and intuition, while his gift for organization and his absolute familiarity with the area favored his actions. His most bitter adversary, Lieutenant Colonel Tejada, head of the paramilitary group Escuadras de Guantánamo, would have to admit to his superiors that García had provided his men with modern weapons, uniforms and discipline. In addition, García removed the so-called “bonus,” that is, an additional amount of money given to the gangs’ leaders, and distributed whatever he got in equal shares among his men; this earned him their respect and consideration.

García basically operated in the areas of Havana and Matanzas but he also carried on military actions in Las Villas and later deployed to Pinar del Río. He conducted assaults and kidnappings and asked for ransom. The Spaniards were well aware of his ideas and motives, thus the Captain General reported to Madrid that “Manuel García has never renounced his ideas to seek separation from Spain, and he keeps corresponding with revolutionaries here and in Key West while nearly every person he has kidnapped does not profess such ideas and the money he obtains as ransom he uses only to purchase weapons and ammunitions, and to help the peasants.”