Calixto Garcia Iñiguez, a great among great patriots
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125 years after his death while doing his duty in a foreign land, the star of Major General Calixto Garcia Iniguez still sends patriotic glares to his fellow countrymen of today, who are inspired by his example in times of hard work and efforts without possible surrender.
On December 11, 1898, a fulminating pneumonia struck down the General of the three wars in Washington, where the strong Mambi chief had gone to claim in the heart of the country that usurped Cuban independence the recognition of the Liberating Army, humiliated and unknown by the power.
What neither the warlike attacks nor the self-inflicted gunshot in the name of honor could never achieve, could be achieved by an arterious ailment that unexpectedly and briefly cut short his life, broken in a very painful way in those days by the death of his daughter, who was barely a teenager.
His countrymen and many fellow countrymen called him the Lion of Holguin, for his bravery and multiple skills in the field of the military strategy, but, in addition, the phrase of the Apostle José Martí has remained forever in the memory when he described him as the man of the star in the forehead, in memory of the scar that marked in his face the exit of a bullet and as a distinction for his impeccable and great trajectory.
He was born on August 4, 1839 in the Cuban eastern city of Holguin, early he had to assume tasks of the commerce activity, at the time that he studied in a self-taught way with the purpose of making university career, first in Bayamo, then in Havana, and finally in Jiguani, Oriente.
As he could not fulfill that dream, he had to dedicate himself in the rural region of Jiguani to manage and work in the tile factory belonging to his mother, Lucia Iñiguez, and he married very young with Isabel Velez, with whom he formed a family of six children.
When the first war of independence broke out on October 10, 1868, he also managed the accounts of a local landowner, very close to the region where the war was taking place.
When he joined the war on October 13 of that year, he began to stand out, first under the command of General Donato Mármol, and then he was a member of the General Staff of General Máximo Gómez himself, whom he later replaced, due to his bravery and the expertise he showed as a military strategist.
Characteristic of him was the rapidity of his natural intelligence, which made him learn effectively from his own experience and the knowledge of his bosses, and also added to his creativity and unceasing enterprise.
In this way, from an early age he was able to display remarkable military knowledge, even amazingly technical, all thanks to self-taught methods.
He was the general who made the greatest use of artillery; he effectively planned the siege and capture of communities and cities, as well as the assaults of enemy columns. He participated in the Ten Years' War, the Chiquita War and the Necessary War.
Fighting under the command of Major General Máximo Gómez, he fought with the rank of Brigadier General and became chief of staff of the Generalissimo in times when the Dominican was the head of the Holguin Division.
In 1873 he was among those who supported the deposition of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes as president of the Republic in Arms.
He then began to lead the war throughout the province of Oriente.
After multiple battles during 1873 and 1874, he marched at the head of 1,200 men to Camagüey. With the agreement to carry out the invasion of Las Villas, he returned to Oriente in March, and had to quell the mutiny provoked by Lieutenant Colonel Payito Leon, in Las Tunas.
In September 1874, the enemy managed to encircle him in San Antonio de Baja, near Bayamo. He preferred to die by his own hand before falling into the hands of the Spaniards and shot himself under his chin. He did not achieve his goal: the bullet exited through his forehead, leaving a mark forever.
Already in a state of extreme gravity after his action, he was taken prisoner and sent to Hispanic jails, where he remained for four years. With the Zanjón Pact, which took place on February 10, 1878, he was released that same year.
He decided to go to New York with the purpose of preparing a new war and there he presided over the Cuban Revolutionary Committee that enlisted the so-called Chiquita War. After aborted attempts, he disembarked at Cojímar Beach, west of Santiago de Cuba, on May 7.
Feeling ill and seeing that there were no conditions for the fight, he capitulated on August 3 in Mabay, near Bayamo. He was deported to
Spain, where he resided until the War of 95 began, when he moved to New York.
New horizons opened before him with the outbreak of the Necessary War organized by Jose Marti, and he managed to land again on his beloved island on March 24, 1896, at the head of 78 expeditionaries, by the Maravi enclave, 10 kilometers northwest of Baracoa.
His imprint was not long in coming, as he was meteoric and outstanding as an effective military leader. After the fall of Major General Antonio Maceo on December 7, 1896, he was appointed Lieutenant General of the Liberation Army, maintaining the position of chief of the Eastern Department.
When the United States intervened to frustrate the independence that was about to be gloriously won by the Mambises, in spite of the contribution of the Cubans in arms to the capture of Santiago de Cuba, the American troops denied the entrance to the city of General Garcia's troops, an unforgivable humiliation.
Outraged by the humiliating and forceful action, Garcia resigned as head of the Eastern Department and marched with his troops to Jiguani.
On September 13, 1898, the Government Council removed him from the post of Lieutenant General of the Liberation Army. Even so, days later he made his entrance in Santiago de Cuba, where he was the object of a great popular reception.
The events propitiated his subsequent trip to Washington to procure the deserved recognition to the true liberators, as well as the necessary financial resources for the discharge of the members of his heroic army.
It was during that mission that his unfortunate death occurred. Great among the greats was this tireless patriot. (Source: ACN)
