Camilo Cienfuegos

Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (Havana, February 6, 1932-Florida Strait, October 28, 1959) was a Cuban revolutionary, one of the most paradigmatic personalities of the Cuban Revolution along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida. He is considered one of the founders of the rebel Army and one of its main leaders in the bloody stretch of the Revolution against the Batista dictatorship.

Known as The People's Commander, The Lord of the Vanguard, Hero of Yaguajay or The Hero of the Alón Hat was an outstanding revolutionary of humble origin and wide popular ancestry "because of his jovial character and natural detachment".

Young Camilo

Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán was born on February 6, 1932 in the Lawton neighborhood, in the current municipality of Diez de Octubre, in the Cuban capital. Son of the Spanish anarchists Ramón Cienfuegos Flores (from Pravia, Asturias) and Emilia Gorriarán Zavalla (from Urdiales, Cantabria) and younger brother of Humberto and Osmany.

He completed his first studies at public school number 20, in San Francisco de Paula, and after being forced by his family's difficult economic situation to live in different places, he returned to Lawton where he finished elementary school at the Public School No. 105 Felix E. Alpízar.

Already in 1948 he had begun to get involved in the political struggle by participating in popular protests against the increase in urban bus fares.

On March 10, 1952, when Fulgencio Batista's coup d'état took place, he went to the University with a group of young people to look for weapons to resist the dictatorship. At that time he established friendship with other young people who would have a prominent role in subsequent events, Carlos Leijás, Israel Tápanes, Reinaldo Benítez and the brothers Mario and José Fuentes.

In April 1953, he traveled to the United States in search of a better economic situation. There he worked in various cities as a laborer and waiter. Linked to Latin American émigrés, he participated in various demonstrations and wrote for the newspaper La voz de Cuba a critical article against Batista entitled Moral Identification . In 1955 he was detained in San Francisco by the immigration department and finally deported to Mexico.

He returned to Cuba on June 5, 1955 and while he returned to work at El Arte and joined the fight against the Batista regime, in September he married Isabel Blandón, a Salvadoran nurse that he had met in San Francisco.

On December 14, 1955, he was wounded by a firearm during a demonstration in honor of the Cuban independence hero Antonio Maceo, which did not prevent him from participating in the act commemorating the 103rd anniversary of the birth of José Martí in the park Central. This time, he was beaten and taken to the BRAC (Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities) where he was registered as a communist by the police force of the dictator Fulgencio Batista. Seeing himself persecuted and without work, he decided to go into exile, so in March 1956 he traveled again to the United States.

In September he was in Mexico, where he managed to establish contact with Fidel Castro, who was organizing a revolutionary expedition that would return to Cuba to start the fight against the Batista regime. Cienfuegos was the last chosen for the Granma yacht expedition, because he did not have sufficient military training, so he was quickly sent to the Abasolo camp, State of Tamaulipas, where he received training in guerrilla warfare.

Revolutionary struggle

Camilo Cienfuegos with Fidel Castro.

He received his baptism of fire together with his companions in Alegría de Pío, on December 5, 1956. In the battle at El Uvero, he already held the rank of lieutenant and led a platoon. In the armed struggle in the Sierra Maestra, due to his combat actions, he was awarded the rank of Captain of the Rebel Army. In 1957 a new guerrilla column was created: column number 4, daughter of the mother column "José Martí", and of which Commander Ernesto Che Guevara is in charge. In this guerrilla column, Captain Cienfuegos fulfills the role of head of the vanguard. Also here, in the heart of the armed struggle, an endearing friendship was born between him and Che. The bouts of Bueycito, El Hombrito and Pino del Agua, have the figure of Cienfuegos. His courage and daring contribute to the myth of the "Lord of the Vanguard".

In March 1958, he became the first leader of the movement that took the fight beyond the Sierra Maestra, to the Cauto plains. The success of that brief campaign, in which he harassed enemy communications, even made incursions into the city of Bayamo and faced the army in the battle at La Estrella earned him the promotion of Fidel Castro to the rank of Commander in April. On April 18 In June he returned to the Sierra, and for the following months he remained in the La Plata Command, participating in several combats, including those of Vega de Jibacoa and Las Mercedes.

In August he was assigned the task of leading the invading column number 2 "Antonio Maceo", which, with 92 combatants (only 82 armed), left the Sierra Maestra towards western Cuba, beginning its operations in coordination with column No. 8 "Ciro Redondo" under the command of Ernesto Che Guevara, extending the military actions that had begun in the eastern zone to the western part of the country.

On December 21, 1958, the vanguard of Cienfuegos, under the command of Commander Félix Torres and Captain William Gálvez began the siege of the barracks and the town of Yaguajay. After capturing Zulueta, on the night of the 22nd, Cienfuegos joined the siege with the rest of his troops, gathering just over 200 men. The battle of Yaguajay to break the resistance of the army garrison, 350 troops under the command of Captain Alfredo Abón Lee, lasted until the afternoon of December 31, and represented a decisive blow by the rebel army to weaken the forces of Fulgencio Batista. His performance in this battle earned him the nickname "The Hero of Yaguajay."

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Cienfuegos was part of the high command of the Revolutionary Army as its supreme commander. He fought in the counter-revolutionary uprisings and also participated in the Agrarian Reform. Commander Camilo Cienfuegos was very loved for his humility, simplicity and frank smile, and even compared his popularity with that of the revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

Death

Image of Camilo Cienfuegos at the headquarters of the Ministry of Communications in front of the Plaza de la Revolución.

According to reports from the crews of other planes, a storm would have forced Luciano Fariñas, who was piloting the FAR-53 that carried the commander, to divert to the north. This would have extended the hours of the flight without having the necessary fuel to face the unexpected situation.There are several theories about his death.

Cienfuegos was returning from Camagüey after arresting, by written order of Fidel Castro, the military chief of that province, Huber Matos, who on October 19, 1959, took another step in his distancing from the revolutionary process by sending a letter of renounces Fidel Castro for having declared the communist nature of the Cuban revolution. On October 23, Cienfuegos reported his mission on Channel 11 of Camagüey television. When the situation was under control, Fidel traveled to Camagüey where he initiated a trial that would culminate in Matos' imprisonment for twenty years for treason against the revolution.

The official version reported that Camilo Cienfuegos died on October 28, 1959 in an aviation accident due to bad weather while he was returning from Camagüey to Havana aboard his Cessna 310 plane, all of Cuba mobilized in his search for several days, in one of the most moving events of the first years of the Cuban Revolution.

The strange circumstances of his disappearance have caused numerous versions to circulate about the fact that it was all a murder. Despite the rumors surrounding his death, it should be noted that in his last speech, given on October 26, 1959 in front of the Presidential Palace in Havana, Cienfuegos stressed his loyalty to the revolutionary government and to Fidel Castro, despite having strong disagreements with some members of the Cuban government, however he was always faithful to Fidel.

Camilo was the companion of a hundred battles, Fidel's trusted man in the difficult moments of the war and the selfless fighter who always made the sacrifice an instrument to temper his character and to forge that of the troop... Camilo was Camilo, master of the avant-garde, a complete guerrilla who was forced by that colorful war he knew how to do.

Memory

Reproductions in Wax of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos at the Museum of the Revolution of Havana.

• Every year, on October 28th, he is tributed to all the towns and cities of Cuba, offering flowers to the sea and to the rivers.
• The first son of Ernesto Guevara, was called Camilo Guevara March in his honor.
• Every October 28th, Cuban schoolchildren throw flowers at the sea as a tribute to Camilo Cienfuegos.
• There are military schools throughout Cuba called Camilo Cienfuegos Military School (EMCC). His students are called "Camilitos".
• There is a primary school located in Havana called Camilo Cienfuegos in his homage.
• The University of Matanzas is named "Camilo Cienfuegos".
• A residential distribution of the municipality of Habana del Este, in Havana, is named "Ciudad Camilo Cienfuegos".
• The portrait of Camilo Cienfuegos is found in the 20 Cuban pesos and the monument in his homage can be seen in the 20 convertible Cuban pesos.
• In the city of Yaguajay, the current province of Sancti Spíritus, where Camilo led his best known battle, is the Mausoleum of the "North Front of Las Villas", where the remains of most of the guerrillas of the column led by him rest and a statue stands in his honor.
• It appears in Steven Soderbergh's film Che (2008), played by actor Santiago Cabrera.
• The musical sets Carpe Diem and Third Module Ska composed songs that bear by name "Cienfuegos" in their honor.
• There is an Argentine band called Cienfuegos, among whose members are several members of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs.
• The town known until 1959 as Central Hershey, in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte (province of Havana), became known since Central Camilo Cienfuegos.
• Argentine author Cesar González is artistically nicknamed Camilo Blajaquis, making reference "Camilo" to the Cuban revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos.
• The Panamanian rock-fusion singer Camilo Navarro, honors his memory by appointing his musical group with the name of Cienfue.