History has it that the thick mist that usually covers that savannah dissipated earlier than ever on March 15, 1878, to allow the sunrays to intensely illuminate the scenario of the historic event that would occur that day under the trees of Mangos de Baraguá, just in the indomitable east.
Major General Antonio Maceo readied himself to heal the wound that was hurting more than the 21 he got in his body during the Ten Year’s War: that wound caused by the Pact of Zanjón signed by Cuban unarmed politicians and military men due to divisiveness, regionalism, autocratic leaderships and indiscipline.
The Pact had been signed before the same colonialist Maceo would receive General Arsenio Martínez Campos. That was the time to clean the shameful surrender, hence, when the moment arrived, the revolutionary leader would thoroughly reject the unacceptable armistice which ignored the independence of Cuba and the abolition of slavery.
The blood shed for the cause of freedom could not be forgotten, and the sparing dialogue fixed the determination to continue the struggle on the following day, the 23rd, to establish the principle of duty.
Maceo’s example aggrandized, his exemplary attitude dragged chiefs, officials and soldiers into the love for the homeland. Not in vain Martí would set forward in one of the letters prior to the war of 1895: “I have right now before my eyes the Protest of Baraguá which is among the most glorious of our history.”
The Bronze Titan, as Maceo was known, saved Cuba for all times. In the Missile Crisis back in 1962 Che Guevara, by defining the steadfastness of the people faced with the nuclear danger, went as far as to assure that Cuba had become a Maceo. Later when the Fourth Communist Party Congress was called, it was done under the premise that Cuba’s future will be an eternal Baraguá.
Therefore, in its centenary, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz stated that, with the Protest of Baraguá, the patriotic and revolutionary spirit of our people reached its climax, reached its peak.
Taken from Granma in Spanish