The mambises were the guerrilla independence soldiers who fought for Cuba's independence from Spain in the Ten Years' War and Cuban War of Independence. [1] [2]
Contents
The mambises were the guerrilla independence soldiers who fought for Cuba's independence from Spain in the Ten Years' War and Cuban War of Independence. [1] [2]
According to Cuban writer Carlos Márquez Sterling, "mambí" is of Afro-Antillean origin and was applied to revolutionaries from Cuba and Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) in the 19th century.
The surviving Spanish soldiers, who had been fighting in Santo Domingo, were then sent to Cuba once the Ten Years' War broke out in 1868. These soldiers, noting the similar tactics and machetes use by the Cuban independence fighters as by the original “men of Mamby”, began calling the Cuban independence fighters mambises. Though this was meant as a derogatory slur towards the Cuban rebels, the Cubans accepted and started using the name with pride. [3] [ page needed ] [4] [ page needed ]
Other sources cite the term to be of Congo origin or, as stated by Esteban Montejo in Biography of a Runaway Slave, mambí refers to the child of a monkey crossed with a buzzard. [5] [6] [ page needed ]
The mambí soldiers made up most of the National Army of Liberation and were the key soldiers responsible for the success of the Cuban liberation wars. They consisted of Cubans from all social classes including white Cubans, free black people, slaves, and mulattos. During the Ten Years' War, slaves were promised their freedom if they assisted the Creoles in the fight against the Spanish. The freeing of slaves to help fight was started by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. At the end of the war, even though independence from Spain was not achieved, Spain agreed to honor the freeing of the slaves who had fought against them. [7] [ page needed ]
The mambí forces were made up of volunteers who mostly had no military training and banded together in loose groups who acted independently to attack the Spanish troops during the Ten Years' War. It is estimated that 8,000 poorly armed and underfed mambises inflicted close to 20,000 casualties on the well-trained Spanish soldiers during the Ten Years' War. [8] [ page needed ]
Similarly, by the end of the War of Independence the National Army of Liberation numbered nearly 50,000 of which only about 25,000 were armed. The leaders, having learnt from previous mistakes, had organized the army into “6 corps with 14 divisions, 34 brigades, 50 regiments of infantry and 34 cavalry.” Even though, once again, they were limited on resources, they possibly inflicted 71,000 casualties [lower-alpha 1] out of the 250,000 Spanish troops sent to the island. [9] [ page needed ] [10] [ page needed ]
Mambí independence fighters were not limited to men. During the War of Independence, Spanish general General Valeriano Weyler Nicolau initiated "Reconcentración" which forcefully moved rural inhabitants into the cities in makeshift concentration camps. Conditions in these camps resulted in mass starvation, disease, and large numbers of deaths of the Cuban population. The prospect of these conditions pushed many families, including the women and children, into joining the independence movement. [11] [ page needed ] [12]
The best known mambí woman is Mariana Grajales Cuello, who was Antonio Maceo Grajales’s mother. Mariana and all of her sons participated in all three of the wars of independence.
Prior to the Ten Years' War, private ownership of weapons was allowed but, considering that at this time many of the black were still slaves, most of the men who became mambises did not have firearms. Following the war, Spain prohibited ownership of firearms in an effort to prevent another uprising. In both cases, the lack of firearms forced the mambises into using what they had: machetes and sometimes horses. [13] [ page needed ]
At the start of the Ten Years' War, Máximo Gómez, who had been a cavalry officer in the Spanish Army, taught the men the "machete charge". This became the mambises' most useful and feared tactic in both wars. These methods resulted in Guerrilla type warfare that favored them due to the element of surprise and their knowledge of the terrain and environment. [14] [ page needed ]
Knowing additional weapons were needed, numerous attempts were made to procure arms from outside the country. During both wars of independence, many expeditions were funded to bring equipment and volunteers for the Liberation Army. During the 1895 War, 96 armed expeditions landed in Cuba. [15] Despite this interference, and having only originally started with a small number of weapons, the mambises were able to build up a significant arsenal by conducting raids on the Spanish troops and strongholds. [16] [ page needed ]
Elpidio Valdés is a notable cartoon character within Cuban culture in comics, television, and movies. Created in 1970, he is portrayed as a mambí colonel, fighting for the liberation of Cuba from the Spanish.
Several films have been made in Cuba, both before and after the Cuban Revolution, that portray the national significance of the mambises. These cinemas have been used to create a sense of Cuban national identity. [17] [ page needed ] One such film, El Capitán Mambí y Libertadores o guerrilleros, which was made before the Revolution, was funded by the government and had all of the troops, horses, and weapons for the film supplied by the military. [18] [ page needed ]
The Ten Years' War, also known as the Great War and the War of '68, was part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On 10 October 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.
Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales was second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence.
Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí, 1st Marquess of Tenerife was a Spanish general and colonial administrator who served as the Governor-General of the Philippines and Cuba, and later as Spanish Minister for War.
Máximo Gómez y Báez was a Dominican Generalissimo in Cuba's War of Independence (1895–1898). He was known for his controversial scorched-earth policy, which entailed dynamiting passenger trains and torching the Spanish loyalists' property and sugar plantations—including many owned by Americans. He greatly increased the efficacy of the attacks by torturing and killing not only Spanish soldiers, but also Spanish sympathizers and especially Cubans loyal to Spain. By the time the Spanish–American War broke out in April 1898, the rebellion was virtually defeated in most of Western Cuba, with only a few operating pockets in the center and the east. He refused to join forces with the Spanish in fighting off the United States, and he retired to the Quinta de los Molinos, a luxury villa outside of Havana after the war's end formerly used by captains generals as summer residence.
The Cuban War of Independence, also known in Cuba as The Necessary War, fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Little War (1879–1880). The final three months of the conflict escalated to become the Spanish–American War, with United States forces being deployed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands against Spain. Historians disagree as to the extent that United States officials were motivated to intervene for humanitarian reasons but agree that yellow journalism exaggerated atrocities attributed to Spanish forces against Cuban civilians.
Mariana Grajales Cuello (July 12, 1815 – November 28, 1893) is a Cuban patriot and icon of the women's struggle for equality and the fight for an independent Cuba free from slavery.
The Mambi-1 AMR is a semi-automatic anti-materiel rifle designed and manufactured in Cuba. It was named after the Mambises, who were rebel soldiers that fought against the Kingdom of Spain during the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898).
Elpidio Valdés is a cartoon character and comic, who starred in a number of features, shorts and strips of the same name. He was created in 1970 by cartoonist and Cuban filmmaker Juan Padrón, considered the father of Cuban film animation and director of the first three animated feature films produced by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry.
José Marcelino Maceo Grajales was a Cuban Independence Activist and patriot of the 19th Century.
Pedro Agustín Periquito Pérez Pérez, better known as Periquito Pérez was a Cuban independence political activist.
The Battle of El Indio Sao was a battle of the Cuban War of Independence which took place on the 31st of August 1895 in Oriente Province of Cuba.
Agustín Cebreco Sánchez, was a Cuban major general and politician of the Mambí Army.
The Invasion from East to West took place on the island of Cuba, and began on October 22, 1895, in Mangos de Baraguá, in the former province of Oriente. It was organized and directed by Antonio Maceo Grajales and Máximo Gómez. The Liberation Army, guided by the firmness of taking the fight against Spanish colonialism to all corners of Cuba, starred in one of the most relevant events in Cuban history. In the midst of the "Cuban War of Independence", inspired by José Martí, that campaign responded to the old desire of the insurgent generals Maceo and Gómez. These launched the strategy of limiting the liberation struggle to the eastern territory of the Island, but rather extending it throughout the entire Cuban territory to force Spain to fight simultaneously in the six provinces that the country had at that time, in order to weaken it on all fronts.
The Battle of Mal Tiempo was a battle of the Cuban War of Independence that took place on December 15, 1895, a few kilometers away from Cruces, Santa Clara Province. In the battle, Mambises and Spanish forces faced each other, the former being victorious. This victory was considered one of the most important of the Invasion from East to West in Cuba, due to the political, military and economic consequences in favor of the independence activists.
The Battle of Paso de las Damas was a battle of the Cuban War of Independence that took place on 18 November 1896 at the Santa Clara Province.
The Battle of San Pedro was a battle of the Cuban War of Independence that took place on December 7, 1896 within the vicinity of the farm of the same name. The battle occurred near the town of Punta Brava on the outskirts of Marianao, La Habana Province.
Pedro Antonio Díaz Molina was a Cuban general who was the only former slave that was a major general in the Cuban Liberation Army.
The La Reforma Campaign was a campaign of the Cuban War of Independence which was waged for 16 months with the Cuban forces under the command of Máximo Gómez against the Spanish forces under the command of Valeriano Weyler. Despite the Spanish outnumbering the Cuban forces by 40,000 to 600, Gómez's guerrilla warfare tactics as well as the weather caused over 40 Spanish soldiers to die each day throughout the campaign. His approach was to divide his forces into tiny guerrilla groups and fight alone with his General Staff while continuously moving.
The Battle of Pino de Baire, also known as the Primera Carga al Machete, occurred on 25 October 1868 during the beginning of the Ten Years' War. It was the first instance of the reputable machete charge in the war that became a common mambí tactic.
The Cuban Liberation Army, colloquially known as the Mambí Army was an insurgent army which was formed in the last third of the 19th century and fought for independence from Spain and the abolition of slavery. It first saw combat in the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) under the command of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Ignacio Agramonte, and Carlos Roloff. The independentists were decentralized and operated within their own regions autonomously of each other, until the Assembly of Guáimaro established the Republic-in-Arms of Cuba and the Liberation Army’s command structure. After the Pact of Zanjón, a brief uprising called the Little War saw Major-Generals Calixto García and Antonio Maceo lead the Army of Liberation in another attempt at independence and the abolition of slavery, though unsuccessfully. Finally, during the War of Independence, the Liberation Army was once again organized to fight against the Spanish colonial government. The Liberation Army would reach its highest count of active members in the Spanish-American War, when an imminent Cuban-American victory caused hitherto anti-independence elites to join the Liberation Army. These recruits were nicknamed "Sunflowers" because they "point to where the sun is shining".