Donato Mármol Tamayo

He was one of the great founders of the Cuban nation, an extraordinary patriot, animated by the purest sentiments, who demonstrated having the makings of a leader and military chief, which is why the troops followed him in the most fierce combats.

He was born in Santiago de Cuba, being the legitimate son of Captain Raymundo Mármol y Valdés, a native of Venezuela, and Clotilde Tamayo y Cisneros, from Bayamo.

The family was quite wealthy, with properties in Jiguaní and Santiago de Cuba. He received the baptismal waters in the Parish Church of Bayamo eight days later, which were administered by the priest Diego José Baptista.

His childhood and youth were like those of a son of an affluent family of the time. He studied his first grades in Bayamo and later entered the famous Seminario Conciliar San Basilio del Magno, in Santiago de Cuba, where he distinguished himself for his dedication and clear intelligence.

In 1860 he undertook a trip to Spain and later visited France. The following year he was in the Dominican Republic, presumably taking part in that people's just struggle against Spanish domination. This journey put him in contact with different cultures and broadened his knowledge and views on the political and social problems under debate.

In 1862 his father died, on the estate "El Cristo," in the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba. In this way he lost a valuable support in his revolutionary formation, since the Venezuelan professed great liberal ideas.

On May 9, 1863, Donato Mármol married Guadalupe Milanés Bazán in the Parish Church of Bayamo, before the priest Diego José Baptista.

She brought as her dowry the magnificent estate Santa Teresa, on the banks of the Cautillo River, on the borders of Bayamo and Jiguaní. From this union were born three children: Siboney, Clotilde, and Teresa.

He dedicated himself to the management of his properties, fundamentally to the cattle estate Santa Teresa, although he remained not indifferent to the political upheavals on the Island.

According to the testimony of the patriot Mariano Acosta, since 1864 the young landowner had been engaged in conspiratorial contacts with the Bayamo native Francisco Vicente Aguilera.

To develop their subversive activities, they made use of Masonic activism, which is why Aguilera managed the founding of the lodge Estrella Tropical No. 19. Indeed, on July 26, 1866, this Masonic fraternity was founded, where Mármol had the symbolic name Siboney.

On August 14, 1867, he was present at the constitutive meeting of the Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo.

Principal leader of the jurisdiction of Jiguaní, Mármol was among the first small landowners who gathered important contingents of men to support the uprising of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

In September of 1868 the leaders in the different regions decided to hold an exchange of views, the place chosen was the farm El Potrero, of his father-in-law José Antonio Milanés, adjoining Mármol's.

Aguilera, Pancho Maceo, Carlos M. de Céspedes, Manuel de Jesús Calvar, Jaime Santiesteban, Salvador Cisneros, Carlos Loret de Mola, Julio Grave de Peralta, and Donato Mármol attended. The debate was long and heated since some argued that they could not gather the necessary resources, but Carlos M. de Céspedes with energetic eloquence reasoned that the people were prepared for the insurrection and awaited it eagerly. Although none doubted the veracity of his data, he received support only from Mármol.

On October 13, 1868, together with Calixto García and a hundred men, with only 25 armed with poor rifles and machetes, he took the town of Jiguaní and made prisoner the lieutenant governor Francisco Muguruza Lersundi, nephew of the Captain General of the Island. Thanks to this action he was able to arm his forces and take possession hours later of Santa Rita, Baire, and Ventas de Casanova.

Céspedes extended the rank of general to him, as well as to other chiefs of the rebel groups, while appointing Brigadier Máximo Gómez, a Dominican, as chief of the General Staff of those forces. On October 25, Gómez began combat at Ventas del Pino, in which he was aided by Donato Mármol and the commanders Benjamín Ramírez Rondón and Rafael Milanés Céspedes.

In the first months of the war the insurgents dominated the entire Cauto region and guaranteed the permanence of Céspedes' government in Bayamo. But in early January 1868, from Las Tunas advanced the colonialist division of General Blas Villate, Count of Balmaseda, composed of about three thousand men and three artillery pieces, with the objective of reconquering the city.

After Mármol's defeat, he disagreed with Céspedes and Aguilera on the way to conduct the war.

Thus, at the sugar estate Caney, in the vicinity of Palma Soriano, he established unified command with the rank of Dictator, with General Máximo Gómez as his second.

On January 29, 1869, in the hamlet of Tacajó, Holguín, Céspedes, Aguilera, Luis Marcano, and Perucho Figueredo, among others, demanded that Mármol relinquish his de facto prerogatives.

Patriotically, Mármol and his followers understood the damage that divisions caused to the revolutionary struggle and accepted the undisputed leadership of Céspedes. From this meeting emerged the agreements to form a Central Revolutionary Board, a republican government program, and to declare all inhabitants of the Island free.

Mármol possessed a natural capacity for military organization, with each of his units operating in specific areas.

As general, Donato received the order to face the powerful enemy. Even though he counted with several thousand soldiers, about 500 with firearms and the rest armed with machetes, the brave mambí accepted the challenge.

In view of this, he positioned his forces along the Salado River. On January 7, combat began at the Saladillo passage. The technical and military superiority of the adversary prevailed, with the patriots having to withdraw to Cauto del Paso. In the following days, actions continued, with the Count of Valmaseda managing to cross the Cauto River at Cauto Embarcadero.

When it became known that it was impossible to stop the enemy division, the people of Bayamo decided in public assembly to set fire to their beautiful city, rather than surrender it to the colonialists. General Mármol personally set fire to his ancestral home.

He was an advocate for the destruction of the properties of the enemies of the revolution and the liberation of slave populations. The strategic idea that dominated his thinking was the invasion of Guantánamo, toward which he sent his subordinate Policarpo Pineda (Rustán). This led him to organize an entrenched encampment in Sabanilla, from where he carried out raids against enemy positions.

Battles he directed

On February 8, 1869, he attacked the town of Jiguaní again.

After the Liberation Army was restructured following the Assembly of Guáimaro on April 10, 1869, he became chief of First Brigade, Second Division of Oriente.

On June 7, 1869, he took part in the attack on the fort of La Cuaba, in Holguín, serving as chief of staff of Major General Thomas Jordan, chief of Operations of Oriente.

In July of that year he was confirmed in the rank of Major General and the leadership of the Cuba district, which encompassed the regions of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and Jiguaní. He was the organizer of the Cuba Division, subsequently commanded by Major Generals Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo, both subordinate to him at that time.

On August 7, 1869, he defeated a Spanish column in Mayarí Arriba.

In 1870 he planned the invasion of Guantánamo, which he could not carry out due to his untimely death.

When in June 1870 he believed the conditions had been created for the invasion of Guantánamo, unfortunately, he fell ill with smallpox. Despite not being completely recovered, he pressed for the concentration of forces.

The lack of medicines, the harsh weather, and the damp conditions aggravated his physical state, the fever increased and he lost consciousness.

He died at the age of 32, at the San Felipe estate, in the district of Palma Soriano.