Juan Fajardo Vega

Soldier of the Liberation Army. He was the last Cuban combatant of the Wars of Independence to die, which is why he was called the last Mambí.

He was born in Guayabal, in a place near the town of Contramaestre, current province of Santiago de Cuba, as part of a poor family, sustained by agricultural labor.

At 16 years of age, Fajardo Vega joined the ranks of the Cuban Liberation Army on July 10, 1897, joining the escort of then brigadier general Saturnino Lora, in the 2nd general headquarters, Division 2 Corps that operated in Jiguaní and Bayamo. He was later transferred to the Baire infantry regiment, belonging to the 1st brigade of the same division.

His other six brothers also went to the manigua, to win Cuban independence with weapons, and one of them, Francisco, joined the troops of lieutenant general Antonio Maceo Grajales and together with him carried out the Invasion from East to West, one of the most transcendent military feats of his time.

Despite the economic hardships of the era, the independence fighter refused to collect any pension for his participation in the war, considering that he had not gone to it for material interest, but for the freedom of Cuba. He himself would define this position as follows: "Every time the Homeland has been in danger, I have left my trades and put myself at the service of its defense, and when peace returned, back to my trades again. No living off the Homeland!"

During the Republic he participated in the uprising of the Independent Party of Color in May and June of 1912 and in the uprising of the liberals against the reelection of president Mario García Menocal in February of 1917. During the War of National Liberation he collaborated as an armorer in the Third Front "Mario Muñoz Monroy", of the Rebel Army, in the region of Santiago de Cuba.

He was present at the Chambelona War, an experience that went down in Cuba's history as something sad, since dishonest Cubans clashed with ambitious aspirations from both sides. His position was in favor of Cuban freedom, without any party commitment, always with honor as a shield and libertarian ideals as weapons.

In the struggles carried out by the Rebel Army led by commander in chief Fidel Castro Ruz, he participated as an armorer of the III Eastern Front. The revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959 found him with his carbine on his shoulder, no longer the inexperienced mambí who had the misfortune of taking to the grave the last image of Antonio Maceo alive, he is a man dedicated to agricultural work, a simple peasant who did not write books about the war as many of his contemporaries did.

This simple country man committed himself to Fidel Castro's cause and is among those who linked themselves to the different actions undertaken by the Revolution.

He left no written work to immortalize him, nor did any poet sing his glories. As an anonymous man from the deepest roots of Cuba, his mission was to give himself to the humble with whom he shared fortune as one more, he did not have great feats of war, nor did he distinguish himself for his military exploits, but his eyes were the last to see the Liberation Army, the last to see Antonio Maceo alive.

Soldier Juan Fajardo Vega received numerous decorations, standing out the medal for Distinguished Services of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), on the occasion of turning 107 years old, in recognition of his long and outstanding revolutionary trajectory.

He was the only combatant of the Liberation Army still alive in Cuba in 1990. He died on August 2 of that same year in Santiago de Cuba. His body was laid in state at the historic Museum in the town of Baire and his remains were deposited in the Mausoleum of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in El Cacahual, province of La Habana, together with the undefeated general Antonio Maceo and his young aide Panchito Gómez Toro.

Juan Fajardo Vega is the humble man who said before the tribunal of history:

"Every time the Homeland has been in danger, I have left my trades and put myself at the service of its defense, and when peace returned, back to my trades again. No living off the Homeland!"