Bernarda del Toro Pelegrín ("Manana") was 16 years old when the Ten Year War started, not very far from where she, her parents and her twelve brothers and sisters lived in the eastern part of Cuba. Just four months after the beginning of the insurrection, the citizens of Jiguaní, including Manana's family, set their own houses on fire before the advancing Spanish troops could get there. Women and children, young and old, sick and healthy they went to the mountains and joined the rebels.
At age 18, in a ceremony in the Cuban rebel camp, Manana married Major General Máximo Gómez who would command troops for the duration of the Ten Year War, then go into exile, and later come back to Cuba at the beginning of the War of Independence as the Commander in Chief of the insurgent forces. Manana would give birth to her first children in a Cuban rebel camp and would have to run with the newborns upon the approach of Spanish troops. Amazingly, six of her eight children survived past childhood.
Francisco ("Panchito") Gómez Toro, the son of Manana and Máximo was 20 years old when he landed in Cuba to join the forces fighting the new war against Spain. His father was in a different province and Panchito joined the forces of General Maceo in the western part of Cuba. On the 7th of December of 1896, Panchito together with General Maceo were shot to death in a skirmish with the Spaniards.
It took a few days for the news to reach Manana who was in the Dominican Republic. The letter below is to her husband from whom she has not heard since the news had arrived.
Sixty seven years later, Andrés Vargas Gómez, grandson of “Manana” and Máximo Gómez, nephew of “Panchito,” would serve a 20-year prison sentence imposed by the Communist government of Fidel Castro and would be denied freedom even after he served his sentence. He spent and additional year incarcerated post-sentence and was finally released in 1984
Via: New York
I don't even know how I am able write
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