Antonio Sánchez Díaz

He was a Cuban military officer who fought in the Cuban Revolution (1957-1959) reaching the rank of commander, and later joined the Ñancahuazú Guerrilla commanded by Ernesto Che Guevara in 1966-1967 in southeast Bolivia, where he died in combat.

He was born on a farm called La Cantera, in the San José neighborhood of Pinar del Río, where he worked as a mason. He received the name Antonio due to the historical coincidence of coming into the world on the same day that the Bronze Titan fell in combat.

He was the sixth of 12 children in a peasant family that rented a piece of land to survive on what they cultivated.

Due to his family's situation, he was forced to work with his father from age seven, fundamentally in tobacco work. But because of this, Tite, as they called him in the neighborhood, did not lose the liveliness of childhood in which he also learned to shoot very well because he was fond of hunting.

Alternating with work in the field, he managed to reach seventh grade and began studying Commerce at night.

By age 18 he had learned the trade of masonry and everything related to formwork carpentry. This way he helped support his parents and five other siblings who had not yet set up their own households.

After the military coup that gave rise to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952, he decided to participate actively in opposition actions. In 1957 he decided to cross the island to join the guerrilla group led by Fidel Castro that had begun operating in the Sierra Maestra that year.

He arrived at the Sierra Maestra where the mountains seemed largest to him, and since he was not sent by the Movement 26 of July, he had to earn his place in the rebel ranks with the determination of those who know what they want.

It was April 1957 and the young Antonio Sánchez Díaz had spent almost three months in the eastern mountains seeking how to join those who since December of the previous year had been fighting for Cuba's freedom in that area.

He had sold his masonry tools, as a last resort to have enough to survive until reaching the Sierra. Already in January of that year he had failed in his first attempt and this time he was determined not to return: he wanted to fight for Cuba's true independence.

Already at the rebel command post, he soon lost his name and began to be called Pinares, after his province of origin.

He was entrusted with the responsibility of the only .30 caliber machine gun that the revolutionaries had at that time. This was done taking into account his strong physical build and the good marksmanship he had.

Despite the ups and downs of guerrilla life, he always maintained two traits that defined his personality: his jovial character and his personal courage.

In the battle of El Purialón, during Batista's offensive against the Rebel Army, his commander, Captain Andrés Cuevas, falls. Upon observing that some companions were crying and attempting to carry the deceased, he says to them thus: "Here we don't fight with tears but with bullets!"

He distinguished himself so much during the 11 days they defended and maintained their position that he is promoted from soldier to captain.

Subsequently he was appointed head of the rear guard of the Antonio Maceo invasion column, which under the orders of Commander Camilo Cienfuegos departed from the Sierra Maestra toward the west on August 21, 1958. Already in Las Villas, Pinares distinguished himself for his bravery in 10 combats.

For his outstanding participation in the final stage of the struggle, he is promoted to commander on January 4, 1959. His commander imposed the rank on him in a simple ceremony held in Ciudad Libertad.

Pinares, as everyone called him by then, held various positions in the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) in places like Isle of Pines, Camagüey, Oriente and Pinar del Río.

To these duties he added studies in several military training centers that helped him increase his knowledge as a FAR officer.

In 1965, when the first Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was established, Antonio Sánchez Díaz was one of its members.

After the failed experience in the Congo, Ernesto Guevara organized a guerrilla focus in Bolivia, where he established as of November 3, 1967, in a mountainous area near the city of Santa Cruz, in an area crossed by the seasonal Ñancahuazú river, a tributary of the important Grande river (Bolivia).

The guerrilla group took the name National Liberation Army (ELN) of Bolivia with support sections in Argentina, Chile and Peru.

Ernesto Guevara chose Pinares to be part of the group of 16 Cubans who acted as fighters in the Ñancahuazú Guerrilla, using the war name "Marcos," being designated as second commander of the guerrilla (later relegated to third) and head of the vanguard, but due to his repeated disciplinary faults he was removed from his positions to join, as a simple combatant, the rear guard platoon led by Juan "Vilo" Acuña ("Joaquín").

Only when Commander Ernesto Guevara called him in 1966 to be part of the internationalist guerrilla that would fight somewhere in our America did he leave the responsibilities he had and even had to change his name.

He arrived in Bolivia on November 20, 1966. That day Che noted in his diary: "At midday Marcos and Rolando arrived. Now we are six..."

In the diary of the Heroic Guerrilla fighter, there are several references to the qualities and errors of the combatant.

On June 2 he died in an ambush at Peñón Colorado, together with his Bolivian companion Casildo Condori.

A few weeks later, on October 9, Che Guevara would be murdered in La Higuera (Bolivia).
His body was found near Lagunillas on April 11 of 2000. His remains were later transferred to Cuba and today rest in the monument to Ché Guevara in Santa Clara.