I have returned to Cuba, but now to Santiago, the city where I was born. All I remember of Santiago is through the eyes of a seven-year-old, at the time of the Cuban Revolution. Bits and pieces of disjointed thoughts still stand out, even after so many years.
Santiago was the hub of the revolution. It was therefore not surprising to see children playing with bullets given to them by rebels. Santiago had a harbor and a Spanish fort not unlike the ones in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As a child, I liked to visit the fort, and play in all of its dungeons. Little did I realize at the time how the history of this fort, and the history of my family were intertwined, as my great grandfather, Federico Pérez Carbo, later the first governor of the Oriente province under the newly formed Republic of Cuba, and his friend Emilio Bacardí, founder of the rum empire that bears his name, were both jailed and held in this very fort by the Spanish authorities. Was I standing in the same cell, decades later, where these two men were imprisoned?
Pérez Carbo and Bacardí were suspected of being sympathizers with the leadership that advocated for independence. After their imprisonment in Santiago’s El Morro, they were taken aboard the Spanish ship Antonio López (sunk in front of the Bacardí Rum factory by the American fleet in 1898) to Chafarinas, not before stopping in San Juan. They finally escaped to Cádiz, and then to New York, where there were many Cuban exiles. They eventually returned to Cuba. (Pérez Carbo, a journalist, wrote a detailed account of his travels that can be found in the Havana National Archives). During the Second War of Independence, also known as the Spanish American War, Pérez Carbo served as a colonel in the Cuban army under Antonio Maceo, and after being wounded served the remainder of the war in Jacksonville, Florida, helping with the logistics of obtaining resources for the Cuban army.
I also recall the ships sunken near the beaches close to the fort. From the perspective of a seven-year-old, they looked large, and tempting to play in. Unfortunately, I never got the chance. Much, much later, I learned that these were the remnants of the Spanish fleet that was anchored in Santiago. On Sunday, July 3, 1898 it was about to engage the Americans. According to an 1898 account of the battle by John C. Hemment, an eye witness aboard the cruiser Brooklyn, Admiral Cervera’s flagship, the María Teresa, made a dash to open sea in order to engage the cruiser Brooklyn. She was followed by the Vizcaya, the Cristobal Colón, the Almirante Oquendo, and two torpedo boats, the Furor and the Plutón. As soon as they were outside El Morro, they, along with the fort, opened fire on the American fleet. The battle did not last long, and the Spanish decided to beach their fleet so that their sailors could swim ashore and escape to Santiago. The ships still lie in the same place more than a century after the battle! Only the María Teresa was refloated and towed into Guantánamo Bay.
As I left Cuba, little did I know that this would be the last time that my family would be together. Revolutions and civil wars, after all, have their casualties. I plan to return to Santiago some day, as I would like to revisit El Morro, the beached remnants of the Spanish fleet, and the house where I lived. Hopefully, they will all still be there.