José Martí in the article of April 10th, 1892 published in the newspaper Patria, said about Guáimaro “The peoples, like men, have hours of heroic virtue…” words that contained his admiration for the place where the Republic in Arms was born, and for the symbolism represented by the burning of the city before it fell into Spanish hands on May 10th, 1869.
The place where the hope and certainty of achieving Cuba’s independence emerged experienced moments of happiness due to the preparations for the Constituent Assembly, the arrival of the main insurgent leaders and other mambises who accompanied them, as well as the presence of families from Camagüey that were in the town, the first to be taken by the mambisa troops in the Central region on November 4th, 1868.
However, a page of pain and dedication to the nation was written on May 10th, 1869, when the inhabitants themselves set fire to their home, the small homeland that had welcomed the government of the Republic in Arms, the town that had 217 houses of wood and tiles, mostly with wide portals surrounded by numerous cattle farms and a cultural tradition expressed in trades, artistic manifestations, festivals, dances, fairs, etc.
How much joy was lost in Guáimaro?
What a gesture of sacrifice and dedication to a cause!
A recurring question in historiography is the reasons that led to the decision made by the Cubans, many historians refer to the news -which was nor confirmed neither denied- about the departure from Puerto Príncipe to the town of a strong column Spanish formed by the infantry, artillery and cavalry with the purpose of taking the town.
On the other hand, the military hustle and bustle in the Puerto Principe, typical of the danger that the proximity of a place taken by the Mambisa forces represented for Spain, seemed to leave no doubts, the decision was not long in coming, its burning was remembered as it had happened in Bayamo.
Men, women, children and the forces of 100 mambises under the orders of Colonel Manuel de Jesús Valdés Urra (Chicho), carry out the immolation of the town, collecting wines, oils and other fuels for such an act. At dusk the flames begin to devour the city and the sky is dressed in ashes that are spread along with the feat of the mambisa epic.
Their neighbors take refuge in the nearby farms, others march to the insurgent camps in the region. Ana Betancourt, a forerunner in the request for women’s rights in the nascent Republic, troubledly recalled years later the noise of the flames, the sound of roofs, doors and windows falling and the desolation of the city
However, it was at the end of December of the same year that the Dominican field marshal Eusebio Puello Castro managed to enter with his column of the three weapons to try to break the mysteries of Guáimaro. It was late, the independence Revolution had one more symbol of patriotism.
When asking the Master Desiderio Borroto Fernández, historian, researcher and genuine Guaimaro native what this event represented, he called it a sacrifice, coinciding with the words of the historian Ricardo Muñoz Gutiérrez in his text Histories to not forget. For my part, I feel that the sacrifice entailed courage and hope, and it was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary heroic pages that the war in Camagüey had.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
