GOOD MORNING, P.O.U.!
GENERAL QUINTIN BANDERA
(1834-1906)
General José Quintín Bandera Betancourt[1] (ca. 1834 – 1906), also Quentin Bandera and Quintin Bandera, was a military leader of the Cuban insurrection against the Spanish during the Cuban War of Independence. In 1906, Bandera, “himself almost a full-blooded Negro,”[2] led an army of insurgents toward Havana, and was killed near Punta Brava, a village close to Havana.
Biography
Bandera was a hero of the Cuban War of Independence,[3] “noted for his fearlessness and bravery,”[4] during which he had distinguished himself by breaking through the Spanish line which separated Pinar del Río Province from Havana Province.[3] He fought alongside General Calixto García,[2] and alongside Máximo Gómez with his ragged band of “Orientales.”[5] In 1899, he was considered a leader of the colored population of Santiago de Cuba Province.[6] He had become popular with black population of the island as a whole,[3] thousands of whom had welcomed him to Havana in 1900 and had carried him through the city’s streets for hours,[2] and was known for delivering fiery speeches about how the new republic did not reward its black citizens.[3]
In 1906, insurrection broke out against the presidency of Tomás Estrada Palma, Cuba’s first president after independence.[2] Minor protests had already taken place the year before, but in August 1906 a band led by Pino Guerra started a more serious uprising in Pinar del Río Province.[7] One general suspected of participating was José Miguel Gómez, later president of Cuba, who was quickly arrested and jailed. During that time, General Bandera, “that sexagenarian hero of all the blacks in the island,” moved at the head of a group of a thousand black insurgents toward Havana and occupied a railroad station. Bandera had lost his office and broke into the Cuban senate, but instead of being made chief of police, as he demanded, he was appointed “parliamentary doorkeeper.” He consequently took up arms.[2]
At the Silveira farm near Punta Brava, Bandera made his last stand with twenty of his followers.[3] He was surrounded by troops led by General Freyre Andrade,[2] and a group of Rural Guards stormed the farm. Most of the insurgents managed to slip away, leaving only Bandera and two of his comrades:[3] shot multiple times, according to reports, he continued “wielding his machete until the foe had cut him to pieces.”[2] The three bodies were “horribly mutilated by machete cuts” and moved to Havana to be put on display.[3] Bandera’s death put a momentary stop to the 1906 insurrection;[2] he was approximately seventy two years when he died.[3]
THE MAMBISES
The term mambises refers to the guerrilla Cuban independence soldiers who fought against Spain in the Ten Years’ War (1868–78) and Cuban War of Independence (1895–98). The term is found applied in different history texts to any person who fought for independence during the wars of independence including soldiers of Chinese, American, and Spanish origin.[1][2]
Origin of the term
Most commonly, the word mambí is associated with Juan Ethnnius Mamby ‘Eutimio Mambí’. Mamby was a black Spanish military officer who deserted to fight with the Dominicans against the Spanish in Santo Domingo in 1846. As Mamby and his men gained fame, the Spanish soldiers began referring to them as “the men of Mamby” or “mambises”.
The surviving Spanish soldiers, who had been fighting in Santo Domingo, were then sent to Cuba once the Ten Years’ War broke out in 1868. These soldiers, noting the similar tactics and machetes use by the Cuban independence fighters as by the original “men of Mamby”, began calling the Cuban independence fighters mambises. Though this was meant as a racial and derogatory slur towards the Cuban rebels, the Cubans accepted and started using the name with pride.[3][4]
Other sources cite the term to be of Congo origin or, as stated by Esteban Montejo in Biography of a Runaway Slave, mambí refers to the child of a monkey crossed with a buzzard.[5][6]
Background
The mambí soldiers made up most of the National Army of Liberation and were the key soldiers responsible for the success of the Cuban liberation wars. They consisted of Cubans from all social classes including free blacks, slaves, and mulattos. It is thought that about 92-95% of the black population fought as mambises in both the Ten Years’ War and War of Independence. During the Ten Years’ War the slaves were promised their freedom if they assisted the Creoles in the fight against the Spanish. The freeing of slaves to help fight was started by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. At the end of the war, even though independence from Spain was not achieved, Spain agreed to honor the freeing of the slaves who had fought against them.[7]
The mambí forces were made up of volunteers who mostly had no military training and banded together in loose groups who acted independently to attack the Spanish troops during the Ten Years’ War. Even with these limitations, the mambises made up for it with their cunning, fierceness, and bravery. It is estimated that 8,000 poorly armed and underfed mambises inflicted close to 20,000 casualties on the well-trained Spanish soldiers during the Ten Years’ War.[8]
Similarly, by the end of the War of Independence the National Army of Liberation numbered nearly 50,000 of which only about 25,000 were armed. The leaders, having learnt from previous mistakes, had organized the army into “6 corps with 14 divisions, 34 brigades, 50 regiments of infantry and 34 cavalry.” Even though, once again, they were limited on resources, their bravery and cunning made it possible to inflicting 71,000 casualties* out of the 250,000 Spanish troops sent to the island.[9][10]
- Total number of Spanish casualties lost during conflict. Number lost due to yellow fever and other diseases vs. combat is not known.
Women
Mambí independence fighters were not limited to men. During the War of Independence, Spanish general General Valeriano Weyler Nicolau instigated the infamous “Reconcentración” which forcefully moved rural inhabitants into the cities in makeshift concentration camps. Conditions in these camps resulted in mass starvation, disease, and large numbers of deaths of the Cuban population. The prospect of these conditions pushed many families, including the women and children, into joining the fight for freedom.[11][12]
During the War of Independence women served in typical roles as nurses and cooks but are also recorded as partaking in the fighting while some went so far as to be officers in the military. Though it did probably occur, there is no documented history of women taking part in the fighting during the Ten Years’ War.[13]
The best known mambí woman is Mariana Grajales Coello, who was Antonio Maceo Grajales’s mother. Mariana and all of her sons participated in all three of the wars of independence. She was often known to go into battles to aid wounded soldiers from both sides. In the camps, Mariana ran the hospitals and was responsible for supplies. She has been upheld as the epitome of the self-sacrificing nationalistic Cuban woman.
Weapons
Prior to the Ten Years’ War, private ownership of weapons was allowed but, considering that at this time many of the black were still slaves, most of the men who became mambises did not have firearms. Following the war, Spain prohibited ownership of firearms in an effort to prevent another uprising. In both cases, the lack of firearms forced the mambises into using what they had: machetes and sometimes horses.[14]
At the start of the Ten Years War Máximo Gómez, who had been a cavalry officer in the Spanish Army, taught the men the “machete charge”. This became the mambises’ most useful and feared tactic in both wars. These methods resulted in Guerrilla type warfare that favored them due to the element of surprise and their knowledge of the terrain and environment.[15]
Knowing additional weapons were needed, numerous attempts were made to procure arms from outside the country. Approximately 45 attempts were made to bring weapons and supplies in from outside the country. Of these, only one attempt is known to have succeeded while the rest were seized by the United States or Spain. Despite this interference, and having only originally started with a small number of weapons, the mambises were able to build up a significant arsenal by conducting raids on the Spanish troops and strongholds.[16]
(SOURCE: Wikipedia)