Periodico 26

Las Tunas, Cuba.- While I take a seat on a park bench with his name, near the three-dimensional work, I read the book Vicente García, a General of Céspedes, by Carlos Tamayo, a local researcher, whose book was recently published in Mexico, by the Spanish Affirmation Front. It is the first time that a publication refers about the patriot in that country. Congratulations. So more libraries, bookstores, study centers and other spaces will know his legacy.

Certainly, the book moves, makes one think and asks us: How much injustice does the memory of the leader carry on his shoulders? The author demonstrates with data and arguments how "The Lion of Santa Rita" has been mistakenly judged by history. It is Impossible to read the book and do not make the questions yours.

The writer-journalist asks that "why did he hold such high positions if he was as undisciplined as they have seen him?" "In the heat of the battle - as the biographer, Victor Marrero responds - he became head of the Department of Oriente and Camagüey, secretary of the war, president of the Republic in Arms and chief general of the armies of the Republic." The merits speak ...

Tamayo, who was president of the Uneac in the province for 30 years, brings us with this text a man of flesh and blood who put all his breath at the service of the libertarian cause. It is not the typical scientific writing that is more focused on the methodology than on the delight of the reader. On the contrary, his lines are drunk and deep into that feeling category called "tuneridad."

I am immersed in the reading and I move in time (You do not know how much you are missing until you read the book). The kids run around me, people talk about the ball, about Trump and the daily vicissitudes, but that now goes to the background. I am in the jungle, surrounded by vines, I rest in a hammock and I drink canchánchara in jícara like my companions. That's how I feel while I read.

The meetings that preceded October 10th, 1868 show that Vicente had already planned to get up in arms on the 14th of that month and year, even if the inhabitants of Las Tunas had to start the fight alone in the case that other centers did not get up. However, historical circumstances hastened the uprising. It was when Céspedes rang the glorious bells of La Demajagua sugar mill.

Three days after the start of our independence struggles, the warrior of Las Tunas attacked his hometown, taking it almost completely (except the church). Then, "on the top of a bamboo stick, he waved the Cuban flag."

Nevertheless, the tenth month of the calendar also left traces of pain. Today just thinking about it still hurts us. The Spanish chief Eugenio Loño with the intention of bending the leader, locked him in his house with his family (on Calle Real, today Vicente García memorial), with the order of not giving food to the Mambí leader. In that captivity, because of hunger, her children María de la Trinidad (4 months old) and Saul (4 years old) died. Imagine his patriotic conviction that he did not give up! Despite this, the hero continued to fight for his people.

Tamayo reflects on the seditions and insubordinations, and provides elements that face "the truth" imposed on the Mambí. He analyzes the regionalism from different points of view. He talks about the history, with concrete facts and not modified events by human subjectivity. He bases the role of this general before the Pact of the Zanjón. He interviews experts; finds out little known information about him, his diary, birthplace, skeletal remains, the statue ...; and change the negative imaginary around the most controversial personality of the Big War.

I wonder: How "controversial" his personality could be that other personalities like José Martí and Antonio Maceo had such a good opinion of him? How regionalist he was when he fought in regions of Camagüey, Holguín, Granma, Ciego de Ávila and Las Tunas? How wrong was his attitude towards the liberating cause that he left a well-off family to fight for the poor? There were times when he fought up to 14 times in one day. When the Spaniards just heard his name, they left the road clear and, even on the deathbed, he urged his children to continue the fight for the freedom of Cuba.

The image of the heroes is built with evidence, without forgetting their context. Tamayo did it brilliantly, influenced by the teachings of Juan Andrés Cué Bada, a great Cuban historian and his university professor. We all should read this book, which was already published in our country with the name Fear of Vicente García.

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