# Marcos Evangelista Maceo 

**Date of birth:** April 25, 1808

**Date of death:** May 14, 1869

===BODY===
As stated in baptismal record 68 of the Book of Pardos 8 (1804-1820) of the parish of Santo Tomás Apóstol, Marcos Maceo was born in Santiago de Cuba, on April 25, 1808.

His father, José Antonio Muchuli, although he passed for white, was the son of a Valencian and a mulatta from Santiago. He never legally recognized Marcos, so he only had the surname of his mother, the mulatta Clara Maceo.

His service record upon entry into the Spanish army reveals his age of 20 years, that his birthplace is Santiago de Cuba and he had black hair and eyes, dark complexion, clean-shaven, large nose, regular mouth and measured five feet six inches.

Coming from Venezuela, with passage through Santo Domingo, he arrived in Santiago de Cuba in 1825, in the company of his mother, Clara, and his siblings Doroteo, Bárbara and María del Rosario. They achieved this through the prevailing corruption on the Island—characteristic of the Spanish monarchy of that time—since the Royal Decree of 1817 prohibited the entry to Cuba of non-white persons.

He first married Amparo Téllez with whom he had six children, his firstborn was Antonio Maceo Téllez who died in the War of 1868 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Liberating Army.

Marcos possibly united with Mariana Grajales, who was a widow like him, in 1842, after becoming a widower he contracted marriage with Mariana Grajales on July 6, 1851 in the church of San Nicolás de Morón and San Luis, Oriente.

From the union of Marcos with Mariana ten children were born: Antonio, José, Baldomera, Rafael, Miguel, Julio, Dominga, Tomás, Marquito and María Dolores, although the latter died a few months after birth. Likewise, Marcos Maceo considered as his own four other children from Mariana's previous marriage to Fructuoso Regueiferos, who had died in 1840.

Of comfortable economic position, he came to own a farm of nine caballerías. He instilled in his children a profound respect and obedience to their parents. Each of the 19 boys (including the Regüeiferos and the Téllez) had his responsibility defined on the farm; he educated them based on the daily example of rectitude and kindness. He gave all of them experiences of military life in Venezuela.

Marcos Maceo was described as of regular build, well-fleshed and of dark complexion, measured manners, refined treatment and of few words. His reputation for being honest beyond a shadow of a doubt gave reputation to the family.

The couple owned a farm in the area of Majaguabo, in the current municipality of San Luis, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, where all the offspring of Marcos and from Mariana's previous marriage participated in the agricultural labors that provided sustenance to the family.

Already by mid-1868 when the winds of independence were sweeping the island, the Maceo Grajales family participated in those movements and created the Patriotic Committee of Majaguabo, which was made up of family members and neighbors from the area.

Therefore, when the independence uprising broke out on October 10, 1868, they seconded the outbreak by marching all to the insurgent camps, including Mariana with her daughters Baldomera and Dominga and Antonio's wife, María Cabrales.

The anecdote is famous that on October 25, 1868, only 15 days after the Cry of Independence or Death at La Demajagua, Mariana Grajales gathered the entire family and on her knees before the image of the crucified Christ made them swear: Free the Homeland or die for it.

Most of the Maceo Grajales brothers died fighting for the independence of their homeland, in the war of 1868 or that of 1895, fulfilling in that heroic manner the commitment made to Mariana before the image of Christ.

And the father of this glorious lineage was Marcos Evangelista Maceo, the first to fall in combat on May 14, 1869, seven months after the first independence war began, and it is told that dying in the arms of his son Antonio, Marcos said to him: "This is how all of us Maceos must die." And not one of them disappointed him.

Marcos Maceo, seed of the lineage of heroic warriors in favor of freedom and one of the most monitored men by the repressive forces of the Jurisdiction of Cuba (Santiago), fell in the bloody though victorious assault and capture of the garrison and defenses of San Agustín. At the moment of his physical disappearance he held the rank of sergeant under the command of his son, the lieutenant colonel Antonio Maceo.