In colonial Cuba, the situation of women, doubly oppressed by men and the prevailing social regime, was generating a more or less open capacity to challenge the established order and its institutions. The feminine world then converges in phenomena as decisive as the emancipation of the entire society, highlighting the struggle for the rights of women, and the process of laying the foundations of Cuban nationality. A path traced by the work of great women, among which the name of Ana Betancourt stands out.

On January 14th, 1833, Ana Betancourt was born in the land of Agramonte, in the center of a close community of Creole families, rich, cultured and highly influenced by the European revolutionary thought of the mid-nineteenth century. Ana is the sixth daughter of Diego Betancourt and Ángela Agramonte y Aróstegui, an illustrious couple from the city, which would allow her education to be in accordance with that of a young woman of her level. With teachings ranging from cooking to embroidery, singing, and playing the piano, she forged a refined spirit in her that highlighted her beauty.

Her social development

Far from showing off all her physical appearance and her social status, so often described in detail in bibliographic sources, her action as a necessary woman for her time is her great historical merit. Her marriage, which occurred on August 17th, 1854, at the age of 21, with the young Ignacio Mora, far from stopping her concerns, became a decisive support. Away from the formalities of her time, her husband encouraged her to expand her culture, so she begins to take part in the constant gatherings organized in her house and at the same time she taught herself how to speak English and French.

In the independence struggles

Ana Betancourt, as a woman ahead of her time, did not miss an opportunity to participate in the independence cause. Her house was a revolutionary hotbed where weapons and supplies were kept and were later sent to the battlefield, and the emissaries who headed to Camagüey from Bayamo, Las Tunas and Manzanillo stayed. The proclamations that were distributed to the people and the troops came out of her hands, until the moment that she had to leave with her husband to the battlefield to avoid the Spanish persecution.

Her participation or not in the iconic Guáimaro Assembly, held from April 10th to 12th, 1869, constitutes one of the great contradictions in Cuban history. Together with her husband in Rosalía de Chorrillo on July 9th, 1871, they were surprised by the insistent Spanish guerrillas.

After a ploy to save the life of her husband, she fell prisoner; suffering from arthritis in her leg prevented her from fleeing. It was then that three months of torture began, in the open, under a ceiba tree in the Jobabo savanna, with moments of tension such as mock firing squads. The objective was to use her as bait to attract Colonel Mora, something that did not work. Her tragedy lasted until October 9th, 1871, when she managed to flee from her captors and go to Havana, the perfect platform to leave for Mexico and shortly after to settle in New York.

Her time abroad

From abroad, her support for the Cuban revolutionary cause did not stop. In 1872 she visited the President of the United States, Ulises Grant, to intercede with Spain in favor of the pardon of the medical students imprisoned for the events of November 1871. In this same year she moved to Kingston, Jamaica. It was in this place that in November 1875, a month late, she learned about the execution of her husband.

After the Zanjón pact, she managed to return to Cuba, transformed by the great traces that the death of her husband would leave on her. What she would not change was her ideas of conspiring and encouraging the Revolution, which spoke of her perseverance and her decision to face such a vital task. At 68 years of age, she died in Madrid, on February 7th, 1901. She received a modest burial in Spain until on September 26th, 1968, Cuba repatriated her remains. It was then that in April 1982 she was given a dignified mausoleum in Guáimaro where would rest the remains of a woman who was, for some time, an example of feminism in Cuba.

Bibliography

González, Julio C: Historia de la mujer en Cuba: del feminismo liberal a la acción política femenina; en: Diez nuevas miradas de la Historia de Cuba. Publicaciones de la Universitat, JaumeI, D . L. España.1998.a

Sarabia, Nidia: Ana Betancourt. Editorial Ciencias Sociales. La Habana. 1970.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García