Havana_ Cubans are commemorating the 173rd anniversary of the birthday of the Libertador Army's Greatest General, Antonio Maceo, known on the Caribbean island as the Titan de Bronce, Prensa Latina reports.

Maceo - son of Mariana Grajales, considered in the Antillean nation as the Mother of the Nation - was educated along with his brothers under strong rules of discipline, work, elegance in dressing, courtesy, and respect for elders, honesty, solidarity, courage, tenacity and patriotism.

Several historians describe him as a master of military tactics, and it is estimated that he intervened in more than 600 combat actions, among which there are around 200 battles of great significance.

These confrontations left in his body 26 scars of war, of which he received 21 in the Ten Years War (1868-1878).

He is also remembered for the Protest of Baraguá, a historical fact that demonstrated the decision of a people to live without owners, or chains.

Division, dispersion and caudillismo attempted against the results of the Ten Years' War against Spanish colonialism. In this situation, among other issues, the Zanjón Pact was signed on February 10, 1878. Through this document, Spain also intended a capitulation, an unjust peace for Cubans.

But many, with unalterable decorum, were convinced that the text was a brief interruption of the struggle and not a way out, and would be fought to achieve true freedom.

Maceo overcame above all, with his exemplary conduct and irrevocable position to fight dragged heads, officers and soldiers to continue his total commitment to the cause for independence.

On March 15, 1878, during an interview held by Maceo with the Spanish general Arsenio Martínez Campos, the intransigence and dissatisfaction of the insurgent leader with the Pact of Zanjón was clear.

Martinez, who went to Mangos de Baraguá confident in the ease of an arrangement predicted by his confidants, withdrew morally defeated before the determined and serene attitude of Maceo.

That agreement, which did not guarantee independence, nor the abolition of slavery, was inadmissible for those who, from the Cuban fields, maintained their will for the definitive liberation of the island and were willing to continue the war.

The transcendence of this act, expression of the revolutionary spirit, showed that the chiefs, officers and soldiers who had carried the weight and hardships of that war on their shoulders, were not willing to resign.

According to historical notes, the Baraguá Protest was a brave, timely event and not only consolidated the Cuban revolutionary thought in times of deep moral crisis but also reaffirmed the basic objectives of the national rebellion: the independence of Cuba and the freedom of the slaves.

Maceo falls in combat on December 7, 1896 in San Pedro, province of Havana and his remains rest on the monument of El Cacahual.

 

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