176 years ago Antonio Maceo was born in a little house located on Providencia Street no. 90 in Santiago de Cuba, at a time when racism reigned without precedent throughout Cuba. For more than half a century, “the fear of black man” permeated white Cuban society due to the experiences suffered by French settlers and Haitian Creoles during the Haitian Revolution.

Under these premises, his parents Marcos Maceo and Mariana Grajales knew how to educate their thirteen children under strict ethical principles and inordinate love for their country.

Multiple factors related to his regional and national environment influenced the formation of his revolutionary personality, which allowed him to penetrate into the most pressing problems of his time. His links with the East Region of Cuba and the Antilles; along with the Masonic institutions belonging to it, they also influenced Maceo. These and others allowed him to know the historical needs of the Cuban nation.

The rapid incorporation into the Revolution two days after the uprising of October 10th, 1868, demonstrate in his action the revolutionary doctrines acquired by him. Incorporated as a soldier in the Cuban jurisdiction under the orders of Captain Juan Bautista, Maceo quickly rose due to the outstanding authority and military prestige he achieved. On October 20th he held the rank of lieutenant and in January 1869 he was promoted twice in rank, on the 16th to commander and on the 26th to lieutenant colonel.

Until July 1870, Lieutenant Colonel Maceo was under the command of Major General Donato del Mármol. In this same year he joined the troops of Major General Máximo Gómez to participate in the invasion and subsequent campaign of Guantánamo under the command of the 4th Battalion of the Cuba Division. On October 15th, 1871, Gómez appointed him chief of operations and in 1872 he was promoted to colonel for his actions on the battlefield.

In 1873 Major General Calixto Garcia at the head of the Cuba Division promoted him to brigadier general with just 23 years of age and in 1874, due to his merits, he was appointed chief of the Villa forces for the invasion of the West. The racial prejudices in the first order and the regionalism that could not be overcome within the libertarian ranks forced Maceo to resign from office and return to the east to join his old division.

In Maceo, respect and support for the institutions established in the Republic in Arms, as well as his decisions, when he did not agree with them or consider them inappropriate were within his principles, as long as they did not affect the development of the fight, he would support them.

His opposition and ignorance to the seditions of Laguna de Varona in 1875 led to his ascent within the Cuban revolutionary thought and to that of Santa Rita in 1877 led by Major General Vicente García demonstrate the firmness of his actions.

In May 1877, one month before his 32nd birthday, Antonio Maceo was conferred the rank of Major General.

Maceo’s defense of the principles of the revolution were expressed in the rejection of the Zanjón Agreement, since the document ignored the supreme principles of the Cuban people’s struggle for almost ten years, total independence and the abolition of slavery. For this, he undertook extensive work aimed at raising the patriotic spirit of Cubans and continuing the struggle, so he reaffirmed it to Arsenio Martínez Campos at the Mangos de Baraguá meeting on March 15th, 1878.

The work carried out by Antonio Maceo from his departure from Cuba until his final return in April 1895 to join the feat organized by José Martí and Máximo Gómez started on February 24th was extensive. From Jamaica, New York, Honduras and Panama he conspired and exposed his Antillean ideology and the Latin Americanist conceptions of him. He joined Gómez in the San Pedro Sula Plan, and leaving aside his old discrepancies, he joined the Necessary War for the highest good of the Homeland, demonstrating Maceo’s political growth.

After joining the fight and having successfully carried out the Invasion of the West between 1895 and 1896, the lieutenant general, the “Bronze Titan”, fell in combat in San Pedro, Punta Brava on December 7th, 1896, the hero that had in his body the traces of 26 bullet wounds received in the participation of more than 600 combats.

With his fall in combat, the revolution was deprived of his strong personality, who would have undeniably become the defense of national integrity against the North American intervention in Cuba.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García