A reading without reflection of what happened in that meeting of patriots at the railway station in Camaguey, on November 26th, 1868, obscures the political and military significance it had for the central-eastern insular region.

A witness remarked that it was like crossing the Rubicon River, alluding to the defiant irruption of General Julius Caesar and his legions at the gates of Rome, after a victorious campaign across much of the Old Continent.

It is asserted that the vanguard of the Cuban insurrectionary struggle was made up of the most “enlightened”, to the detriment of the least favored, as if that were an obstacle to the development of the Revolution. What better! May Culture enter the Revolution and guide it to bring it to its goal of a Free Cuba! Ignacio Agramonte was a lawyer and a cultured man; his cousin, Eduardo Agramonte y Piña, Bachelor of Medicine and professor at the Institute of Second Education, and with a musical talent to compose the bugle calls of the Liberation Army. They were knowledgeable patriots who aspired to build an emancipated and prosperous Cuba like the advanced nations of Europe.

Culture and Revolution

Both men from Camagüey knew about France, England, and the United States, and America, and about rights and democracy. The first of the Agramonte would know nothing of military art but when the war came he let himself be guided by the experienced of that branch and he would read a lot, surpassing the most gifted, until Camagüey had the best armed cavalry, serving the cause that would inspire the lawyer Carlos Manuel de Céspedes from Bayamo to start the war again Spain. And to tell the truth, deprived of culture, neither of the two regional leaders could have carried out the difficult task of making the Revolution, much less lay the foundations to found a State where the sovereign (the people) reigned, and the laws organized and strengthened the civic life and democratic institutions, and relations with the world.

Culture versus counterrevolution

The counterrevolution did not make its harmful purpose invisible, it denied and confused, maliciously opposing the unity of thoughts and thus breaking the consensus to continue the Revolution. A ringleader used simulation and ideological camouflage to obstruct his course and his quest for freedom and prosperity. At Las Minas meeting, a complete understanding was not achieved between the minority side and the majority in favor of the war.

The rich owners of the Caonao agricultural area, staunch to change, defended their farms and the export of the productions of their 24 sugar factories destined for the capitalist market. Meanwhile, a simulator started in the revolution with his brother, a patriot, could not see the radical course of the insurrection and even flirted with the enemy.

The day Agramonte had him face to face, he refuted each of his reformist arguments and for trying to surrender his arms. He was 26 years old and was already dismantling the thought of an opponent: “End the lobbying, the clumsy procrastination, the humiliating demands at once.”

By the way, among the demands of the traitor Napoleón Arango, there was to wait for the end of the harvest, at the same time, wait until the Madrid government defined the status and reforms for the Island and thus paralyze the liberating war. And the simulator did not mind his brother, which would be worth being killed at the hands of the volunteers.

There was no other alternative to the arrogant counterrevolution: “Cuba has no other way than to conquer its redemption by wrenching it from Spain by force of arms.” Call that would reinforce Major Ignacio Agramonte -one day after the assassination of Augusto Arango that occurred on January 26th, 1869-: “May our cry be forever: Independence or Death!” And that Culture of Revolution is enduring.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García