Diary of a Combatant Page 7
Nevertheless, a document was signed by the July 26 Movement that proposed a series of fairly advanced revolutionary decrees, although some as lyrical as the announcement that diplomatic relations would not be established with the Latin American dictatorships.
During the night we heard that a correspondent for the New York Times [Herbert Matthews] would be coming to interview Fidel. So the members of his squadron and the visitors, among them Faustino, went off to sleep in a cabin and wait for the journalist; but el Guajiro Luis, who was our guide, lost his way and, after meandering about for a while, we finally had to sleep outdoors most uncomfortably.
My vaporizer is broken but Haydée Santamaría, who also suffers from asthma, has promised me hers.
17
We spent another day at the same place discussing operational plans among the leading members of the movement. The New York Times journalist arrived with [Javier], the son of Felipe Pazos, the famous economist, as his translator.16 I did not witness the interview but, according to Fidel, the guy was friendly and did not ask leading questions. He asked Fidel whether he was anti-imperialist and Fidel answered that he was, in the sense of having an ambition to free his country from economic chains, but not in the sense of hating the United States or its people. Fidel complained about the military aid the United States was giving Batista, showing how ridiculous it was to claim that these weapons were for the defense of the hemisphere when Batista’s forces couldn’t even finish off a group of rebels in the Sierra Maestra.
The gringo left early and I was on guard duty when I was told to redouble my watchfulness as Eutimio was at Epifanio’s house. He was ordered to return with a patrol led by Almeida and he was captured without difficulty. Three grenades and a .45 caliber pistol were taken from him. The patrol included Julito, Ciro, Cienfuegos and Ameijeiras. Eutimio was brought before Fidel and a safe conduct pass, issued by the army in his name as a collaborator with the regime, was found on him. Eutimio fell on his knees and asked to be shot at once. Fidel tried to trick him into thinking that his life would be spared, but Eutimio reminded Fidel of the scene with Chicho Osorio and did not allow himself to be deceived. Then Fidel told him that he would be executed17 and Ciro Frías launched into a deeply felt sermon as someone who had been an old friend. The man waited for death with a certain dignity. There was a tremendous rainstorm and everything became dark. It was an uncomfortable situation for the men and for him […].18
We slept very badly, wet and I had some asthma.
18
We put an end to the Eutimio problem early in the day, burying him right there. All the men prepared to depart. Guerra [Matos], our link with Manzanillo, brought a lady,19 a great admirer of the movement […].
Fidel is drafting a manifesto that is to be sent for publication. The document is strongly worded but not dogmatic. The plan is to also print 250,000 copies of the first manifesto, which really is revolutionary. The two documents complement each other well. Frank went with Faustino, Guerra and the lady already mentioned in one direction. Hart and Haydée, with Celia and Vilma, left by a different route.
At that moment we heard a pistol shot and we heard a shout saying, “It’s nothing”; then el Gallego Morán shows up wounded by a .45 caliber bullet in one leg. The exit wound is in the lateral condyle of the femur, but I couldn’t tell the degree to which the bone was involved. I gave him emergency treatment, giving him a shot of penicillin and leaving him with his leg stretched in a splint. At the time of the incident, both Fidel and Raúl accused him of having inflicted the wound intentionally. I am not sure one way or the other. Ciro Redondo, who was an eyewitness, insists it was an accident, saying el Gallego rushed out to stop a kid on horseback passing by who turned out to be a member of the household.
We left at nightfall, but el Gallego could not move and so he had to stay there, alone, and I suspect with feelings about not being appreciated.20 Celia Sánchez agreed to send him to Manzanillo to a movement clinic.
We reached Epifanio’s house and there we had a banquet that I could not share due to terrible bloating that the chocolate had caused. From there, we parted with the girls and Hart, and also Echevarría and Motolá, who are going on special missions. Of the women, Haydée seems to be the one with the clearest political ideas and Vilma the most interesting one. Celia Sánchez is very energetic. Armando Hart is open to new ideas. We slept comfortably in a patch of coffee bushes.
19
A quiet day. After the frenzy of the wounded, the visitors and the execution, we just moved to a narrow overgrown strip by the Jibacoa River. El Gallego Morán remained at the other place without help for the day; as we were leaving Emilio, one of the men from Manzanillo, suffered a bad hernia attack that I believe was not faked, and we had to leave him until he can retrieve the hernia belt he left at his house.
For our farewell, we had lamb stew at Epifanio’s house and passed through some scrubland to reach the store belonging to Enio [blank space in the original]. Earlier he had offered his store, and now was more reserved, although the sales clerk, a mulatto called Pedro, treated us very well. We already knew him from El Mulato and he sold us an astonishing number of cans. Right there, in a nearby coffee grove, we spent the night, the 17 of our group and three members of the Granma expedition who had joined us: Gil, Sotolongo and Raúl Díaz. The stories they told of their adventures were essentially the same as ours: separated, wandering around in the woods without food. They wound up at Ojo del Toro, and from there, friendly folks guided them to Manzanillo, where they remained in hiding for two months.
Now we just have to wait for the reestablishment of constitutional guarantees21 and a couple of new blows against small groups of soldiers, which are so prevalent in the area. During our march here we passed close to a small barracks where two days ago there were 12 soldiers. Easy prey for us.
20
A day of absolute laziness. We stayed in the same coffee plantation where we had slept. The radio announced the news of the imprisonment of Reinaldo Benítez Nápoles, “a member of the Granma expedition,” which means he is alive. At dusk we approached the edge of the small coffee plantation where Pedro [Ponce] came to tell us that his boss sent him to offer a contribution of 100 pesos, which we did not accept. Instead, we ate a very good meal of chicken with rice, and bought more cans. At 1:00 a.m. we started a march toward La Vigía, where we arrived after two exhausting hours, due to the overload of food consumed. We slept on the top of a hill that showed itself worthy of the name, on land whose owner we did not know.
21
We spent most of the day in a hillside coffee plantation. At 2:00 in the afternoon, Universo saw a peasant on the other side of a fence looking as if he suspected something and he was detained immediately. Then poor man received a terrible scare. Fidel told him we were Rural Guards and that he had to tell us where the revolutionaries were. He said he didn’t know who the revolutionaries were, and we explained it was those guys who had taken up arms. He responded that he hadn’t seen any, but if he did see strange people about, he would go to San Lorenzo to report it. Fidel then told him that we were the revolutionaries and defended the cause of the poor, but as he had shown himself willing to help the Rural Guard, he would have to be hanged. The reaction of the man, Pedro Ponce, was extraordinary. He stood up sweating and trembling, saying, “No, no, how can that be? Come on, let’s go to my house and have chicken and rice.”
After a tirade by Fidel complaining about how little help the peasants were giving us, we did ask for the food he offered and went to a coffee plantation next to the house where we waited for nightfall to eat. We fell asleep immediately after eating, but when the moon came out we proceeded on a short march to another patch of scrub on a hillside facing the previous one. It is worth mentioning that, in a radio interview, Reinaldo Benítez Nápoles said nothing substantial, but created the impression that the whole group had been destroyed […].
22
We spent the day lying low, no more than two kilometers from
the previous place, on the side of a hill covered by dense scrubland. There were no developments during the day. On the radio we heard disturbing news: the discovery of two underground explosives factories with nine individuals arrested and the seizure of 20 M-1 carbines and 150,000 rounds of ammunition. The amounts may be an exaggeration, but obviously they found something, although the names mentioned don’t appear to be people from the movement.
The only problem with our new quarters is water. At night, Guillermo, Pesant and Yayo went to the stream and brought water back for everyone. I had the first symptoms of what could be a dangerous asthma attack, as I have no more Dispne-Inhal. Fortunately, the days are short and there are [not many] days to go until the fifth which is the date of the next meeting.
23
Another blank day. We spent it in the same place, consuming canned food. An interesting news item is that Millo Ochoa, Pardo Llada22 and Grau23 met with Batista, and they demanded he call immediate elections.
24
There was nothing today, save the progressive exhaustion of our food supply. In the evening Ciro and Guillermo went to old Mendoza’s house, but the welcome was dramatic. The old man hid in a room and the old lady repeatedly told them to leave. Then they locked themselves in tight and the men had to return to camp. There was, however, one door open the next day: a friend of Ciro’s, for whom he would “risk his head,” as he put it. There was no news on the radio today as it is Sunday and the Martí anniversary.24 But important events on a national scale are expected in the next few days.
25
A day of water and bombs. From morning we heard mortar fire and isolated rifle and machine-gun fire. As the day wore on, it kept coming closer. Finally, at around 5:30, it sounded pretty close, so we climbed to the high point of the hill and remained there until dusk, when we were able to consider our options, assuming they would sweep the scrublands we were hiding in. Ciro wanted to stay and go down to the house of a friend to eat, but it was decided we should move further away. We started the march at 7:00 p.m. and we came to La Majagua stream at 11:00, when it started to rain so we set up camp right there until morning. The food is almost all gone, we’re living on chocolate and condensed milk. The radio news is good because it seems the censorship of the press will end tomorrow and the joint statement issued by Pardo Llada, Millo and Grau San Martín after they met with Batista to demand elections will be released. Everything seems to indicate that the suspension of constitutional guarantees will be lifted on February 28.
26
It was a very tense day but nothing happened. As it was already light when we began the march, we went to the first patch of cover that we found. I had bad asthma and could not sleep during the day either. We could hear sporadic mortar fire coming from the direction of La Merced [Las Mercedes]; and from our position we saw peasants leaving in a hurry. But later on we found out that it wasn’t the case.
At nightfall we crossed a patch of scrubland and wound up at the house of Emiliano [Leyva], father of Hernán, who is Ciro’s brother-in-law. We learned that there was no [troop] movement in that zone and that there were troops in San Lorenzo, Vegas and Las Mercedes. At this last point there are definitely 115 men. At Emiliano’s house they prepared a pork stew that, as usual, made many of the men sick. We stayed late listening to the news and then we went to bed briefly in order to renew the march at dawn. There is no news on the radio because the lifting of censorship applies only to the print media, but maybe tomorrow there might be.
27
We walked a short distance until we came to a coffee plantation covering half a hillside east of La Demajagua. The owner of the house was not present. But one of the nephews of Florentino, the one from Ají, who was occupying the house, treated us marvelously from a culinary point of view. I was unable to pay homage in the customary way because I was vomiting thanks to yesterday’s pork. Where the guy wasn’t so good was when it came to his tongue, which he loosened too much at the shopkeeper’s house where he bought some sugar. We sent for the man but he had left, or rather we were told he had left. Nevertheless, his brother assured us there would be total silence.
At night, Hernán came to move us farther away, but I had an asthma attack and the rain and darkness made the trail impassable. So we only got as far as the house of someone called Diosdado, who wasn’t at home; we took over the house and slept relatively comfortably and relatively dry. Hernán left promising to return in the morning.
Meanwhile, in Havana, radio censorship has been lifted and the news broadcasters have launched a torrent about terrorist actions that took place while censorship was in effect. But what has set a new record in anticipation was the Herbert Matthews interview with Fidel, published only three days earlier. Even though Pardo Llada had unleashed his verbal tirade against the government, the latter only answered one question, from the Herald Tribune, about the veracity of the interview, with the minister of defense [Santiago Verdeja] asserting that it was a cock-and-bull story and, if it wasn’t, why hadn’t they published a photograph of Fidel with Matthews? he asked.
28
It was a highly emotional day. The owner of the house wasn’t happy and only his wife came in a panic to remove a few things. Hernán, who had agreed to come in the morning, did not arrive. All this led to Fidel deciding to leave the place at around 10:00 a.m., but then he was stalled by my asthma, which was physically preventing me from walking. We had to wait to see if the Tedral would help me and, when that failed, I had to use one of my two remaining ampoules of adrenalin.
With great difficulty I was climbing up the hillside when, at 4:00 in the afternoon, el Guajiro Luis saw something strange on the road from Las Mercedes to San Lorenzo. To me it looked like a cattle drive that had stopped, to someone else, troops on the march, and so on. But when Universo arrived he accidentally looked at the road to Las Vegas where he saw large numbers of soldiers climbing to occupy positions on the ridge we were heading toward. We marched uphill toward the south at breakneck speed. We hadn’t walked but a few steps when we heard the first mortar round—that was the strange thing we had spotted on the road—and immediately the machine guns began to fire.
I could not keep up with the speed of the march and constantly fell back, but finally we got to the top and were able to get past without incident while the orgy of mortar fire continued. Ciro Frías was missing. He had been reconnoitering another path when the attack began. He rejoined us while we were resting on the other side of the hill in a handy stream.
We walked a little further and came to a house which we decided to tackle that night. My impression is that, despite the attack having been so close, they did not get a direct report from a snitch who knew where we were. They only knew that we were somewhere near La Demajagua. They pointed their weapons toward the stream at the bottom of the valley, but we were now high enough so that we were out of danger.
Nightfall brought torrential rain that soaked me and the asthma became so bad that for the last part of this march I had to be carried by two compañeros.25 We were in an area called El Purgatorio and we passed ourselves off as soldiers thanks to the locals’ credulity. We killed three turkeys, but there was nothing to season them with. So we had to wake the brother-in-law of the lady who owned the house (her husband wasn’t there) so that she could sell us some garlic, onions, vegetables and rice. Chatting to “Major González”26 (Fidel), one of them proved to be very pro-Batista, but the other confessed to being a follower of Chibás.27
Seeing this, and due to the fact that my asthma had become so bad that I’d had to use the other ampoule of adrenalin, it was decided that I would stay there with el Maestro,28 and we should tell the more reliable man who we really were, and send him to Manzanillo to buy some asthma medicine, offering him a reward for doing this. When Fidel told him who he was, the man showed signs of being pleased and agreed to do the errand in the following way. He said he would take his daughter to Manzanillo for her to be seen by a doctor, and add to whatever medicines the doctor
gave her the items for me. He was given 50 pesos to do this, allowing him to brag that he was one of the most expensive soldiers of the revolution.
Fidel and his remaining 17 followers left the zone known as La Mina [Las Minas de Frío] and we agreed to meet up again around March 15 if there were no serious problems. El Maestro and I left the following morning, as I had slightly recovered from my persistent asthma. The news on the radio was also juicy. While the attacks continued and intensified, Pardo Llada interviewed Matthews by phone to see whether or not the interview [with Fidel] had really taken place. Matthews said that the photograph that was being demanded did exist but had not been published because it wasn’t sufficiently clear for printing; he said he would do so in the next day’s edition. Meanwhile, General Díaz Tamayo denied that the interview had taken place even more vehemently than the minister of defense, saying that it was impossible to cross the cordon of [government] troops that guard the Sierra Maestra. An unconfirmed report was released saying that another member of the Granma expedition is in prison in Bayamo. I think it could be either Armando, Chao, Pancho or Calixto Morales. They also announced the arrest of Armando Hart, accused of being second-in-command of the July 26 Movement.
1. Sergio Acuña met a tragic fate. An army patrol found, captured and hanged him. See the February 6, 1957, entry in this diary.
2. Between the entries for the second and third of February there is a note: “consultation / left side / 258 pulsations.”
3. The text breaks off here and continues in the second notebook.