José Quintino Bandera Betancourt

General Quintín Banderas, combatant of the two wars of independence, was vilely assassinated by forces of the rural guard. This assassination was linked to the reelectionist purpose of Tomás Estrada Palma. The liberal opposition, to rescue their rights, took up arms and initiated the August Uprising. Quintín Banderas, at the head of an encampment, was surprised in the vicinity of Arroyo Arenas and there was cruelly macheted.

Cuban general in the Wars of Independence. He was born in Santiago de Cuba, was of African descent, of difficult temperament, and of little education.

From 1851 he openly devoted himself to the cause of Cuban freedom. He rose from soldier to major general during Cuba's wars.

In 1895, after having been imprisoned in Spain due to his participation in the Little War, he was one of the first to rise up on February 24th. After the war ended, he accepted no position in the government of the new Republic, accepting only a simple job as a worker in a local industry.

When Tomás Estrada Palma sought reelection, he was one of the first to be willing to take up arms again in opposition to his purposes.

The liberal opposition, to assert their discontent, took up arms and initiated the so-called August Uprising. General Quintín Banderas was cruelly macheted by forces of the rural guard at the farm "El Garro," near Arroyo Arenas. His remains rest in a simple black marble mausoleum in the Colón Cemetery in Havana.

The cold and rainy morning of December 1st, 1868, with the East already at war after the cry of independence at the sugar mill Demajagua, a group of inexperienced mambises, under the orders of Colonel José de Jesús Pérez, prepared to attack the town of El Cobre, in the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba.

Very nearby, at the Manaca farm, a short black man of strong physical build, while performing the usual agricultural tasks, did not miss details about the strange military movements around him and, almost immediately, decided to join the ranks of the nascent Liberation Army.

He had been born in 1833, in the home founded by his parents, José Sabás Bandera and María de la Caridad Betancourt, free blacks, on Rastro Street number 6 between San Antonio and San Ricardo, very close to the Los Hoyos neighborhood.

Of willful, indomitable and daring character, he completed only a couple of grades in primary education, abandoned his humble home and enrolled on the steamship Gonzalo, belonging to the Spanish Transatlantic Company. When the cargo ship touched the docks of Santander, the boy, 11 years old, escaped and began to wander through the port city.

He later took advantage of the frigate Ignacita's stay in the same port, joining it with the authorization of Captain Juan Rabala.

Finally, one fine day in 1847, his parents learned of his whereabouts and filed a legal claim for the minor. Weeks later, he returned to Cuban soil on the brig Pilar.

After a short time in Santiago de Cuba, exactly on May 2nd, 1850, he showed the first signs of unrest against colonial domination and became involved in conspiratorial activities with fellow countrymen Hilario and Manuel Cisneros, José Valiente, Francisco Oberto, Pedro Santacilla, Cayetano Hechavarría and Francisco de Paula Bravo, retired commander of Venezuelan militias.

Incorporated into Colonel José de Jesús Pérez's troop, in the Ten Years' War he participated as a rifleman in the attack on El Cobre, where, for his bravery, the company chief, Captain Lino Sánchez, promoted him to corporal. In a very short time, Quintín participated in numerous actions, including when he was part of the platoon that went to the El Ramón peninsula (May 16th, 1869), near Nipe Bay, to receive the expeditionaries from the steamship Perrit, commanded by American General Thomas Jordan.

Three days later he fought at Canalita against the forces of General Manuel Buceta y Villas; he also participated in the battles of la Cuaba and Las Calabazas, as well as in Tabares, Sevilla, Yayabo, Hongolosongo, Estero de Morón and Cambute, an action in which he received the rank of sergeant.

He obtained the rank of lieutenant under the orders of Calixto García, in 1874, and with him took part in the attacks on Samá, Copeyal, Santa María, Chaparra, Holguín, Cabezadas de Camazán and El Zarzal. He also demonstrated fearless valor in Manzanillo, Santa Rita and Melones.

As a captain, he led one of the companies of the invading contingent that departed for Las Villas, in May of 1875, headed by General Manuel de J. Tita Calvar.

In the glorious campaigns of 1877, under the command of Máximo Gómez, he fought at the González plantation, Breguetudo and other battles to receive the rank of commander. Returning with Gómez, while he attacked Ciego de Ávila, he carried out similar operations in Morón and Punta Alegre.

On the occasion of the Protest of Baraguá, on March 15th, 1878, he was with Antonio Maceo as a member of the General Staff and in that capacity acted as Chief of Day in the custody of the mambi encampment.

After some time, the Provisional Government of the East, established after the historic Protest, and made up of Fernando Figueredo, Pablo Beola, Manuel de J. Calviar and Leonardo del Mármol, rewarded his valor and loyalty to the Revolution with promotion to lieutenant colonel.

After the war ended, he gathered more than one hundred families in Jibacoa, established a settlement (Kilolo) and worked with his people until receiving an urgent message from Santiago de Cuba, signed by the leader and friend Guillermón Moncada, in which he was directed to restart the war.

After the struggle ended and the men who fought in the wilderness returned home, the Pact of Zanjón carried with it implied material compensation that many, like Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez, rejected, but that, being an agreement signed by the parties involved, the mambises could accept.

Quintín held the rank of lieutenant colonel and completely lacked resources. As a man of well-earned military merits and proven valor, which, combined with the possibility of exercising special influence over his brothers-in-arms, led Spanish General Francisco Ochande to offer him, as a "gracious" gift, the respectable sum of three thousand pesos. Before the officer finished hearing the offer, Quintín rejected it indignantly and spat in his face: "Now I surrender, but I will never sell myself."

Never could the deceptive proposals put forth by Spanish authorities in the Pact of Zanjón eliminate the ferment of discontent and rebellion that animated the patriots of '68 for the span of a decade. Thus it was that in August of 1879, Cubans returned to combat in the so-called Little War, in which Quintín was a distinguished protagonist. But the lack of unity and organization among Cubans prevented victory this time.

Quintín Bandera, both in exile and on native soil, never forgot his obligations as a good Cuban. While José Martí, Gómez and Maceo worked and insisted on a single idea: "Unite in equality of rights and duties all members of the Cuban family," our man, at the age of 62, appears once again among the first to answer the call of February 24th, 1895.

Then, he carried out several operations on his own in the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba, until at the end of April he met with Antonio Maceo and marched to Holguín. When on October 22nd the invasion column departed from the unforgettable Mangos de Baraguá, leading the infantry was his principal weapon, the incomparable Quintín.

It is impossible to follow his trajectory during the glorious campaign. He fought from trench to trench, the same in hand-to-hand combat as steel against steel, against the enemy tercios. Thus was he, a mambi in every sense of the word, and the mere mention of his name terrified the Spanish forces.

Upon the conclusion of the War of Independence, due to the opportunistic intervention of American troops in 1898, the valiant warrior, now with the rank of general, like many other insurgent soldiers, settled in the Cuban capital and started a family. On June 27th, 1901, at 68 years of age, he married the young Virginia Zuaznábar, and from that union five children were born.

The economic tragedy lived from that moment on turned out to be the same as that shared by many of the other liberators and all the Cuban people. It was a generalized crisis, causing the discontent that was exploited by the opportunistic politicians of the time to initiate an insurrection, later known as "the August uprising."

Pressed by the lack of necessary bread, Quintín only thought about obtaining some work that would allow him to support his family, and there he ran into the sad reality lived in the nation. Government positions constituted a precious spoil in the hands of the opportunists of the time. After long months of unusual wandering, he obtained a position as "garbage superintendent," but in a short time he was dismissed and never succeeded in getting reinstated.

Misery weighed him down, and after innumerable efforts, he was able to speak with President Tomás Estrada Palma. The only thing he obtained from him was the shameful handout of five pesos. With innate rudeness, he returned them to the chief executive and left the Presidential Palace indignant.

Learning of the incident, the owners of the soap firm Sabatés, for propaganda purposes, gave the order to give him five pesos each time General Quintín Bandera requested it. On the other hand, the Crusellas house, a rival entity, decided to employ him as a street vendor, and for thousands of Havanans it soon became familiar to see the sturdy dark-skinned man touching from door to door dressed in the uniform he wore with the insignia of general division on its lapels.

That became the argument for some to take advantage of the generalized crisis and succeed in persuading him to participate in the aforementioned August uprising, under the pretext that a new republic would embody his old ideals of equality and brotherhood.

But while the republic was lavish in goods and remuneration for all the organizers of the revolt, for the valiant Quintín Bandera only remained the volleys of fratricidal lead that shattered his flesh and took his life on August 23rd, 1906, near the Ariguanabo lagoon, in the town of Bauta. Quintín Banderas, at the head of an encampment, was surprised in the vicinity of Arroyo Arenas and there was cruelly macheted.

In the evening of August 24th, inside the bare sarcophagus, a ramshackle coal-selling cart transported his remains to the Colón Cemetery. His only companions were his widow Virginia and a friend.

According to the accounts of the time, President Estrada Palma personally ordered that he be buried in a common grave, leaving no simple sign. Given that abusive situation, the grieving women requested the help of Father Felipe Augusto Caballero, chaplain of the necropolis, who recommended they return to see him the following day.

When they arrived at the cemetery, the honorable cleric Caballero led them to the same spot, in the area designated for the poor, where the remains of the mambi rested. On the ridge of the newly covered grave appeared a rough cross and a bouquet of flowers. In clear letters one could read an inscription: "Here lies Felipe Augusto Caballero, died on August 23rd, 1906."