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Recalling de Céspedes:
true hero of the nation
By Alberto Bustamante.
Posted on Mon, Oct. 10, 2005 in The
Miami Herald.
In 1963, as a medical student in Madrid,
I visited for the first time the Alcázar
of Toledo and lived an emotional moment
when shown the telephone that Gen. Jose
Moscardó used to say goodbye to his
son: The son gave his life to the enemy,
but did not give up the Spanish people's
fight for liberty, symbolized by that Alcázar.
I remember my pride recalling that we had
a similar episode in Cuba. That's when Carlos
Manuel de Céspedes, the father of
the Cuban nation, had his son, Oscar, taken
prisoner and used by the Spaniards as a
hostage to blackmail Céspedes. Céspedes
responded: ''Oscar is not my only son, I
am the father of all the Cubans who have
died for Cuba.'' And Oscar was executed
on June 3, 1870.
In the suffering of today's Cuba, we evoke
the image of the father of the Cuban nation.
Today marks the anniversary of his 1868
call for Cuban independence from Spain.
Cubans have had to pay a high price for
liberty. But we must understand and accept
God's designs. That suffering will be our
source and energy in the rebirth of the
Cuban nation.
Tyranny, far from being the grave of free
men, is their very cradle. Recounting Céspedes'
life, we can appreciate his greatness and
his example. From the Céspedes family,
his brothers, Francisco Javier and Pedro,
and his two sons, Carlos Manuel and Oscar,
went off to war.
o Pedro was executed by a firing squad
with the 50 freedom fighters captured on
the ship Virginius in 1893.
o Francisco Javier became a major general,
survived two wars and was the only brother
who lived to see Cuban independence.
o Carlos Manuel survived and moved to the
United States, where he continued to serve
the fatherland.
In the same year of 1870, Carlos Manuel
de Céspedes' first son from his second
marriage, a child only a few months old
whom they had also named Oscar, died of
starvation in the jungle. In his letters
to his wife in exile after Oscar's death,
his narrations are heart rending. The present
situation of the people of Cuba lives on
in his words. He wrote in one of his letters:
"The future appears gloomy, my honor
tarnished, my fatherland poor and enslaved.
My children with beggar's hat in hand or
on the threshold of prostitution. Nevertheless,
everyone cries their hardships to me, to
whom shall I cry mine?''
In another letter he wrote: "It is
impossible for you to come to Cuba, where
no decent woman can live. Food is reduced
to fruits and roots and, from time to time,
jutía [a Cuban rodent] or horsemeat,
never pork.''
Abandoned, persecuted and hungry, on Feb.
27, 1874, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
died from a bullet fired by Brígido
Verdecia, who was serving as a volunteer
for the Spanish forces although he was a
Cuban by birth!
Céspedes' death was the martyr's
coronation to complete his greatness. In
Cuba's War of 1868-1878, one-third of the
population of that time perished. The War
of 1895 left no less than 250,000 Cubans
dead. These figures change according to
various historians. Some of them say that
the number reached approximately 400,000.
As in the 19th century, today the holocaust
of a people is being brought about by tyranny.
But emulating the father of the nation,
when he was waiting for an expedition bringing
provisions, we can now declare: "Let
rancor and revenge flee far from our hearts.''
In each and every one of those men of the
Wars of 1868 and 1895, hate and vengeance
never prevailed, and that made it possible
for the Republic to rise among Cubans and
Spaniards.
The father of the Cuban nation freed the
slaves in 1868, lost his wealth and his
family and gave up his life for Cuba's freedom.
The tyrant of the Cuban nation today has
enslaved his people, destroyed the family
and oppresses its people in poverty and
hunger. And now the tyrant is trying to
drown the island of Cuba in a sea of blood
so as not to give up his power.
In every corner within and outside of Cuba,
we see today how, faced with total catastrophe,
a feeling of national unity and salvation
of the Cuban nation is growing.
Let us be firm now more than ever in our
determination for freedom without conditions,
in a democracy without limitations and in
a nation free of oppressors. To those who
conspire to prolong the agony of our people,
we say: Enough is enough!
Alberto Bustamante is a retired physician
in Orlando and founder of Cuban Cultural
Heritage.
Versión
original en español
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