# Néstor Aranguren de Rabel

**Date of birth:** March 14, 1873

**Date of death:** January 27, 1898

**Categories:** Society, Patriot, military

Cuban patriot. Cousin of Colonel Félix Giralt. He was one of the so-called youths of the Acera de El Louvre. He served as a voluntary escort to Major General Antonio Maceo during his stay in the City of La Habana, in the first semester of 1890. He obtained the rank of Colonel for his meritorious work.

He was born in the city of La Habana. His parents were San Benito Aranguren Jiménez and Doña Matilde de Rabel, who taught them very refined manners. He was greatly beloved in Guanabacoa, where he lived for several years.

He belonged to the Bomberos del Comercio corps. He participated as a firefighter on May 17, 1890 in the Fire at the Isasi Hardware Store, located on Mercaderes Street at the corner of Lamparilla, current municipality of Habana Vieja, one of the greatest disasters recorded in Cuban history.

On February 24, 1895 he was with Major General Julio Sanguily at the moment he was detained by Spanish colonial authorities. Aranguren managed to escape and nine days later he moved to Nuevitas, Camagüey.

In the city of Puerto Príncipe he placed himself at the disposal of Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, who entrusted him with a mission in La Habana, where he remained until July 5 of that year when he returned to Camagüeyan lands to join the Camagüey Cavalry Regiment, under the orders of then Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Primelles Cisneros. Four days later he received the rank of ensign.

After the machete charge at Ingenio Congreso carried out on December 9, 1895, where his chief fell, he joined the invasion contingent under the orders of Major General Máximo Gómez, with whom he participated in the Combat of Mal Tiempo on December 15, 1895.

In Matanzas he remained under the orders of then Captain Rafael de Cárdenas Benítez, with the rank of lieutenant and the mission of recruiting men to create a unit in the province of La Habana.

On January 4, 1896 he was promoted to captain and served as second chief of a unit they called Maceo, with which he participated in attacks on the hamlets of Ceiba Mocha and Pipián. In that same month the Cavalry Squadron of La Habana was formed.

On February 16, 1896 insurgent troops burst into Campo Florido and set fire to the train station, recovering an arsenal hidden by collaborators of the Liberation Army.

On March 22 he attacked a Spanish column in Bolaños and on the 29th he was wounded by gunfire in the combat at Ingenio Juguetillo in Canasí.

On March 29, 1896 he took part in the combat of Garrido. In May he was promoted to commander and appointed second chief of the Habana Cavalry Regiment in the first Brigade of the Second Division of the Fifth Army Corps.

On June 17, 1896 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and in the first days of July he assumed the position of chief of the Regiment. On July 16, 1896 he distinguished himself in the Combat of Jiquiabo. Ten days later Major General José María Aguirre, chief of the Second Division of the Fifth Corps, proposed his promotion to colonel, which was later approved by the Council of Government.

On December 1, 1896 he entered the town of Guanabacoa alongside the chief of the North Brigade, Brigadier General Rafael de Cárdenas Benítez. Eleven days later he fought in San Francisco, which was Aguirre's last combat.

On January 16, 1897 he assaulted the train on the Regla-Guanabacoa line at the Cambute stop and took some seventy people prisoner, including eight officers and three Spanish soldiers. The following day, after executing a Spanish spy and a Cuban lieutenant in the service of Spain, he released the rest. This act had great repercussions on public opinion, as it refuted the pacification propaganda that the Spanish regime had spread after the death of Major General Antonio Maceo, which occurred on December 7, 1896.

Eleven days after this action, he attacked the town of Barreras and on March 10, 1897 he fought in Llano de Oviedo.

On April 30, 1897, together with Cárdenas he began an incursion into the province of Matanzas where on June 8, 1897 he blew up a bridge in San Miguel. On October 29, 1897 he repelled an attack on his Borroto camp.

In December the Spanish Army lieutenant colonel Joaquín Ruíz visited him in his camp and proposed that he surrender to the authorities. Aranguren ordered a Court Martial to be held and he was executed, which caused great uproar in the press of Spain and the United States.

After carrying out several actions in the north of the province of La Habana, an informant led the enemy to attack the La Pita farm near Campo Florido, where he was encamped on January 27, 1898, and he died in that action.