Octavio de la Concepción de la Pedraja

Doctor, guerrilla fighter, and military officer. He fought against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and later joined Che's guerrilla movement in Bolivia.

He was born in La Habana. When he was a year old, his parents, both pharmacists, moved to try their luck at the Tacajó sugar mill, in the province of Oriente, now Holguín. His childhood and early education took place there until the fifth grade, when he entered as a boarding student at Colegio de Belén, in the capital, until he completed his high school diploma in 1953.

He enrolled in the Medicine program at the Universidad de La Habana in 1952, and at Calixto García he met the young doctor José Ramón Machado Ventura, his future commander and fellow fighter.

He had to interrupt his studies in 1957 due to the closure of the University. By then he had already participated in student revolutionary movements and some demonstrations at the Escalinata. He returns to Tacajó, and there he continues collaborating with the Movimiento 26 de Julio in the sale of bonds and sending medicine to the rebels.

In 1958 he reestablishes communication with Machado Ventura and decides to join the troops of the Rebel Army.

In the Sierra Maestra he joined the Rebel Military Health Department, in the Second Eastern Front "Frank País", where he participated in combat operations such as those at Río Frío, Santa Ana, and the taking of Sagua de Tánamo. He came down with the rank of first lieutenant.

With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution he was appointed Chief of Military Health in Guantánamo, one of the poorest and most backward regions of the country.

He resumed his Medicine studies and completed his internship at the hospital in Baracoa, where he requested to perform his rural medical-social service. He completed it in an outstanding manner and obtained membership in the Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista.

He moved to La Habana to do a Surgery residency at Calixto García, where he stood out for his perseverance and love of the specialty. There he was part of the newly created Department of Experimental Surgery, where the first steps were taken for organ transplantation. He participated in the first two kidney transplants, which were performed successfully.

In 1965 he joins the select group that accompanies Ernesto Che Guevara to the Congo and stands out as a doctor and soldier. With that same mission he is selected to join the Bolivian guerrilla.

In the last months he faced a severe illness that at times became critical. In relation to these ailments, Che noted in his diary on August 20, 1967: "The Doctor is still sick with what appears to be lumbago with a general decline that makes him an invalid," and two days later he assures: "I gave the Doctor a regional anesthetic and with that he was able to travel, on horseback, although he arrived in pain; he seems a bit better."

On October 8, shortly before the battle of the Quebrada del Yuro began, Che, fearing for the health of the Moro and the other sick, ordered Francisco Huanca (Pablito), the youngest of the group, to go as far as possible in the direction of the Río Grande, in the company of this one, of Lucio Edilberto Galván (Eustaquio), and of Jaime Arana (Chapaco).

They marched for four days through the inhospitable area of continuous cliffs and sparse vegetation. Finally, on October 12, at the confluence of the Mizque with the Río Grande, where they arrived in search of water, an unequal battle ensued, in which, totally defenseless, the four guerrillas were massacred.

Octavio de la Concepción left two children: Tavito, who was six years old and is today a surgeon, specialist in Urology; and Oscarito, barely two years old, later graduated as a Mechanical Engineer in the USSR.

Three decades after what happened in Bolivia, his remains were found and deposited in the Mausoleum that was built in Santa Clara to honor Che and his companions in struggle.