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EL 10 DE OCTUBRE
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Del Ingenio La Demajagua se conoce que era un
pequeño trapiche azucarero ubicado en el municipio Manzanillo,
actual provincia de Granma, del cual no se sabe exactamente la
fecha de su fundación, pero sí que hacia 1840 ya existía con ese
nombre.Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, hombre progresista y ferviente
promotor de las ideas independentistas, decide establecerse en
La Demajagua, en 1866 compra a su hermano Francisco Javier el
Ingenio, al cual le hace
importantes modificaciones técnicas, desarrolla por vez primera
el trabajo asalariado y lo emplea en los preparativos de la
conspiración que dio inicios a la contienda revolucionaria.
Después de un período de preparación y lograr pasos importantes
en la organización del alzamiento previsto para el 14 de Octubre
de 1868. Un telegrama enviado a Bayamo por el Capitán General ,
en el que ordenaba reducir a presión a los revolucionarios,
impulsó a Céspedes para adelantar el inicio de la lucha; ya el
día 9 comenzó la movilización de los grupos que iban a tomar
parte de la insurrección en Manzanillo.
El 10 Octubre de 1868 en horas de la mañana, Céspedes reunido en
el Batey del Ingenio La Demajagua, frente a los hombres que
habían acudido a su llamado, presentó la bandera y conjuntamente
con la liberación de sus esclavos, hace lectura al Manifiesto
dirigido a sus compatriotas y a todas las naciones, en el que
señala las causas de la lucha que iniciaba; además proclama los
dos principios básicos que serían sus banderas de combate, la
independencia y la igualdad de todos los hombres, iniciándose
así la guerra contra la dominación española.
Este sitio convertido en el actual Museo Parque Nacional La
Demajagua, fue declarado Monumento Nacional el 6 de Junio de
1978, el mismo es venerado por todos los cubanos y valorado como
un de los sitios de mayor relevancia de nuestra gesta
emancipadora.
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El Padre de la Patria |
An excerpt
from
CUBA: FROM COLUMBUS TO CASTRO
by Jaime Suchlicki
Juan Clemente Zenea.
Born in Bayamo, Oriente on April 18, 1819, Céspedes attended
secondary schools in Havana and later enrolled at the University
of Havana. He traveled to Spain to attend college and receive a
bachelor of law degree from the University of Barcelona and a
doctorate of law from the University of Madrid.
In Spain Céspedes had his first taste of revolution. The Iberian
nation was
undergoing a period of political turmoil and Céspedes joined the
conspiratorial activities of Army General D. Juan Prim against
the regime of Baldomero Espartero. The failure of an anti-Espartero
uprising in 1843 forced Céspedes to leave the country.
From Spain Céspedes traveled throughout Europe, finally
returning to Cuba in 1844. The handsome, cultured, and energetic
Céspedes opened a law practice and engaged in business in Bayamo.
But law soon gave way to politics, as a strong anti-Spanish
movement began to develop in Cuba. Narciso López's unsuccessful
filibuster expeditions against Spanish power in Cuba and his
subsequent execution in 1851 had an impact on the young Céspedes.
Arrested because of his anti-Spanish statements and banished
from Bayamo, Céspedes began to organize a war for independence
in Oriente province.
After the 1868 "Glorious Revolution" in Spain, he saw an
opportunity for revolt in Cuba and called for immediate
revolutionary action, claiming that "the power of Spain is
decrepit and worm-eaten" and that if it still appeared great and
powerful to Cubans it was because "for more than three centuries
we have looked at it from our knees."
Céspedes and his group were determined to strike a blow at
Spanish control of Cuba. When they learned that their
conspiratorial activities had been discovered by the Spanish
authorities they were forced to act. On October 10, 1868
Céspedes issued the historic "Grito de Yara" from his
plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence. He
soon freed his slaves and incorporated them into his
disorganized and ill-armed force and made public a manifesto
explaining the causes of the revolt. Issued by the newly
organized Junta Revolucionaria de Cuba, the manifesto stated
that the revolt was prompted by Spain's arbitrary government,
excessive taxation, corruption, exclusions of Cubans from
government employment, and deprivation of political and
religious liberty, particularly the rights of assembly and
petition. It called for complete independence from Spain, for
the establishment of a republic with universal suffrage, and for
the indemnified emancipation of slaves.
The manifesto was followed by the organization of a provisional
government with Céspedes acting as commander-in-chief of the
army and head of the government. Céspedes' almost absolute power
as well as his failure to decree the immediate abolition of
slavery soon caused opposition within the revolutionary ranks.
Facing mounting pressure, Céspedes conceded some of his power
and called for a constitutional convention to establish a more
democratic provisional government.
Delegates from several eastern towns met at Guáimaro in April
1869 and adopted a constitution that provided for a
republican-type government. Unhappy with Céspedes and fearful of
concentrating too much power in the office of the president, a
faction led by Camagüey's rebel chieftain, Ignacio Agramonte,
obtained a large degree of authority for the House of
Representatives, including legislative power and control over
presidential decisions. This group, as long as it retained
power, was also able to legalize the abolition of slavery by
introducing Article 24 of the constitution which declared "all
inhabitants of the Republic to be absolutely free." Céspedes was
elected president of the new republic and Manuel Quesada was
appointed commander-in-chief.
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CAMBULA |
Candelaria (Cambula) Acosta Fontaigne, the daughter of
Juán Acosta, the foreman of La Demajuaga, was 17 years old in
1868. On the day that Carlos Manuel de Céspedes issued the Grito
de Yara, she sewed the first flag of Cuba, using material from a
blue dress, a piece of white fabric, and part of a mosquito net
which was made of red cloth. This flag, today, hangs in the Room
of the Flags, in the Museum of the City of Havana.
 Cambula
and Carlos Manuel had, it seems, been lovers for some time prior
to the death of Carlos’ wife, María del Cármen, and of this
relationship were born Cármen and Manuel. On December 7, 1866,
Carlos Manuel wrote a poem telling of his love for La Conchita,
which we believe is dedicated to Cambula. In October 1871,
Céspedes wrote that he had visited the house of Cambula to see
their daughter [Cármen] quizá por última vez [perhaps for the
last time] because, for her safety, Céspedes had recommended
that she leave the country.
Cambula left Cuba for Jamaica with Carmen and pregnant with
Manuel, but she and Cespedes wrote to each other for many years,
and he wrote fondly about her in his diary, almost up until the
day he was killed. In January 1874, Céspedes sent a Francisco
Vega to Jamaica with a package for Cambula. The package
contained letters, six ounces of gold, un rizo de sus cabellos y
un mechón de sus barbas para los gemelos [a curl of his hair and
a lock of his beard for the twins].The ship on which Vega sailed
was shipwrecked and Céspedes’ package never reached Cambula.
Cambula, Carmen, and Manuel stayed in Jamaica, where they were
sheltered by Cuban emigrants until “three years after the end of
the war”, probably 1881, when they returned to Cuba, settling in
Santiago de Cuba.
In 1885, Cambula married Antonio Acosta with who she had two
children, Ernesto and Isabel. They lived in much poverty until,
in 1928, Spain decided to return to Cuba some objects taken
during the war, amongst them, they said, the flag of Yara. But
the flag of Yara was thought to hang in the Cámara de
Representantes in Havana. Cambula was taken to Havana on April
16, 1928, and shown the flags. She passed her hand over the
star, kissed it and cried ¡Esta es la bandera! La misma
confeccionaron mis manos del 9 de octubre de 1868! [This is the
flag! The same one that I made by hand on October 9, 1868!]. The
flag returned by the Spanish was the one made by Perucho
Figueredo’s daughter, Eulalia!
Soon after, the Cuban government gave Cambula a pension and at
the beginning of 1935, honored her with the order of Carlos
Manuel de Cespedes. She died, aged 84, on May 23, 1935, and was
buried in the Cementerio de Santa Ifigenia in Santiago de Cuba,
not far from the tomb of Cespedes.
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