Calixto García Iñiguez

Cuban military and political figure. Military chief of Oriente, he was deported to Spain (1873). Together with Martí and Maceo he organized the Guerra Chiquita, but did not arrive in time to support it (1880).

He was one of the instigators of the Cuban rebellion of 1868. General Calixto Garcia's struggle lasted from 1868 to 1898. He descended from a well-known Spanish family with a warrior tradition. His grandfather Calixto García de Luna e Izquierdo, fought with the Spanish in the Battle of Carabobo in what is now Venezuela (1821.)

From 1868 to 1874 he was active and successful in battles against the Spanish, but on September 6, 1874 he was surprised with 16 men by 500 Spanish soldiers. Seeing that there was no opportunity to escape, and not wanting to be captured alive, he put the barrel of his pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The bullet, instead of passing through his brain, exited through his forehead between his eyes, and he recovered.

He was sent to Spain and remained imprisoned until the Pact of Zanjón was signed in 1877. Then he went to Paris, and from there to New York and Cuba, and took part with Maceo in what was called "La Guerra Chiquita" (1879-1880). Captured again, his life was pardoned, and he returned to Spain, where he lived for seventeen years under the supervision of the Madrid police.

When the final revolution erupted in 1895, he escaped from Madrid. Landing in Cuba in March of 1896. His participation, along with American Forces in the Capture of Santiago, allowed him to see the result of his long struggle "the end of Spanish rule in Cuba."

General Calixto García died of pneumonia in Washington on December 11, 1898. It had been only a few weeks since he had arrived from Cuba at the head of the special Cuban commission that went to communicate the points of view of Cuban leaders to the U.S. government. General Calixto Garcia's struggle lasted from 1868 to 1898.

General Calixto Garcia was fifty-eight years old, and for more than half of his life his greatest effort had been the overthrow of Spanish rule in Cuba. When he died he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with all the military honors of the U.S.