Diary of a Combatant Read online

  4. Translator’s note: Guajiro is the word used in Cuba for peasant. In the case of Luis Crespo it is used as a nickname.

  5. In their book, Diario de la guerra, Pedro Álvarez Tabio and Heberto Norman Acosta identify Nieves Cabrera (Pipo) as Ciro Frías’s cousin and Enrique and Miguel as Epifanio Díaz’s sons.

  6. Major General Martín Díaz Tamayo led Batista’s army operations.

  7. See the chapter, “Surprise Attack at Altos de Espinosa,” in Che’s Reminiscences…

  8. The reference is to Adrián Pérez Vargas.

  9. In the chapter “Surprise Attack at Altos de Espinosa” in Reminiscences…, Che describes this attack and explains that he remembers Zenón as the first student he taught to read and write in the Sierra Maestra, and added that he considered Zenón to have been “one of the great compañeros of that time.”

  10. A reference to the brothers Dionisio and Juan Oliva.

  11. Translator’s note: Selecciones is a Spanish language version of Readers’ Digest.

  12. Translator’s note: chilindrón is a dish made from goat meat.

  13. This was the first face to face contact between Fidel and Celia Sánchez..

  14. This was the first time that Che had met these people and he mistakenly assumed that Vilma Espín was Frank País’s sister. For more about this meeting with Frank País, see “Death of a Traitor” in Che’s Reminiscences…

  15. See Armando Hart’s foreword to this book.

  16. Felipe Pazos belonged to the Cuban Liberation Council in the United States and was a collaborator with the July 26 Movement. When the revolution triumphed, he was president of the Central Bank of Cuba, but was removed in 1960. He subsequently returned to the United States. Javier, his son, together with Vilma Espín, served as interpreters for Matthews in his famous interview with Fidel.

  17. Translator’s note: the Spanish term used here is “ajusticiado” which actually means “justice was administered,” but there is no equivalent term in English.

  18. The execution of Eutimio Guerra is described in “The Death of a Traitor” in Che’s Reminiscences…

  19. Liliam Mesa was in charge of transporting the journalist Herbert Matthews and those who accompanied him from Havana to Manzanillo.

  20. Subsequent events indicated that Morán’s wound was not an accident but rather that he was searching for an excuse to desert.

  21. Batista had decreed a state of emergency but it, along with press censorship, was about to be lifted.

  22. Millo Ochoa and Pardo Llada were part of a faction of the Orthodox Party that vacillated between conciliation with and opposition to the Batista dictatorship.

  23. Ramón Grau San Martín was president of Cuba twice: first, in the revolutionary government of 1933, known as the government of the 100 days; and later, from 1944 to 1948, in a government characterized by corruption.

  24. On February 24, 1895, José Martí, Cuba’s national hero, called for the renewal of the independence struggle against Spain.

  25. See the chapter, “Bitter Days,” in Che’s Reminiscences… in which he describes how el Guajiro (Luis Crespo) urged him on by abusing him as an “Argentine son of a…”

  26. Fidel impersonated Armando González Finalé, who at the time was army commander in eastern Cuba.

  27. Eduardo Chibás was the founder of the Orthodox Party.

  28. Luis Barreras (el Maestro, “the Teacher”) would later leave the guerrilla force.

  March 1957

  1

  This was one of those days that memory records as uncomfortable, a viscous thing. Sitting 100 meters from the house where the meeting is scheduled, I spend 12 hours, with my asthma getting better and then growing worse, but never disappearing. Then I walk 10 steps to spend the night on an uncomfortable hillside, while the asthma has me by the throat and I am unable to sleep until the pre-dawn hours, knowing that we must wait until the next day at 3:00 to find out if the man accomplished his errand. That night three small earthquakes broke the monotony of hours of breathlessness. During the day the sound of machine-gun and mortar fire in the very spot where we had spent the previous day indicates that the troops must have had some reports of our presence in that place and that perhaps tomorrow it will scour the area where we are now. My compañero, el Maestro, is quite nervous, wanting to retreat further into the scrublands. We had no news today because Fidel has the radio.

  2

  A day of absolute quiet, sitting in the same place where I suffered during the night, waiting with hope and fear for 3:00 in the afternoon, when the man said he would return. At the promised hour he came with the Dispne-Inhal, only one container, but in addition he brought milk, chocolate and some crackers. Given my gnawing hunger, I attacked the chocolate and I think this meant the medicine only partially relieved my asthma. That night I still couldn’t walk and, because it looked like there might be rain, we went into the hut we had taken over the previous night, which its owners had abandoned because they have another house further up. I slept a little better there, but still without much improvement.

  The lack of news is almost total. The only news José Isaac brought from Manzanillo is that the constitutional guarantees had once again be suspended, but he was unable to tell us anything about press censorship.

  3

  A day marked by a spiritual victory and a bodily defeat. My asthma is almost as bad as when I didn’t have the medicine, but we must reach the designated place by March 5; I had to deploy all my willpower to climb a hill in five long and exhausting hours that normally would have taken me an hour. Moreover, if you factor in that I had only had some milk and had not eaten well for several days, you can have an idea of what it was to climb that slope. At 6:00 p.m. I reached the top, which was my minimum goal, but I didn’t make it to Diosdado’s house for a meal because I ran out of energy and it was impossible to see anything in the dark. I ate half a chocolate bar, and the asthma intensified immediately, but with the tranquilizers I was able to rest a bit during the night in preparation for the exhausting day ahead.

  4

  The day exhausted me but was not fruitful. At the end of the day we are at La Demajagua Creek. I went down early to Diosdado’s house only to find there was no one there. Nevertheless, el Maestro was fearful of approaching houses and did not show himself the entire day. I spent the day watching from a lookout point and saw no signs of life in the neighborhood. At 6:30 p.m., when I had already assumed that el Maestro was a deserter, I went down and found him. His attitude wasn’t clear but I yanked his balls and offered him the opportunity to leave the movement, which he did not accept.

  After walking for a while, and seeing the occasional tree with its branches blown off by the bombardment, we reached the house of the old lady Aldana, whose sons had fed us once when we were in the area of La Plata River. The old lady welcomed us warmly, giving us a hug and crying a little when she told us that the bombing had almost killed one of her sons. But she had no food, so we went on with empty stomachs to the next house. This was Sarvelio’s house, whose nephew Enamorado had treated us very well previously. His wife cooked white rice and fried eggs, which were very good for my stomach; but my asthma persisted and I couldn’t go 10 steps without stopping. To top it off, el Maestro’s nervousness had led him to come to an understanding with our guide to take us on a roundabout route, which meant I arrived exhausted at Hernán’s house at 2:00 in the morning, when I could have been there at 12:00, ready to continue and reach our destination. We slept there under a roof, taking refuge from a downpour in the pre-dawn hours.

  5

  We can already admit to the failure of the mission because we have been unable to move and tonight was the deadline for the meeting. At dawn, we knocked on the door of the old man Emiliano, who was very scared, but not as scared as the son. They said the area had been betrayed and that there were Rural Guards all over the place; that it was impossible for us to remain and that we should head up along the stream to a wooden house, where he would wait for
us. As bad as I was, we went to some bushes beside the stream and remained there until dusk when a friend of el Maestro, Raúl, showed up looking for him. From Raúl we learned that the local peasant Armando Rodríguez had passed through here with his machine gun, but in civilian clothes, on February 11, that is two days after the attack at Espinosa.

  We went to eat at the house of Emiliano, the old man, where we heard that Hernán had departed for Manzanillo. It seems that on the day of the attack, he was coming to see me with Luis Rodríguez when a shoot-out caught them by surprise. Emiliano’s daughters had all the spirit that the men lacked and were very amiable. Emiliano took us to the house of the Rodríguez just mentioned, who was to have led us to the high ground above La Vigía, but he informed us that there were 200 Rural Guards scattered between Cabrera’s and Epifanio’s houses. Under these conditions, and given the state of my health, it wasn’t worth attempting it; so we remained in hiding by a stream and Luis will go to the Jíbaro area to see how many Rural Guards are on the farm and then take us directly to Epifanio’s house by a much shorter route.

  6

  Everything turned out badly. Old Emiliano saw, or thought he saw, four Guards when he returned to his house and his fear was so great it broke the shitmeters. He infected Luis with his fear, so he did not go to Jíbaro; but in the evening he brought us the news that the zone was full of Rural Guards; he refused to guide us to La Vigía because it was too dangerous. So we lost a day, and we would have to try to get to La Vigía on our own, despite my bad physical condition, or return to El Purgatorio Hill, near Raúl’s house, which is what we had to do. Before starting the march I gave myself an adrenalin injection. I was able to make it with relative ease to the forest that is not far from where we are going and we spent the night there under light rain. Our plan is that Raúl should bring us food once a day for two days, and then we go to the scrublands on the high ground and we’ll see what eventuates.

  The men have turned out to be no good. Luis took five pesos for food and Raúl asked directly for them for shoes, although what they’ve bought doesn’t match what we paid. Now we only have to wait to see if we make it to the scrublands because it is said that Elio Figueredo’s warehouse was raided due to reports that it had delivered supplies for 20 rebels. It is strange how news spreads in this area.

  7

  A totally wasted day spent looking at the clock and counting the hours until food arrived. It came at 5:30 and was insufficient for my immense hunger. Raúl came to tell us there was a practical way to get to La Vigía, but given previous experience and bad food, we decided to provision ourselves with food and depart the following evening in order to reach Epifanio’s property in one day. Raúl and a younger brother told us the story of Chichi Mendoza’s death. Apparently he was turned in for personal reasons, and was executed by machine-gun fire. Evangelista, the recruit we lost during the bombing of El Mulato, was wounded in the leg.

  8

  Our mission has now been a total failure. We moved at night, emerging from the woods to a little house that belongs to Hernán Pérez. Luis was waiting for us there, and he guided us by a good path to where we could easily follow the route. His advice was that we should wait in a coffee grove, but I wanted to take advantage of my feeling better; the result was that at 1:00 in the morning we were lost somewhere near Epifanio’s place without being able to find it. We slept in a coffee grove for what remained of the night. The last bits of news that Luis gave me appear true: that León Hirzel, Jimmy’s father, has taken up arms in Bayamo; and that three young North Americans have joined the rebels. The first news item made sense, and the second I had already heard from Frank.

  9

  We spent the day in the coffee grove. At dusk, we heard a single rifle shot. There were no other developments. We descended, skirting around the corrals, toward the road to Las Mercedes. There the problem became which way to go and we spent long hours lost due to el Maestro’s lack of a sense of direction, despite the fact that he had been living in the area for nine months. Finally, near dawn, we arrived and slept for a bit so as not to knock on Epifanio’s door at such an untimely hour.

  10

  I called after 5:00 a.m., at first light, but they, fearing a trap by the Rural Guards, refused to open the door. We had to wait until daybreak, hidden among some bushes, fearing the worst. But there was no problem, they were just apprehensive. They treated us very well and immediately we went into a thicket near the house where we spent the day, taking advantage that today is a holiday for the government forces.1 The news about Fidel is not good. Government troops attacked them at the Meriño ridge and they separated into two groups: Fidel with 12 men and, in the other, Ciro Frías with six men. When they knocked at the door of a house, the people inside opened fire. They all hit the ground and dispersed. Yayo wound up at Epifanio’s house after the shoot-out without a rifle, without a uniform, and telling very dark stories about what had happened. Friendly people took him to Manzanillo. We know Ciro Frías is alive in the Sierra Maestra, but we have no news about Fidel. I’ve already established contact so that the people from Manzanillo will come to see me tomorrow and we can coordinate action plans to bring 15 men to where Fidel ordered me.

  The situation in that zone is not bad. Epifanio’s family hasn’t been bothered much; the farm was not searched, and only Miguel was taken and released after a few hours, due to the petitions by his neighbors and their commitment to be responsible for him. Enrique left the area.2 I was upset by the news of [Emilio] Labrada’s death; he was taken prisoner in a house in the days after we were dispersed after the attack at Espinosa. Apparently he found no one at El Lomón, so he just hung around in the house doing nothing. That’s how they got him. It’s an old habit that some people can’t break: abandon your weapon and goof off at a house. Apparently Batista spoke on the radio but the people here didn’t hear it so I don’t know what the tone of his speech was.

  11

  Another day gone by without external events to mark it. Batista’s speech sparked a lot of commentary from the opposition who attacked it bitterly because he failed to offer a formula for reconciliation. The head of the group that will be coming up here came to see me; I don’t know his name, he seems strong willed and a little too full of himself.3 He demanded that Ciro [Frías] Cabrera come to discuss with him the best route; so I immediately sent Dionisio, who had been sent by Ciro to see how things were going, to bring him tomorrow night. So the day after tomorrow, we can meet again with the leader of the Santiago group and head to the mountains. He brought the medicines I requested and some books sent by Celia, as well as the news that Frank is in prison. The man was critical of Fidel, and I think he is right on this, for making public his intention of being at Epifanio’s on March 5 to receive the new troops because all the roads were then blocked.

  12

  A dull day waiting for Ciro. Nothing new to add to what we know. Eating well.

  Notebook III

  13

  I had barely opened my eyes when Ciro showed up with Dionisio. He immediately told me what had happened. It seems that a misunderstanding on Luis Crespo’s part led to the group dividing, with 12 men going with Fidel. Yayo was the one who brought the wrong instruction. After going around looking for Fidel they came upon a house with an unknown number of Rural Guards, who opened fire on them. Ciro and Fajardo withdrew to one side, Guillermo to the other, talking about a bullet in his helmet but leaving his rifle or backpack. Pesant and Juventino made it to La Derecha, and then Yayo came through here with tragic news. After a while Sotús showed up—that’s the name of the man from Santiago—with Guerra, and we came to an agreement to mess with people on March 15 or 16. There were no developments here today, but we heard about an attempted assassination of Batista, as a result of which, the student leader [José Antonio] Echeverría supposedly died.

  14

  We had a pleasant day with plenty of food. I asked Pepe Rojas to come tomorrow; he’s a bar owner who had offered us $100 of merchandise
for whenever we needed it. The radio reports, subject to censorship, are not true. It appears that the terrorist group took the first two floors of the presidential palace while Batista was on the third floor and the navy came to his aid, killing everyone they found. One group did manage to escape. What is not in the least bit clear is the death of Pelayo Cuervo,4 who was not where the assassination attempt took place. Also Menelao Mora5 is listed as dead; he had avoided jail through an audacious escape from those who were chasing him. We still lack a clear picture of these events.6

  15

  The day went by with no major developments. As night fell we had our last hot meal for who knows how many days. After a short walk we arrived at the meeting place, where the road to Manzanillo crosses the Tío Luque [Tío Lucas] Creek and waited. After a while a truck came by to collect sand, and Ciro thought they were Rural Guards unloading machine guns. The alarm subsided when he verified that they were just two harmless sand shovelers. After a while Pepe Rojas turned up as arranged, bringing two boxes of canned milk, one of chocolate, beef jerky and other items. We waited in vain for the arrival of our troops. At 5:00 a.m. we were about to leave when a peasant appeared on the road without giving me time to hide. I pretended to be a Rural Guard and reprimanded him for traveling at night; but Ciro came out to see what was going on and we were identified as revolutionaries because the man knew Ciro. We ordered him to maintain the strictest silence and we hid in the bushes beside the stream until we can find out what happened to our people in the morning.

  16

  Early in the morning one of Epifanio’s sons visited us and told us what had happened. Because of the rain, the trucks transporting people had run into a ditch and so everyone was on foot and very heavily weighed down. They continued walking but they could not make it here. We walked to the old camp and waited there all day, finding it hard to sleep because of the mosquitoes. Late in the afternoon Enrique came to get Ciro and bring the people. We waited, some slept, until 3:00 a.m., when the men arrived, very tired, beginning with Sotús, who couldn’t take one more step. Pedrín Sotto, one of my compañeros from the Granma, came with them. Everyone was drop dead tired and slept until morning.