Amalia Simoni is almost always associated with her husband Ignacio Agramonte, her merits as a mother, patriot and Cuban have been silenced between the modesty that characterized her and the prejudices of the literary field ruled with a strong male presence.
How many times are you surprised when you do not know about the life of the patriots who accompanied great Cuban pro-independence heroes? How many faces of women in the cities, in the battlefield and in exile have been ignored or forgotten?
The answer is similar among friends and colleagues, in general, we put the example of Amalia Simoni, the ignorance about her life keeps her in silence, broken by her condition as the wife of Ignacio Agramonte; they signed a love committed to the country that only the death of the hero could snatch immortality.
However, the attitude of the patriotic woman who knows about the conspiratorial work of her partner, joining the war – even so she does not try to stop him – despite the consequences for her and her family, the woman who leaves for the battlefield in the midst of a great repression in the city where she suffered the harshness of war and did not abandon him, she remained invisible.
An eternal patriot
The loyal Cuban imposes herself upon being taken prisoner on the first birthday of her son, El Mambisito. In an act of patriotism and defiance, she responds to the Spanish General Ramón Fajardo Izquierdo who asks her to write her husband asking him to lay down arms “General, even if you cut off my hand I would not ask my husband to become a traitor.” This behavior is also neglected, although she wore a Cuban flag among her clothes.
In New York and Mérida, places of exile, she suffers great deprivation; Herminia, the daughter that Agramonte never got to know, was born in 1871. From there she writes to her husband to take care and not expose himself to danger so much, among her reasons she explains: «In addition, in the interest of Cuba you must be more prudent, they need your intelligence more … »
Singing teaching and her concerts allow her to provide for her parents and children. She participated in patriotic-religious celebrations such as the one dedicated to the memory of the medical students shot in Havana, in the commemoration of October 10th, 1888, she sent money to the Revolutionary Board; her sense of duty to the country and the emancipatory cause was a constant in her actions in exile.
Recalling
There is an anecdote that is little known that highlights the attitude of a Cuban co-religionist, on May 8th, 1893, the Princess Eulalia de Borbón arrives in the capital of Havana, the first visit of a royal member to whom great celebrations are dedicated with press coverage. Amalia herself, due to her principles, rejected the invitations received for such acts.
However, it was by chance that entering on May 12th to the gardens of the Quinta de los Molinos with his daughter coincided with the presence of the Princess; some enemies of the Revolution spread the rumor in Cuba and abroad that it was an act of homage.
Amalia, with the certainty of knowing she is a good Cuban, responds through the newspaper Patria «… I am surprised as much as indignant – because my political decorum is unfairly attacked. […] Those who love the memory of the one I loved so much, whose memory I venerate, are those called to do me justice.
During the Republic she refused to receive a pension as a widow of Agramonte “My husband did not fight to leave me a pension, but for the freedom of Cuba.” She attends the unveiling of the sculpture in honor of Ignacio Agramonte on February 24th, 1912, there she expressed «I have recently had two happy moments: one when I saw the Cuban flag hoisted for the first time when the Republic was established and the other is now, with this tribute to Ignacio »
She is Amalia, a symbol of Camagüey’s patriots, of the remarkable women who by conviction contributed to the liberating struggles, beyond a romantic paradigm.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
