Antonio Maceo Grajales -- Cuba

Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales was second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence.  Fellow Cubans called him "Bronze Titan" (El Titan de Bronce), which was a reference to his skin colour, stature and status.  

The Spanish referred to Maceo as the "Greater Lion" (El Leon mayor). Maceo was one of the most noteworthy guerrilla leaders in 19th century Latin America, comparable to José Antonio Páez of Venezuela in military acumen.  Maceo was the son of a Venezuelan mulatto and an Afro-Cuban woman, he was born June 14, 1845, in the town of San Luis, in the Oriente Province outside of Santiago de Cuba.

As the oldest of the children, he inherited his father's leadership qualities and developed an active interest in the political issues of his time. He was initiated in to The Cuban Freemasonry movement which was influenced by the principles of the French Revolution "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" as well as the Masons' main guidelines: God, Reason, Virtue. After the 10 October 1868 revolt led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes against Spain known as "The cry of Yara" ("El grito de Yara"), Maceo, together with his father and brothers joined the war.  

Mariana Grajales, followed her family into the manigua (the woods) in order to support the mambises, as Cuban rebels were known.  The Maceos enlisted as privates when the Ten Years' War began, within five months, Antonio Maceo was promoted to Commander ( Major), and within a matter of weeks he was again promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Later, a promotion to Colonel followed, and five years later he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General because of his bravery and ability to outmanoeuvre the Spanish Army.  Maceo participated in more than 500 battles, however his humble origin and skin colour, delayed his raise to the Major General degree.  Men under Maceo's command began to name him “The Bronze Titan”, because of his exceptional physical strength and resistance to bullet or blade injuries.  He recovered from more than 25 war injuries during 500 military battles, and none of Maceo's wounds diminished his willingness to lead his troops into combat, whites and African Cubans followed Maceo unconditionally.

The Spanish General Arsenio Martínez-Campos y Antón, then already named Captain General of Cuba, offered peace guarantees, amnesty for revolutionary men and legal reforms, in exchange for a cease of hostilities, which had already lasted 10 years. Antonio Maceo opposed the signing of the Pact of Zanjón, which ended the Ten Years War.  He and other mambises (independence soldiers) met with General Martínez-Campos on March 15, 1878, to discuss the peace terms, but Maceo argued that no peace could be achieved if none of the objectives of the war had been accomplished.  Chief among these aims was the abolition of slavery in Cuba and Cuban independence, the only immediate benefit was amnesty for those involved in the conflict and liberty for the black soldiers who had fought in the "Liberator Army." Maceo did not recognise the treaty as valid and did not adhere to the proposed amnesty.  The Spanish tried to create the impression that Maceo was trying to start a racial war against white Cubans, though their propaganda failed to damage his reputation.

After a short stay in Jamaica and Haiti, where he was pursued by the Spanish and faced assassination attempts by the Spanish consulates, Maceo settled in the Costa Rican province of Guanacaste.  The president of Costa Rica assigned Maceo to a military unit and provided him with a small farm to live on.   Maceo was contacted by José Martí and urged to initiate the War of 1895, called by Martí the “necessary war”.   In 1895, together with Flor Crombet and other officers, Maceo disembarked in the vicinity of Baracoa (close to the eastern tip of Cuba) and after repelling a Spanish attempt to capture or kill them, they managed to gather a contingent of armed men. 

Máximo Gómez was designated General in Chief of the Cuban Liberation Army, Maceo was named Lieutenant General.  Maceo and Gómez, commanding two mambises columns, and began invading the west of Cuba, riding or walking more than 1000 miles in 96 days.  After several months bleeding the Spanish forces in Havana and Pinar del Río, Maceo arrived at Mantua, western Cuba in October 1896, after many times defeating the technically and numerically superior forces of the Spaniards.  They had exhausted the Spanish Army of more than a quarter million soldiers and traversed the entire island. Eager for independence, and opposed to the cruelty of the Spanish, the rural inhabitants of the western half of the island gave their support in men and logistics to the Liberation Army. 

After decimating the Spanish forces in the western mountains, Maceo turned eastward, where he planed to meet Gómez. His meeting with Gómez and the Government in Arms never took place. On the 7 December 1896 They were detected by a strong Spanish column, Maceo was hit by two shots, one in the chest and another that broke his jaw and penetrated his skull. His companions could not carry him because of the battle intensity and Maceo's size.  The only rebel who stayed by him was the Lieutenant Francisco Gómez (known as Panchito), son of Máximo Gómez, who faced the Spanish to protect the general.  After being shot several times, the Spaniards killed Gómez with machete strikes, leaving both bodies abandoned.  The corpses of Maceo and Panchito were picked up the next day by Colonel Aranguren, from Havana, who ran immediately to the battle scene after hearing the news.  They were later buried in secret at the farm of two brothers who swore to keep the burial place in secrecy until Cuba is free and independent, when military honours could be given to the hero. 

The remains of Antonio Maceo y Grajales and Francisco Gómez Toro lie in the monument of the Cacahual, close to the limits of the former farm of San Pedro, the site is one of pilgrimage by Cuban people.  Maceo distinguished himself as an Afro Cuban abolitionist and civil rights champion, but also as a consummate general. Famous among Cubans and feared by the Spaniards, for his horseback march wherein he covered more than 1,000 miles in 92 days and sustained 27 encounters against the Spaniards.  “Titan de Bronze” is remembered by one of the statements that embraces his philosophy: “Aqui no hay negritos ni blanquitos sino cubanos (“Here there are not little Blacks or little Whites, only Cubans”).