Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán

Founder of the Rebel Army and one of its principal leaders during the National Liberation War; outstanding revolutionary of humble origins and broad popular support due to his cheerful character and natural generosity.

He was born in La Habana, in the Lawton neighborhood. He was the son of Ramón Cienfuegos Flores and Emilia Gorriarán Zaballa, Spanish anarchists, originally from Pravia (Asturias) and Castro Urdiales (Cantabria) respectively.

He completed his first studies at Public School No. 96 San Francisco de Paula in his native city, and after being forced by his family's difficult economic situation to live in different places, he returned to Lawton where he finished elementary school at Public School No. 105 Félix E. Alpízar.

Already in 1948 he had begun to become involved in political struggle by participating in popular protests against the increase in urban bus fares.

On March 10, 1952, when Fulgencio Batista carried out his coup d'état, he went to the University with a group of young people seeking weapons to resist the dictatorship. During this time he established friendships with other young people who would play prominent roles in subsequent events, Carlos Leijás, Israel Tápanes, Reinaldo Benítez and brothers Mario and José Fuentes.

In April 1953 with his friend Rafael Sierra he traveled to the United States in search of better economic opportunities. There he worked in several cities as a laborer and waiter. Connected to Latin American emigrants, he participated in various demonstrations and wrote a critical article against Batista for the newspaper La voz de Cuba titled Moral Identification.

In 1955 he was detained in San Francisco by the immigration department and finally deported to Mexico.

He returned to Cuba on June 5, 1955 and while returning to work at El Arte and joining the struggle against Batista's regime, in September he married Isabel Blandón, a Salvadoran nurse he had met in San Francisco.

On December 14, 1955, he was wounded by a firearm during a demonstration in honor of Cuban independence hero Antonio Maceo, which did not prevent him from participating in the commemoration of the 103rd anniversary of José Martí's birth at Central Park. This time, beaten and taken to BRAC where he was registered as a communist by dictator Fulgencio Batista's police force. Finding himself persecuted and without work, he decided to go into exile, so in March 1956 he traveled again to the United States.

By September he was in Mexico, where he managed to establish contact with Fidel Castro, who was organizing a revolutionary expedition that would return to Cuba to begin the struggle against Batista's regime. Cienfuegos was the last one chosen for the Granma yacht expedition, because he did not have sufficient military training, so he was quickly sent to the Abasolo camp, State of Tamaulipas, where he received guerrilla warfare training and shooting practice.

On December 2, 1956 he was among the 82 combatants who disembarked from the Granma yacht on Cuban shores to begin armed struggle in the Sierra Maestra. He quickly distinguished himself through his courage, audacity and command qualities.

He received his baptism by fire with his companions at Alegría de Pío, on December 5, 1956. In the combat at El Uvero, he already held the rank of lieutenant and commanded a platoon. In the armed struggle in the Sierra Maestra, due to his combat actions, he was granted the rank of Captain of the Rebel Army.

In 1957 a new guerrilla column was created: column number 4, offspring of the mother column "José Martí", and under the command of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara. In this guerrilla column, Captain Cienfuegos served as head of the vanguard. Also here, within the armed struggle, a deep friendship was born between him and Che.

The combats at Bueycito, El Hombrito and Pino del Agua feature the figure of Cienfuegos. His valor and daring contributed to forming the myth of the "Lord of the Vanguard."

In March 1958 he became the first leader of the movement that carried the fight beyond the Sierra Maestra, to the plains of Cauto. The success of that brief campaign, in which he harassed enemy communications, even made incursions into the city of Bayamo and faced the army in the combat at La Estrella, earned him in April a promotion by Fidel Castro to the rank of Commander.2

On June 18 he returned to the Sierra, and the following months he remained at the La Plata Command participating in several combats, including those at Vega de Jibacoa and Las Mercedes.

When it was decided to extend the war to other territories, he received the difficult mission of directing the column that would carry it to the plains. In April 1958 he was promoted to Commander and a vast area of the eastern territory came under his responsibility.

As the rebel forces definitively went on the offensive in August 1958, he was appointed head of the Invasion Column "Antonio Maceo" which, together with the one commanded by Che Guevara, carried out the risky mission of invading the center of the island.

Invasion column number 2 "Antonio Maceo", which, with 92 combatants (only 82 armed), left the Sierra Maestra toward western Cuba, beginning its operations in coordination with column No. 8 "Ciro Redondo" under the command of Ernesto Che Guevara, extending the military actions that had begun in the eastern zone to the western part of the country.

On October 3, after multiple hardships and extraordinary displays of heroism, he arrived in the province of Las Villas where he fought successful combats, among which the capture of Yaguajay stands out.

On December 21, 1958 Cienfuegos' vanguard, under the command of commander Félix Torres and captain William Gálvez, began the siege of the barracks and the locality of Yaguajay. After capturing Zulueta, on the night of the 22nd Cienfuegos joined the siege with the rest of his troops, gathering somewhat more than 200 men.

The Battle of Yaguajay to overcome the resistance of the army garrison, 350 personnel under the command of captain Alfredo Abón Lee, lasted until the afternoon of December 31st, and represented a decisive blow by the rebel army to weaken the repressive forces of tyrant Fulgencio Batista. His performance in this battle earned him the nickname "The Hero of Yaguajay."

After the revolutionary triumph he held important military responsibilities. On October 28, 1959, while returning to La Habana after neutralizing a counterrevolutionary conspiracy in the province of Camagüey, the small airplane in which he was traveling disappeared without a trace.

Commander Ernesto Guevara said of him:
"Camilo was the companion of a hundred battles, the man of Fidel's trust in the difficult moments of war and the dedicated fighter who always made sacrifice an instrument to temper his character and forge that of the troops... Camilo was Camilo, lord of the vanguard, complete guerrilla fighter who stood out through that colorful warfare that he knew how to wage."