Context and Significance of the Bandit Edesio Hernandez in the Cuba of the 1950s
Introduction:
In Cuban history the bandit and rustler, while always condemned by rebels as too "dirty" to be involved politically, has played the role of precursor of armed resistance. The most notable example was the bandit Manolo Garcia just before the successful Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898). In my view, the reason is simple, if a bandit can resist the central authorities then armed resistance by more political groups is possible. The present tyranny in Cuba is quite aware of this since guidance from the bandit Crescencio Perez was the primary reason, that the few, almost defeated, survivors of Castro's 1956 landing were able to survive. In present day Cuba, bandits and rustlers have begun to re-emerge in rural areas. According to some reports, hundreds of thousands of head of cattle are stolen in present day Cuba every year. According to a few scattered reports, these present Cuban government forces try to engage these rustlers in small actions, and any rustler that the government can reach is killed immediately. Yet this rustling continues.
What follows is a critical evaluation and translation of Ruben Castillo Ramos 1956 article on Edesio Hernandez. Additional information from personal experience has been added and interpretations of eye witnesses statements are included. A table of geographic location of places where these events took place follows translation. Note the romantic and mythological aspects of this "Robin Hood." Note also that in the interviews, done in the times of the dictatorship of Batista, that those interviewed fear repression, and are not always candid. This lack of candor is also apparent in the reports on present day rustlers in Cuba.
Figure legends are given but the photographs are not. These photographs can be found in the original boehmeia article which is cited below..
MUERTO EDESIO, EL REY DE LA SIERRA MAESTRA{EDESIO THE KING OF THE SIERRA MAESTRA IS DEAD 1914-1956}
RUBEN CASTILLOS RAMOS
{Photographs by Perez Tamarit and Rudolfo Vasell}, BOHEMIA XLVIII No. 9 {August 12 1956} pp. 52-54 and 87.
An astute, brave and romantic bandit who eluded the Rural Guard for 14 years—Men of his gang and of the army found death in different encounters---Some find Edesio Hernandez evil, others see him as humane—His main line of business was marijuana—He played the "Tres" {a guitar like instrument}, sang the traditional "puntos guajiros" and had many love affairs—The country people covered his tracks and the authorities were reduced to chasing a shadow, since they had no dossier or photographs of him- Edesio died in an ambush.
{A free and carefully annotated translation by Larry S. Daley, notations found between {brackets} are mine}
{In my youth I saw Edesio Hernandez once, he was far away, riding fast north bound on the Royal Road "El Camino Real" north of Casa la Viuda in the Corojo {see Table 1 for location}. This translation is not intended to laud Edesio as hero—although he was a hero to many and his death was even reported in the international edition of "Time"—but to add in a small way to Cuban historical literature of the "Lords of the Mountain" the "Lawless Liberators", the traditional Cuban politically aware bandits. Some of these bandits, who by necessity reformed, since in the Cuban insurgents commonly despised, and with some frequency applied the death penalty for, banditry, played useful—although not leading roles—in Cuba's struggles for freedom. In more recent times reformed bandits provided their knowledge of the forests and mountains to the irregular resistance movement to Batista known as the Escopeteros, the men with shotguns.}
{Sources that discuss this tradition, in previous eras, but not in Edesio Hernandez's time include Schwatz, Rosalie {1989. Lawless Liberators. Political Banditry and Cuban Independence. Duke University Press, Durham and London ISBN 0-8223-0882-7} and Louis A. Perez, Jr. {1989. Lords of the Mountain. Social Banditry and Peasant Protest in Cuba 1878-1918. University of Pittsburg Press, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, ISBN 0-8229-3601-1}.
(So far I have not seen Edesio Hernandez's name mentioned, outside of news magazines, except in the seemingly Marxist book by Marcos Winocur {1979. Las Classes Olvidadas en la Revolucion Cubana. Editorial Critica, Grupo editorial Grijalbo, Barcelona, Spain p.132}. Winocur only mentions him as Edesio and very briefly labels him a social bandit. However, Edesio was more than that, despite his vile trade, he was seen as tragic hero destined to die violently, yet acting with great nobility and courage.}
{This social bandit phenomena is reappearing in Cuba where now news of this type of social banditry are showing up as scattered reports of summary executions or merciless ambushes of rustlers and other thieves by guards of the Communist collective farms of Cuba. Meanwhile the dense almost impenetrable cover of wild marabu, the almost un-killable African thorn, spreads uncontrollably through the Cuban country side. The Cuban authorities seem quite aware of the potential dangers this kind of situation poses to their hitherto absolute authority, yet seem unable to stop it.}
{ This article consists of narrations by different people describing Edesio. The interesting thing about these narrations is that almost everybody is withholding something. Edesio's wife denies he was a bandit because she loved him, Sergeant Ortega is apparently covering up the real way Edesio died to protect the infiltrator who really killed him, the politician denies meeting Edesio, the owner of the dancing and music equipment knows what Edesio looked like but never mentioned it to the authorities. This seems to be the way of life under a repressive dictatorship, at this time it was Batista.}
For fourteen years one man defied the repressive Guardia Rural of Cuba, which like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, one of the most efficient rural police in the world. {The Guardia were first trained in the time of General and Medal of Honor Winner (for involvement in capturing Geronimo ) Leonard Wood. The Guardias knew his name was Edesio Hernandez. The Guardias did not have a dossier on him, a photograph of him or anything else that could identify him. Many knew him, mainly country folk, storekeepers and members of local families—who lived in the Sierra Maestra, the foothills of the Sierra and nearby places such as Guisa, Bijagual {perhaps in Taino the place of the nests of the leaf cutting ant}, etc.—wealthy city people and drug dealers. All who knew Edesio helped him cover his tracks motivated by fear, sympathy or other reasons {by other reasons the author may mean resistance to the Batista dictatorship}.
This protection from the locals forced the authorities to chase him as if hunting shadows… The steep high wooded, slopes, in that jumble of hiding places the Sierra Maestra was his home ground and principal zone of his operations. Although Edesio sometimes descended to the towns and cities of the plain to go to a fiesta, or carry out his main trade. He sold marijuana, it is known that he took several trips to the Havana the capital of the Republic, always looking for the better money obtained by shipping and directly selling that damn drug to dealers. Anybody living in the area—after some friendly talk and being assured that the source would be kept anonymous—would have information on Edesio, but these people would always say that what he or she knew was just different versions rumors and legends. That way the truth, legends and myths about Edesio spread. There was more truth than myths to these stories because –although it sounds like an incredible paradox—even the authorities knew the place, El Convento. where Edesio had his house and kept the family he loved and secretly visited. However, there was one thing that made Edesio difficult to capture or kill and that was that the authorities did not know what he looked like… Any Guajiro or Montuno or rural man could be Edesio {My brother Lionel and my cousin MJ met him once on the high ridge of Los Numeros, above and perhaps two miles or so further east, and south of highest water fall in Cuba, variously called the El Salto of Arroyon or the Chorreron of Guama {see Table 1 for location of Arroyon} as we called it then. All Lionel and MJ could recall that he was well dressed, had a good saddle and a good horse. Later they found out he was Edesio}. This man called Edesio, brave and clever, could escape without trace {that is why Edesio was called the tennis shoe, the sneaker bandit, by "Time" magazine}. He dressed humbly {obviously the reporter did not talk to Lionel or MJ}, and used clever disguises. He used wigs and different sets of false teeth which he used to coordinate with his disguises. {When he was killed he had on a pair of false teeth that were completely plain, yet he also carried hidden in his clothes another set of false teeth with two gold teeth that was designed to look like the wearer had a dental bridge}. A man cutting forage by the edge of the road, fixing the barb wire of a fence, planting crops on a side of a slope, or attaching stringer poles to the side of a bohio dwelling place, could be Edesio Hernandez, but nobody could tell... Sometimes it is easier for a newspaper reporter, than the authorities to find information. Since 1948, at a time when Edesio was at the peak of his fame, I began to try to get and interview with him. I was trying, as might be expected, to achieve a really sensational news-report. I knew the risks that I would have to run, and how hard it would be to achieve my objective; but a newspaper reporter has to do these things. In 1950, I was attending a political meeting at a place called La Colorada {this was almost certainly Embarcadero de Las Coloradas on the south coast where the Sierra Maestra dips rapidly into the sea, see Table 1} , it was rumored that Edesio was there. I said I would like to meet him, a few moments later somebody took me aside and said "Edesio does not like to be photographed, or even recognized, and likes it even less when strangers ask about him. Was Edesio the guajiro who said that me? Suddenly I lost interest in Edesio's whereabouts. In remote places in the Sierra, places where when it is two in the afternoon, you cannot see the sun, and in the middle of the Cuban summer you need a fur coat, messages of this kind are worth paying attention to. None the less I had an appointment with the man known as "The King of Sierra Maestra", an appointment kept only after death… Still, much of the accumulated information, some previously unknown to me, given to me by people—who neither then nor now want to give their names—made this article possible.
WHO WAS EDESIO HERNANDEZ.
From the above the reader may already have an idea of Edesio, a man who the Guardia Rural sought and the guajiro and montuno country folk of the Sierra Maestra denied and help hide. Let us first see what the complete and unchanged official versions of events are like. In 1914 Edesio was born in Bijagual {see Table 1}, in the municipality of Jiguani {one of the former Taino towns and place where Greatgrandfather grew up, see Table 1} a place close to the Sierra. He was a wild young man, much given to fiestas and women, at a very young age he began is career of crime by stealing chickens, robbing hen-houses, to feasting glutinously into the night. This was followed by petty thefts, in all the area of Bijagual, File, La Gibarera, etc. {see Table 1}. In 1942 Edesio was found to have lead a gang robbing the Hernandez and Rodriguez business. Edesio ran and was not seen for a while, the authorities began to try to find him—not too diligently at first—however the authorities attitudes changed when in a robbery between File and Gibarera Edesio attacked and wounded a business man, Rafael Collada, known as Manolon {Big Manuel}. Manolon died later of his wounds. Following this, when robbing a man named Pepe Vicente, Edesio lost one of his own men last named Villare~no, but usually known as "El Capitan".
The encounters with the law grew even more serious at La Guineita {the place of the little banana}, a place deep in the Sierra {that I cannot yet locate} the soldier Jose Menendez and a Edesio gang member and relative Discorides Hernandez known as "Cory" died in a shoot-out. From then on {given the traditions of the Guardia Rural} there was no chance of surrender; Edesio Hernandez became the hunted shadow known as the "King of the Sierra Maestra".
The encounters with the law continue, later there was the encounter at Pinalito {The place of the little pine, a place of sloping red earth, fallen needles and tall pine trees where once a year our Christmas tree was gathered. A place on family land on the west ridge of Los Numeros, on the east side of the Bayamo Valley. This ridge rises as it goes south through the pastures of Los Barrenos, though the forest and coffee groves of the Cacaito to the heights of Los Numeros and turning east along a narrow wooded ridge goes towards the Las Pe~nas crag. Pinalito is an area of pine that may still supported the endangered ivory billed woodpeckers, see Table 1 for location}. Here in the house of "Chito" Chacon, in the month of November 1949, Luis Hernandez, nephew of Edesio was surprised and killed by the then Chief of the Guardia Rural Station at Guisa, Lieutenant Miguel Yanes, Acting Corporal Carlos Figueredo Cabrera and soldiers Tomas Cejas and now retired {1956} Francisco Bejerano .
{In 1958 Tomas Cejas, would be wounded in the shoulder by the escopeteros of Lorente and Majin Peña at the rise above the "Banana Hill", on the trail to Los Numeros, passing thorugh Uncle Calixto Lionel's land. In Manzanillo in 1959 Cejas would escape execution when witnesses, including myself, testified that he had warned us that the Batista soldiers were coming and that he would lead them wearing his distinctive Guardia hat. Bejerano would not be so lucky, he would be badly wounded by an irate montuno near "Tia" Manuela Jimenez—a niece of Grandmother—house's in El Platano {see Table 1}, survive his serious machete wounds and retire, only to be reincorporated, sent to the Banqueo del Oro—the part of the Camino Real leading from El Platano south up into the mountainous area of El Oro de Bayamo {see Table 1}, captured with the mule he had borrowed from Manuela Jimenez by the Che Guevara. The mule was eaten by the Che's rebels and Bejerano executed not living to see his army's surrender January first 1959}. From then on {1949} the Guardia hunted Edesio and his gang implacably.
"WITHOUT SUGAR THERE IS NO CUBA"A owner of a "tocadiscos" {a traveling, music playing, amplifier, loudspeaker and liquor selling business}, who made his living by contracting to play music at the dances, {held in usually in the open over a beaten dirt floor under strings of bright, naked, generator lit, electric lights, that attracted, loud music heard for miles, people like moths to the only bright spot in the dark of the otherwise still mountain night} in the Sierra, told me some interesting tales of Edesio after the bandit was killed. The owner of this traveling disc jockey and bartender setup spent long periods in the Sierra, once spending six months without coming down to the plains to refurbish his beer supply, and without very importantly banking his money to save the money form robbery by bandits {here it is clear that the owner was "protected" from bandits}.
"I met him at one of the dances I organized—the owner said—"he always went around surrounded by four or five young men, men less than twenty years old." "That was about ten years ago {1946}." "Then Edesio weighed about 200 pounds. He had a wide, well muscled, chest; but he was thinner from the legs down" {in those days the guajiros and the montunos bathed in the rivers everyday after work}. "I am a little "bronco" {tough, ready to fight}" said the owner. "You had to be tough to survive living in the Sierra." "I had more than one fight" {usually machete or knife fights as many as eighteen at a time were, we were told by some of the Guardia, wounded and killed in these fights at these dances}. "Once a man tried to slash me at one of these dances. I had to duel with him and won." "I was told that my opponent belonged to Edesio's gang."
"At the next dance, some one told me 'That man over there is Edesio'. He was sitting at the head of table with several more of his gang. Later I was introduced. Edesio told me ' I knew that you had a fight with one of my men, that you hurt him, and then brought medicine for his wounds. You did well. He is reckless. I told him that he was wrong'."
"After that when Edesio went, he never stopped going, to the dances he always came at about one or two in the morning. In the Sierra, when there was a dance, the guajiros never liked the music to stop. Edesio liked the song "Sin azucar no hay Pais" {"Without sugar there is no Cuba"}, he alway wanted me to play that record. Edesio played the "Tres" {A complexly strung traditional guitar made in the Cuban countryside} and sang guajiro puntos " {a type of song, a kind of musical duel, between guitar players, a display behavior done to attract women and cow or challenge rival suitors for a woman's favors}. "Why didn't I tell the authorities? The authorities never asked me anything. I never saw any crime. Also he {Edesio} was in charge in the Sierra, and I had a legitimate business to protect."
PEREZ TAMARIT
Perez Tamarit is a colleague, a veteran reporter and press photographer who has lived in Guisa for many years. He has been a very useful collaborator in this report. He took some of the most interesting photographs shown here. He also has been avid collector of the reports of Edesio's deeds. When, in a bar in Guisa, I asked him about Edesio, he told me: "Edesio Hernandez helped others prosper, while he wove his own pale shroud to ready for his own death. In his shadow, or under his protection many became rich or had a comfortable life free of cares. During the burial – and what a funeral it was—many rich people in luxurious autos came from Manzanillo, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Bijagual, and Jiguani. An enormous crowd of country folk were there too! I saw many men cry…" This was told to me by Perez Tamarit and I checked it against other sources and found it true. For the people of Guisa, where Edesio is buried, the funeral will never be forgotten. He was a delinquent, a criminal, of this there is no doubt. Yet why, why was this funeral so spectacular and so memorable?
A PICTURESQUE LIFE
Edesio Hernandez lived an original, picturesque and adventurous life. I have told of his life and his love of women and adventures. {In those times in Cuba, an important man was expected not only to support a wife or an "official" woman and mother of his official children—in as much luxury as he could afford—but was also expected to demonstrate his virility, and thus his 'power', to have and impregnate other attractive women, then demonstrate his generous spirit and sense of responsibility by taking care of these children too}. Thus, Edesio did have an "official" woman, his common law wife, Fauberta Garcia Garcia. Edesio left four children from this marriage: Candelaria, Rafael, Clodomiro and William, aged twenty, eighteen, sixteen and thirteen respectively {see Figure Legend 9}. The young men are shown {with their mother} in one of the photographs {Page 54, middle right, see Figure Legend 9}.
Edesio and Fauberta had twenty happy, but perilous, years of marriage, going from danger to danger. "Nenga"—as Edesio's wife is known lovingly—denies that her husband was a bandit. "Edesio who did no harm to anybody and helped the needy; may be he did have an illegal business, as you have said; but he was not a bandit, he did not rob or assault anybody. When "Manolon" was killed in La Gibarera, he was not there. He swore to me that he did not and he was a man who never lied". "He never lied to me" Faluberta told Perez Tamarit; and she added "It is also not true that he once extorted money from the Bayamo millionaire, Grato Longorio. I went to see that man, because my husband {Edesio} had told me that this was not true and I wanted to know." {Longorio, was a man known for his openness, personal modesty and unassuming clothes. The one time as I child I saw Grato Longorio, --I remember my childish puzzlement after all those years—he was wearing ordinary polo shirt instead of the expected white sharkskin suite or a expensive guayabera; and I thought it out of place, for how is anybody to know that Grato Longorio is a millionaire}.
Edesio {as expected in that time and place for an important man} had other children. One of his sons was Melquiades Garcia {no relative either}. He was eighteen at the time of Edesio's death. When Melquiades found out about his father's death {Which was just months before Castro landed and reached the mountains} he disappeared. He hid in the forests of the Sierra. It is said that Melquiades swore to avenge his fathers death. Another son Agustin Hernandez, known as "Firito" is in jail at the Puerto Boniato prison {where about that time several of Castro's men were jailed, and later escaped bringing other jailed inmates to Castro's forces}. A brother of Edesio, Rafael Hernandez, extorted money in the town of Maffo, he was given marked bills and a few months later was caught. In a shoot out with the Guardias, a gang member, "Chencho" Quintana was wounded, Edesio carried him away on his back and cared for him in a hidden cave for three days until Chencho died and Edesio buried him. About a year back {1955} human remains were found in the Charco Lechones {the 'pool of the wild pigs' in a place I cannot yet locate} a farm owned by Ramon Carranza in the Sierra. These remains were identified as those of "Chencho" Qintana. It is said that on more than one occasion Edesio, seeing a guajiro still planting his crops {in the Taino way} with a pointed stick gave money to the guajiro de buy a plow and a yoke of oxen. Acts like this gave Edesio his altruistic reputation. In the electoral campaign of 1949 and1950 {during the democratic times of President Carlos Prio, before Batista's coup on March 10, 1952} the political entourage of the ex-mayor of the Municipality {of Bayamo see table 1}, Se~nor {here used in the old sense as the honorary title Lord} Alfredo Marrero Perez, was met by Edesio at Los Horneros. {Los Horneros, see Table 1, is a place where the Guama river sweeps a broad curve, through a gentle, prosperous grassy valley, around the steep north east slopes of the mountains of Los Numeros. Los Horneros, on a flat spot on the south side of the curving river, faces to the south the guinea grass covered slopes of the land of Teophilo Espinosa, and the ridge road of Pueblo Nuevo, that leads though El Sordo, to Guisa. El Sordo was near the soon to be hideout of escopetero leader Amelio Mojena, his men who would included brave 15 year old William Edesio's youngest "official" son. The road to Guisa lead to Edesio's waiting grave. Here during last centuries bloody Ten Year War Francisco Maceo Osorio—secretary to the first Cuban president, doomed President in Arms Don Carlos Manuel de Cespedes—died, refusing evacuation, of fever, two years before his leader was killed, on the ridge of San Lorenzo, two river valleys to the west.} In one account, Marrero – who was reputed to be fearless—went taking his young son Alfredo, then only a child, and some of his entourage with him to a nearby house. There Edesio is said in this account to have talked with Marrero. {Remember Marrero could not admit in public to have talked to Edesio the rebel bandit "king of the Sierra Maestra", because August 12 1956 --the date of this article was published in Bohemia—was only almost exactly six months after the Batista dictatorship had been attacked in its very Presidential Palace by the Directorio resistance, and only three months before Frank Pais would raise the flag of rebellion in Santiago to the east along the Sierra and Castro would landed and reach the west of the Sierra}. Edesio is reputed to have said {1949-1950}, among other things: 1"You have a beautiful gun sir" {In the culture of time and place this was perhaps a veiled request for the gun, as in the movie "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the phrase "you have nice boots se~nor" marks the start of the robbery and certainly a request by Edesio for Marrero to put aside his weapon}. Marrero places his pistol on a bed in the house {all is now calm and a conversation can begin}. "So this is your pup, yes? What a handsome boy! May G-d keep him well! Do not fear! I will not do harm! I have come to see the man who makes more noise than I in the Sierra." Marrero spent weeks in the mountains and was very popular because he was a young criollo {a true Cuban} who liked cockfights {a traditional blood sport, oppose by Jose Marti, and banned with bull fighting by the President of the first years of the Republic Estrada Palma, but so popular in the countryside that is was used as an emblem of an early political party and, unlike bullfighting, restored to legality}, because he liked to fit the spurs on the fighting cocks {perhaps a veiled inference to demonstrated sexual prowess frequently a requirement for political popularity in those days} and because he could make a cigar in a minute. Marrero, who at that time, before the Batista coup, was the Mayor of the Muncipality and wished to get reelected, roundly denied this rumor.
THE TRIUMPHANT SERGEANT
{the title, although it refers to Sergeant Ortega, may be designed to evoke thoughts of Batista who was sometimes known at the Sergeant because he first arose to power in the 1930s as a sergeant} March 26, 1954 Sergeant Edilberto Ortega was given made Chief of the Guardia Rural of Guisa. His main mission was to capture Edesio {who posed a potential threat to the Batista dictatorship by controlling the Sierra Maestra} dead or alive. Others had failed; Sargeant Ortega was determined not to. Were this assignment to fail Ortega would risking his career. From the time that Ortega arrived in Guisa, his zeal in the search for Edesio was constant, stubborn and implacable. Sargeant Ortega received challenges from Edesio " When we will meet, we will duel", "I am going to kill you". "It is wisest for you to leave". However, nothing would discourage Ortega. Ortega began to use the same methods as Edesio. Some times he would travel in the Sierra in uniform and sometimes disguised. {Some times these disguises where not so complete, the guajiros in the country stores by the camino would look at the boots and perhaps the hands of strangers. If the boots of strangers were military or the hands un-callused the disguises failed. If the horses the strangers rode, were not the endlessly enduring small, thin long maned, arab-blooded, criollo horses, but the great muscled, heavy sweating, fast sprinting, quarter horses the Guardia used the disguises also failed. Then, soon through the local grapevine, all in the Sierra knew that the strangers were Guardia. When in uniform the Guardia frequently stopped at Grandfathers house, La Casa de Los Generales, to get a good meal. Sometimes I remember they shot at duck eggs floating in the lagoon below the cliff where the Casa of the Generals stood. I remember seeing Uncle Calixto Lionel, standing on the cliff edge in his white guayabera and fine panama hat out-shooting the Guardia's – perhaps Cejas and Capote's—very accurate 30-06 1903 Springfields with his Ruger 0.22 target pistols. Boom of the heavy rifles not much louder than the shorter barreled pistol carried from miles, bouncing southward from hillside to hillside, to mountain ridge and to mountain slopes, from east to west to east and back and forth up the Bayamo valley to the heights of the Sierra. Carrying the sound high above the noise of the rushing river surely to Edesio's ears. Uncle Calixto had the very disturbing habit of reciting rhymes from Lewis Carroll's "Alice through the looking glass" and "Alice in Wonderland" when he was shooting.} Ortega one night asked a person he knew, where was the road to Los Horneros {a road only a stranger did not know}. Next day the same person said: "Guess who I saw last night? It was Edesio going towards Los Horneros!" Several times Sergeant Ortega brushed paths with Edesio. When {old 1950s} Hurricane Hilda hit Oriente Province, Edesio just barely escaped Ortega's ambush. "—I have been told"—Sergeant Ortega said—"that Edesio had me in the sights of his revolver, but did not wish to kill me. This is not true Ortega said, it was not that he did not wish to kill me, but that Edesio thought that killing me in the Sierra would bring reprisals. I have information that instead he was preparing to kill me in front of my house in Guisa and the blame the revolutionaries. This man has a great and legendary reputation; but he is not a good man; he is a bandit. Recently he demanded money from "Gratin" {Grato} Longoria, the rich business man from Bayamo; but due to precautions the extortion attempt failed."
THE END OF EDESIO
1"On the night of Sunday the 22nd" {of August} –Sergeant Ortega continued—"we receive information that Edesio was in Majagualon {the place of the large Mahoe tree precise location not known}. We went there with my men. Two hours later we received information that Edesio was going towards the house of his woman, and we prepared an ambush there. I took up a position by the corrals and Corporal Raul Perez and Soldier Borrel --200 meters away—took up theirs. We were on the outer part of the batey, the grounds, of the "Ge~no" Gongora. A few moments later two men appeared. We called halt and they responded with gun fire. Corporal Raul Perez and Soldier Borrel opened fire. One of the men fell and the other fled {note this for comparison with another version of events discussed below}."
{The more locally accepted version of events is that Edesio was killed near the road to La Toronja, by a fellow gang member who waited until Edesio was ducking between the barbed wire strands of fence he was crossing, and shot him there. This is consistent with the mention of the second man that escaped the ambush in the Official version of events, such a traitor would be in great danger of revenge from Edesio's family. It also fits with Sargeant Ortega's desire for promotion, the small likelihood that Edesio would approach his own house without careful scouting and all clear signals from his wife, the lack of explanation of what Edesio was doing in the batey of the "Ge~no" Gongora, the ready escape under heavy direct fire of the unknown second man, and the lack of details with which Sargeant Ortega describes the ambush. Of course Lee Harvy Oswald was not there.} "The man that fell was Edesio. We identified him by the ballerina tattoos that he had on his right arm and thigh. This was verified on autopsy by the recovery of 28 shot gun pellets, that he had in an old wound on his forehead, between the skin and the bone. This old wound was received when Edesio was ambushed in Los Horneros by Eloy, "Nenecito" and Manuel Martinez using a 16 gauge shotgun." {In the version I heard: one man pushed a shotgun out between the yaguas, boards made from the giant royal palm leaf petioles and used to wall bohios. The shots hit Edesio in the forehead, Edesio just stared back at the man who did, and Edesio's assailant {s} fled in terror}. "In addition, the Edesio's own wife with hysterical outbursts identified the body at the cemetery. Thus died the man who caused me the greatest difficulties in my military career…" _"He died at the right time"—emphasized Sergeant Ortega—because we have documents which we found on him." {It was unlikely that Edesio would write his plans down. The real documents may well have been affidavits—not found on Edesio's body—but provided by an informant close to and possibly the real killer of Edesio. However were Ortega to reveal such a link this well could have been lethal for the putative informant}. These documents show that Edesio planned, to kidnap the rich business man Leonardo Gonzalez on his next trip to Guisa { I think it was in his warehouse that I ordered the bottle of Fundador rum that got me in such trouble}. Then ask for ransom through Pepito {Jose} Gonzales Rodriguez the son and constant accompanying associate Leonardo Gonzales." { Pepito, if my memory is correct was a young Spaniard who thought he knew his father's food and supply business too well. I scared Pepito when I told him that his codes for prices could be broken and I could find out the original prices of the goods he sold.} "Now we can rest a little" {said Ortega}. "This man – without doubt the most famous bandit since "Arroyito" gave us no time to stop and rest. This is the end of Edesio… Now the legends in their different versions will follow… He was good; he was bad, HE WAS KILLED BY A COMPANION WHO BETRAYED HIM, or he died in a clash with the Guardia Rural… And above all, it was a incredible spectacle; hundreds of people at the burial, many of them men with tears in their eyes….. {I have not found the names of Sergeant Edilberto Ortega, Corporal Raul Perez Linarez or Soldier Benito Borrel, among those executed or imprisoned in Cuba after January 1, 1959, nor do I know if they died in defense of the Guardia Station at Guisa in the last months of 1958.} {The last paragraph of Ruben Castillo Ramos article is placed under a Charles Atlas advertisement which say's "…puedo hacerlo un hombre nuevo" "…I can make you into a new man."}
The free translation and background annotations and data by Larry S. Daley copyright @1997 permission to copy granted for non-commercial purposes.
Table 1. Added to be used locate sites described in notes.
Data processed from U. S. Defense Mapping Agency
Location
latitude {north}
longitude {west}
type
degrees and minutes
degrees minutes
Arroyo Blanco
PPLL
20 16
-76 28
Arroyo Blanco
PPLL
20 15
-76 29
Arroyon
MN
20 11
-76 34
Bayamesa, Pico
MT
20 03
-76 35
Bijagual
PPL
20 14
-76 15
Bombon
LCTY
20 09
-76 30
Bombon Norte
PPLL
20 13
-76 30
Buenavista
PPLL
20 09
-76 24
Bueycito
PPL
20 14
-76 46
Bueycitos
PPL
20 14
-76 46
Cadiz
MN
20 12
-76 32
Calabazar
PPL
20 17
-76 28
Charco Redondo
PPL
20 15
-76 25
Chirivico Harbor
LDNG
19 57
-76 24
Chirivico, Surgidero de
LDNG
19 57
-76 24
Chivirico, Puerto de
LDNG
19 57
-76 24
Chorreron, Arroyo
STMI
20 11
-76 34
Colorada
LCTY
20 16
-76 24
Coloradas, Embarcadero las
LDNG
19 59
-76 17
Corral Bueycito
PPLL
20 15
-76 46
Corralillo
PPL
20 15
-76 31
Corralillo
PPL
20 15
-76 31
Cueva de Guisa
PPLL
20 09
-76 26
Diablo, Rio el
STM
20 07
-76 33
El Corojo
LCTY
20 12
-76 36
El Corojo
PPL
20 13
-76 35
El Corojo
PPL
20 13
-76 35
El Datil
LCTY
20 08
-76 34
El Descanso
PPL
20 15
-76 37
El Diablo
PPL
20 04
-76 31
El Diablo, Rio
STM
20 07
-76 33
El Indio
LCTY
20 04
-76 34
El Oro
LCTY
20 06
-76 34
El Oro, Rio
STM
20 07
-76 35
El Platano
PPL
20 09
-76 35
El Sordo
PPL
20 12
-76 31
Estancia Escondita
PPLL
20 14
-76 32
File
PPL
20 09
-76 17
Francisco
MN
20 13
-76 35
Gibara
LCTY
20 21
-76 31
Gibara, Bahia de
BAY
21 06
-76 07
Gibara, Municipio de
ADM2
21 07
-76 08
Gibara, Puerto
BAY
21 06
-76 07
Gibara, Rio
STM
21 05
-76 08
Guama
LCTY
20 12
-76 34
Guama del Sur, Cabezadas del
STMH
20 05
-76 25
Guama, Rio
STM
20 13
-76 35
Guama, Rio
STM
19 58
-76 26
Guanabana, Cabezadas del
STMH
20 07
-76 24
Guayabo, Arroyo
STMI
20 00
-76 26
Guinea, Arroyo
STMI
20 06
-76 24
Guisa
PPL
20 15
-76 32
Hoyo de Pipa
PPLL
20 15
-76 33
Jiguani Abajo
LCTY
20 23
-76 27
Jiguani, Municipio de
ADM2
20 22
-76 26
Jiguani, Rio
STM
20 26
-76 32
Jiguani, Rio
STMI
20 20
-76 22
La Caridad
PPLL
20 15
-76 38
La Ciega
PPLL
20 13
-76 38
La Escondida
PPLL
20 14
-76 32
La Gibarera
LCTY
20 50
-77 22
La Guama, Arroyo
STM
20 13
-76 35
La Plata, Rio
STMI
20 08
-76 34
Las Coloradas, Embarcadero de
LDNG
19 59
-76 17
Las Coloradas, Hacienda
EST
20 46
-76 45
Las Marinas
PPL
20 16
-76 58
Las Toronjas
PPLL
20 10
-76 28
Lazos, Arroyo los
STMI
20 12
-76 25
Los Diablos, Rio
STM
20 07
-76 33
Los Espejos
PPLL
20 13
-76 34
Los Horneros
PPL
20 10
-76 31
Los Lazos, Arroyo
STMI
20 12
-76 25
Los Lopez
PPLL
20 15
-76 33
Luz
MN
20 13
-76 35
Marquesado de Guisa
LCTY
20 16
-76 31
Marti, Pico
MT
20 01
-76 35
Mogote, Cabezadas del
STMH
20 05
-76 23
Monte Oscaro
PPL
20 18
-76 35
Monte Oscuro
PPL
20 18
-76 35
Nestor
MN
20 10
-76 32
Oro de Bayamo, Rio
STM
20 07
-76 35
Oro, Rio
STM
20 07
-76 35
Ortega
PPL
20 13
-76 28
Ortega
PPL
20 13
-76 28
Palomo
PPL
20 09
-76 35
Pinalito
PPL
20 09
-76 29
Plata, Rio la
STMI
20 08
-76 34
Platano
PPL
20 09
-76 35
Poblado Guisa
PPL
20 15
-76 32
Poblado Yara
PPL
20 16
-76 57
Potrerillo, Arroyo
STMI
21 03
-76 07
Pueblo Nueve
PPL
20 11
-76 32
Pueblo Nuevo
PPL
20 11
-76 32
Pueblo Nuevo
PPL
20 11
-76 32
Quiebra Seca
LDNG
19 58
-76 19
Rihito
PPL
20 15
-76 23
Rio Jiguani, Boca del
STMM
20 33
-74 43
Rio Sevilla, Cabezada
STMH
20 05
-76 23
San Andres
PPLL
20 15
-76 34
San Jose
PPLL
20 15
-76 36
San Lorenzo
PPLL
20 13
-76 41
Santa Barbara
PPLL
20 16
-76 35
Santa Barbara
PPLL
20 13
-76 34
Santiago de Cuba
AIRS
20 01
-75 50
Sevilla, Cabezadas del
STMH
20 05
-76 23
Sonado, Arroyo
STMI
20 00
-76 26
Sonador, Arroyo
STMI
20 00
-76 26
Sordo
PPL
20 12
-76 31
Vijas, Arroyo
STMI
19 57
-76 34
Yara
PPL
20 16
-76 57
Yara Arriba
PPL
20 13
-76 58
Copyright of translation and annotations @1997, permission to copy granted for noncommercial purposes
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