Diary of a Combatant Read online

The square is the kitchen; the black points indicate the position of our forces, from the top down and from left to right:

  1. Morán and Ameijeiras with telescopic sights;

  2. Julito Díaz, with Benítez, Cienfuegos and Calixto Morales;

  3. Motolá with Rey, Julio Acosta and Felito [Felicito Jordán], who has a Springfield that is bigger than he is;

  4. Guillermo García with Eduardo, Pancho and Ignacio, the son of Crescencio;

  5. Almeida with Chao, René, the Acuñas, Sergio;

  6. Raúl with Ciro and Armando;

  7. Fidel with Universo, Crescencio, Luis, Calixto, Fajardo and I.

  19

  In the morning we went with a group led by Fidel to review the positions and they received us with a shot, thinking that we were the enemy and then took off running. Benítez scratched his face on some vines. It was decided to replace him with René in the forward squadron. We’ve acquired a youngster who lives one kilometer below us to get some things for us and to let us know if the army is coming.

  20

  In the morning we went with Crescencio on reconnaissance and we brought back some coffee and a corn grinder. The day transpired with nothing new except that our informant reported that all the small groups of soldiers in the direction of El Macho had withdrawn, and only 10 remain in Las Cuevas. The communiqués from the general staff say there was a battle in La Plata in which the army suffered two dead and five wounded, and eight dead on our side. We don’t know if this is a general staff fantasy or represents eight peasants who were the victims of reprisals. Eutimio left to make his payments, and with that our group numbers 30 men, since Enrique, his buddy, and the prisoner, who was our guide, had already become separated from us on the day of the battle, each one taking a weapon that wasn’t his to take, specifically a shotgun and the .45 caliber revolver that belonged to Chicho Osorio. The asthma has begun again, bothering me at night.

  21

  A day with no major developments. Luis Crespo and Calixto García returned from a reconnaissance mission to a nearby abandoned hut. We heard explosions far away and don’t know what they were.14 The radio gives no signs of life of Batista’s forces, we anxiously wait for the news Eutimio may bring from his trip to Mulato. The trenches and communications are improving and now have an acceptable level of efficiency.

  22

  We heard isolated shots from the direction of the Palma Mocha River.15 We put ourselves on alert; the sun rose without new developments. We had neither breakfast nor lunch. At exactly 12 noon I was at my post with Calixto García when he saw someone in the house, but could not see clearly who it was. We looked through a telescopic sight and saw it was a soldier. Calixto went to report but el Flaco16 had already done so and we took our positions. There appeared to be six, and three remained in the farm higher up. Fidel opened fire and the man fell immediately, crying out “Ay mi madre.” His two companions dropped immediately. Suddenly I realized that a soldier was hiding in the second house, some 20 meters from my position (see map above). I could only see his feet so I fired, hitting him with the second shot.

  Luis brought a grenade that Fidel had sent because he had been told there were more men in the house. Luis covered me and I went in, but fortunately there was no one else inside. I retrieved the man’s weapon and cartridge belt and examined him. He had been shot below the heart with an exit wound on the right and was dead.

  We withdrew to the general staff’s position because Julito, who had borne the brunt of the fighting with his squadron, reported that they were trying to surround our positions. I asked for permission to go with Luis to retrieve the three Garand rifles in the first hut, but Fidel was against it. We completed the withdrawal of everyone except the group in the first position that had to withdraw along the stream below. We all crossed a stream to head uphill in the direction of La Plata River.

  After walking for a while we were joined by the group of four individuals already mentioned. We kept going through this difficult terrain, crossing the top of the hill and sleeping on the other side, as we could go no further. In all, four were confirmed dead: the three in the hut and mine, another whom Morán or Ameijeiras had wounded, and three others possibly wounded by Julito. We had used about 200 bullets, the dynamite was left behind (René left it next to his backpack) and three backpacks were lost during the withdrawal. A dubious victory, but the fact that we caused several enemy casualties without any on our side was, in itself, a victory. Our morale is improving.

  23

  At first light we continued to look for the way to El Mulato but we couldn’t find it, so we had to go to a hut next to a river. The owner didn’t have malanga [a root vegetable] but took us to another hut,17 where a meal was prepared, but it wasn’t ready until it was dark. The owner of the first hut18 turned out to be the son of one of those killed by Chicho Osorio, and he was delighted to hear the news of his death, although rumors had already been circulating throughout the area. The meal was frugal and we slept near the hut with our stomachs only a quarter or half full.

  24

  We left the hut before dawn to go down again to La Plata River. Walking slowly, we entered an area from which the peasants had been evicted. We took over a hut and made our meal with a pig that had been abandoned when the peasants fled. At nightfall, Crescencio, who had gone on reconnaissance with Almeida, Eduardo and Julio Acosta, brought three prisoners, members of the Rural Guard dressed in civilian clothes, who swore by the health of all their relatives that they had done nothing. Their statements did confirm each other’s, but it looked like this had been arranged beforehand. The only useful thing we found out was that Major Casillas, allegedly the murderer of Jesús Menéndez,19 or his brother, was in the Palma Mocha area, where he had been sent with reinforcements. Against the wishes of the more hardline among us, including myself, the prisoners were questioned, detained for one night and released. One of them took a letter to be delivered to Captain Morales,20 head of the Bayamo garrison where he was stationed.

  25

  We set off at 4:30 a.m. leaving the prisoners inside a room made of royal palm fronds and we started to climb to reach the Magdalena and then Caracas and El Mulato; climbing to the top of a hill we remembered that this day marked two months since our departure from Mexico, and we celebrated by listening to the radio where, by coincidence, they were playing a ranchera.21 We continued climbing the hills all day, having a frugal meal with the last can we had, and we slept on a ridge that was windy and inhospitable. We drew up a balance sheet of the day. The last skirmish hadn’t gone so well, but in taking the prisoners, we obtained a Star 38 revolver with three full clips of ammunition, a .45 caliber revolver and a .38. This meant at least two useful weapons for the men.

  26

  We continued more or less in the right direction but very hungry. At around 12:00 we came to a house with some mulatto youngsters, who treated us well and prepared a substantial meal, although insufficient for our hunger. As we were making the meal, the mother of the boys arrived and she didn’t believe our story that we were soldiers, and immediately expressed her support for the revolutionaries. They gave us directions and we left at nightfall. At around 6:00 p.m. we ran into a peasant22 whom we forced to take us to the Magdalena River; we told him we were heading for a place called El Roble. At 11:00 that night we reached the river and slept there.

  27

  Early in the morning we climbed up a hill that we had already passed on our way to the attack at La Plata. We spent the day there without eating. Guillermo went to cook at the home of […].23 In the evening Eutimio arrived bringing specific news. He had arrived at Palma Mocha the day of the battle and heard it from a distance. He was hidden all day at a friendly house that the soldiers came to and he learned that the soldiers planned to attack the next day. He left early the next day to warn us in case we were still there, and found the ashes of the house of Delfín [Torres] and three corpses eaten by vultures.

  He followed our trail and discovered that troops were
chasing us and they attacked, or rather were attacked, in El Infierno.24 Then he went to El Mulato where he found that 11 houses had been burned, but not his. The victims of the arson known to us were Enrique, his father-in-law Fico, Orestes and Antonio Cabrera. From the last one they took merchandise destined for us and took him away as a prisoner. At dusk a kid called Chichi García arrived; he was very nervous and talked a lot, and said he had two grenades, which he promised to give us, as well as some goods such as rice and beans. We also received information of a very good place, and nearby are the cattle of the Núñez company. We ate more or less well, but only once during the entire day. We slept in the house, ignoring the lessons of our own experience.

  28

  Eutimio left us for a week because his mother was sick. Rey, one of the three from Manzanillo who was still with us, also left; he had decided he wasn’t up to this. Sergio Pérez left along with Eduardo (on leave) and so did René,25 who is going to Havana with various tasks, but in reality on something like indefinite leave. Ramirito26 is with a group that includes Ciro [Frías] Cabrera, who has a large order from us, Yayo [Castillo], the guy who came from Manzanillo and was left behind sick, and eight more men from Manzanillo, apparently all with rifles. An order given to Chichi Mendoza came during the night. This consisted of cigarettes, cigars, honey, sugar, rice and beans, salt, coffee, lard and condensed milk.

  29

  Things have been organized so that the kitchen is down below, next to a stream, and the camp 200 meters higher, in a rocky position. There we have made some temporary little huts. We began building mine with Luis [Crespo] and [Manuel] Fajardo. There is plenty of food and it promises to become even more abundant, because we sent Morán to butcher one pig and he killed two. Morán is head of the lookouts below and he carries out multiple functions, going on looting expeditions to all the nearby huts.

  We have a new combatant, a nephew of Chichi Mendoza, who came to us by following our trail and to whom I spoke about the conditions for joining our movement. He [Evangelista Mendoza]27 is 20 years old and says he is joining to avenge the killing of his father by one of Batista’s men. At dusk Fidel gave a speech to the troop to warn about the dangers of indiscipline and demoralization. Three crimes will be punishable by death: insubordination, desertion and defeatism. I was invited to go on a small excursion, but stayed behind to have a talk with Sergio Acuña and Ignacio Pérez, who had decided Fidel’s speech was directed against them. Late at night Crescencio arrived at the upper camp, having become lost. I went down with Calixto García to find him. Morán and the new kid, who knows the area, remained at Evelio’s hut, waiting to make contact with a man who will connect us to Ciro [Frías] Cabrera.

  30

  The night was very cold in the recently constructed lodging when I was awakened by planes overhead at very low altitude.28 The others were already packing up when the strafing began. People started to come up from below. Cienfuegos had lost all his bullets; I gave him 10. People were fleeing toward a dry creek bed near the camp. I stayed for a while, waiting for people from the kitchen but they didn’t come. I then went to the stream and asked for an automatic rifle that I traded for my rifle with a telescopic sight in order to return to the camp to get some things, including the radio, that had been left behind when everyone fled. The situation was very confusing; no one knew what was going on. The first bursts of machine gun fire had hit the cooking fire, but we did not know if there were also troops nearby. We suffered no casualties. I returned with Chao to the upper camp to retrieve various things, among them Fidel’s cap with the commander’s star on it and two Mexican rifles.

  We had been ordered to regroup at the cave (Cueva del Humo), but the only thing I knew about it was the name and that it was in a westerly direction if one followed the line of the hill. When we returned, no one was around and we had to follow a not too clear trail. After going a certain distance we stopped, hiding on the edge of the path but dominating it, in order to rest and eat some of the sugar we had with us. That’s when Guillermo García showed up with Sergio Acuña. They had been the last ones to leave the kitchen. We remembered that Morán had left his telescopic sight there, and Guillermo and I decided to retrieve it. When we got down there el Gallego Morán showed up from the other side. It had been a while since the planes had stopped bombing. From what he said, we learned first that there were five planes and second, that there were no troops nearby. He had gone through a special drama because a snitch called Lalo Milán had fired at him at point-blank range without wounding him. Morán had carried the Springfield that had been assigned to the new recruit which he lost in the shooting.

  We made the return trip, loaded down like mules. When we reached the camp we lightened our load by eating all the sugar cane that I had brought, half a can of sausages and some honey. We followed the trail of our compañeros until we came to a path and lost them. There we came upon a devastating sight: the houses of those who had sympathized with the movement, or at least disagreed with the government, had been burnt to ashes. A small cat meowed pathetically and a pig ran away, grunting—that was all. We made camp near a stream and spent the night there.

  31

  We took a position at the top of a hill overlooking farmland where we supposed the Cueva del Humo [cave] was located. Guillermo and I reconnoitered the surrounding area, but only found evidence of Batista’s troops and none of our people. Sergio Acuña, who was on guard duty, thought he had seen two persons, one of them wearing a cap. But while he called us he lost track of them and we didn’t see them. Given this, Guillermo and I went all the way down to some huts that looked empty at the other end of the valley. No one was there and nothing had been left behind either, so we went to the house of a friend of Guillermo’s on the banks of the Ají River. The man was very frightened when he saw Guillermo but he gave us a little food and offered to have more at his house; but he would not bring it to where we were because of the danger. He said that the Rural Guards took all the goods that Ciro had sent and burned them, requisitioned the mules and killed the driver [Eliécer Tamayo]. They burnt down Ciro’s store and took his wife prisoner, although they later released her. Two hundred men had come through in the morning under Major Casillas, and had slept near the house that has been mentioned. Then we took a long walk uphill and reached the camp without incident.

  1. Juan Lebrigio lived in the area and took them to the home of his brother Rafael.

  2. Translator’s note: A legua (league) does not have a very standardized definition in distance. In general, it is how far one can walk in an hour or so, somewhere between 4 and 7 kilometers. Che is probably saying here that it took them five or six hours to cover a distance that should have taken them two to three hours.

  3. Eloísa Ramírez and her husband Florentino Enamorado.

  4. Eligio Mendoza was in charge of leading them to the home of the peasant Eutimio Guerra.

  5. The home of Evelio Saborit Rodríguez.

  6. Alfonso Espinosa was a resident of the area, who had a certain reputation as a peasant leader.

  7. Tomás Osorio (Chicho), Miro Saborit and Honorio Olazábal.

  8. Eutimio Guerra betrayed the rebels and was ordered by the Rural Guards to kill Fidel. He was captured and executed.

  9. Adalberto and Evaristo Díaz Mendoza.

  10. These events are described in the chapter “The Battle of La Plata,” in Che’s Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War. It actually took place in the predawn hours of January 17, 1957, although preparations began on January 16, which is why Che combines all the events in a continuous narrative.

  11. Victorino Peña and Jesús Fonseca.

  12. The corporal’s last name was Bassols; Miro Saborit was a heartless foreman of the Núñez Beattie Company.

  13. The home of Delfín Torres was located in the area known as Llanos del Infierno.

  14. After learning of the battle at La Plata, the dictatorship’s high command sent a well-equipped troop under the command of then-lieutenant Ángel S�
�nchez Mosquera, confirming Fidel’s calculations about the coming battle. The shots heard were fired at the peasant Nicolás Pérez, whom the soldiers forced to serve as guide, and when he refused, they wounded him and then finished him off the next day.

  15. See “The Battle of Arroyo del Infierno” in Che’s Reminiscences…

  16. René Rodríguez (el Flaco, “Skinny”).

  17. The home of Emilio Arias (Binda).

  18. Emilio Mijares.

  19. Jesús Menéndez was a leader of the sugar industry workers, killed in 1948 during the government of Ramón Grau San Martín. The person in the area was Major Arcadio Casillas Lumpuy, brother of the murderer of Jesús Menéndez.

  20. A military officer who had treated Fidel Castro respectfully when he was arrested after the attack on the Moncada barracks.

  21. Translator’s note: a ranchera is a typical Mexican song..

  22. Evelio Enamorado, who lived on the heights of El Coco.

  23. Che did not know his name at the time, but the reference is to Felo Garcés.

  24. See “The Battle of Arroyo del Infierno” in Che’s Reminiscences…

  25. René Rodríguez went on the mission to convey Fidel’s instructions to the leaders of the July 26 Movement in Manzanillo, Santiago and Havana. In the latter, he was to contact Faustino Pérez with the objective of moving forward quickly with the effort to bring a reporter to the Sierra Maestra.

  26. Translator’s note: Che sometimes refers to Ramiro Valdés as “Ramirito.”

  27. Evangelista Mendoza was the nephew of Chichi Mendoza.

  28. The events of January 30 and February 1, 1957, are recounted in the chapter “Air Attack” in Che’s Reminiscences… The precision of Batista’s attack created great confusion among the guerrillas because they did not yet know that Eutimio Guerra had betrayed them, and that he had, from a small plane, pinpointed the exact position of the camp, but which Fidel had moved a few hundred meters away as a precaution.