He was like any young man of his time, cheerful, handsome, restless; but of firm convictions. So sure of not agreeing with any social abuse. Today we approach another Camagüey man who offered his life to the country and of whom there is much to say: José Rodríguez Vedo, better known as Tato Rodríguez.
Hand in hand with his fellow student and idealist: Antonio Fontes, today we return to the student struggles against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, especially those of the Professional School of Economics, since its classrooms contributed valuable revolutionaries such as: Cándido González, Rodolfo Ramírez Esquivel, Horacio Cobiella, Noel Fernández and Tato himself.
The guide on this trip… Antonio
I must note that it was not easy to dust off Tato’s story, since there are not many of his contemporaries left to tell it; but I had the joy of meeting Antonio Fontes, who, in addition to having a very successful career, had the idea of collecting them in two books and in its volumes on: The beautiful price of making Revolution and the Volcano.
In them he narrates the experiences of his colleagues in the Revolutionary Directorate, the covert actions and finally his experiences in the Battle of Santa Clara with Che.
So after browsing through these treasures of Camagüey history, sharing a good coffee and maintaining the physical distance, which the current pandemic establishes so as not to get sick, we bring José Rodríguez Vedo to the streets of this city that saw him grow as the valuable man he was.
Tato
As Fontes recalls, he stood out very early in the School of Economics for his thought against injustice and abuse, which was already sowing fear among Cubans.
With such aptitudes, he was elected as “Delegate” in the 1954 and 1955 academic years. He participated in the ocupation of that center as an operation of the revolutionaries in the territory, for which he was beaten by the police during the assault.
Another 19 comrades were beaten up by the henchmen, some tortured and others killed. Antonio clearly remembers that grey day, because at night he went to Tato’s house to get news and found him badly beaten.
Already under the radar of the local government, he moved to Havana in February 1956 and joined the fight against the dictatorship from the ranks of the Revolutionary Directorate, an organization in which he fulfilled different missions, including traveling abroad to collect weapons and thus mislead the enemy.
In March 1958 he secretly returned to Cuba and immediately continued the struggle, but from Havana, together with his partner in action, the student leader and revolutionary fighter Pedro Martínez Brito, also a former student of the school of economics. But his eagerness would last a short time.
On July 10th, 1958, he was in an apartment located on Calle B No. 459 in Vedado, next to Pedro, where they were surprised by the National Police. They try to escape, leaping into an adjoining building, but were shot down, captured, and killed. Their bodies were dragged and harmed by members of the repressive forces.
The goodbye of his people
Upon hearing the news of the murder, Tato’s family claimed the body, brought it in, and held a vigil on Quiñones Street. His colleagues by profession and those of the July 26th movement went to say goodbye, the police were present all the time at the funeral and kept watch all the way to the cemetery.
The women of the movement attended dressed in red and black, a crowd accompanied the body through República Street. The siege of the guards could not prevent the national anthem from being sung, nor could it prevent the writer and poet from Camagüey, Luis Suardías, at the last resting place said a proper goodbye with the honors a patriot deserves.
The death of Tato Rodríguez was a great loss for the homeland that moved the people of Camagüey, as another young man of his time died for a common cause and his life cut short, he left the call to Fight, freedom was already very close.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
