Camilo Cienfuegos

For the Cuban village, see Camilo Cienfuegos (Santa Cruz del Norte).

Camilo Cienfuegos
Born	(1932-02-06)February 6, 1932 Lawton, Havana, Cuba
Died	Cuba Florida Straits
Nationality	Cuban
Organization	26th of July Movement

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Cienfuegos and the second or maternal family name is Gorriarán.

Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (Spanish: [kaˈmilo sjemˈfweɣoz ɣorjaˈɾan]; February 6, 1932 – October 28, 1959) was a Cuban revolutionary born in Havana. Along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro, he was a member of the 1956 Granma expedition, which began Fidel Castro's armed insurgency against the government of Cuba's dictatorial President Fulgencio Batista. He became one of Castro's top guerilla Comandantes, known as the "Hero of Yaguajay" after winning a key battle of the Cuban Revolution.

Shortly after the victory of Castro's rebel army in 1959, Cienfuegos, who had been appointed head of Cuba's armed forces, was presumed killed when a small plane he was traveling in disappeared while on a night flight from Camaguey to Havana.

Cienfuegos is revered in Cuba as a hero of the Revolution, with monuments, memorials, and an annual celebration in his honor.

Early life

Camilo Cienfuegos was born on February 6, 1932, in Havana's Lawton district. He was raised in a working class family that had emigrated from Spain prior to the Spanish Civil War. His father, a tailor who ran a small shop out of their house, had anarchist leanings and was a supporter of the Russian Revolution.

Artistically inclined since early youth, Camilo enrolled in the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" in 1950, but had to quit his studies soon after due to financial problems. During this period he started working as a tailor apprentice in the "El Arte" fashion store in downtown Havana.

Around 1948 he started to get involved in political issues, taking part in popular protests against rising bus fares.

In April 1953, Cienfuegos and a friend travelled to the US (on 29-day visitors' visas) in search of work. They spent several months living and working low-paying jobs in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco before being nabbed by immigration officials and returned to Cuba via Mexico. While in New York Cienfuegos had become involved with a Cuban political exile group, and had written a few articles for its newspaper, La Voz de Cuba.

Political awakening

In 1954 Cienfuegos became an active member of the underground student movement against autocratic President Fulgencio Batista. On December 5, 1955, the eve of the anniversary of the death of 19th-century Cuban independence hero Antonio Maceo, Cienfuegos and other students were shot and wounded in Havana while returning to the university after placing a wreath on Maceo's monument.He later described this as the moment in which he pledged himself to freeing Cuba from the Batista dictatorship. Jobless and harassed by police, he left Cuba in March, 1956 and again travelled to the US, where he worked in Miami and San Francisco for a few weeks before heading to Mexico, intent on joining a small Cuban rebel army being organized by Fidel Castro.

On arriving in Mexico, Cienfuegos befriended Castro, and began training with the rebels. Thereafter he was one of the 82 revolutionaries who set sail aboard the boat Granma in November 1956. Allegedly, Cienfuegos was the last one to board the boat and was only allowed to join because of his thinness.

Guerrilla activities

Cienfuegos (L) triumphantly entering Havana with Fidel Castro (R) in January 1959.

The Granma arrived in Cuba on December 2. After a three day nightmare of swamps and mangroves, the rebels were surprised by the Cuban (Batista's) army at Alegría de Pío. The surviving rebels escaped in small dispersed groups, wandering for weeks in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Cienfuegos was one of the twelve who survived the attacks and executions carried out by Batista's forces not long after they landed. He was able to rejoin Castro in the Sierra Maestra a month later.

In 1957 he became one of the top leaders of the revolutionary forces, appointed to the rank of Comandante. In 1958, with the defeat of Operation Verano (Summer), Cienfuegos was put in command of one of three columns which headed west out of the mountains with the intention of capturing the provincial capital city of Santa Clara. Che Guevara was in command of another column and Jaime Vega was in command of the third. Jaime Vega's column was ambushed and defeated by Batista's forces.

Cienfuegos and Guevara's two columns reached the central provinces, where they joined efforts with several other groups. Cienfuegos's column attacked an army outpost at Yaguajay and, after a tough fight, forced the garrison to surrender on December 30, 1958. This earned him the nickname "The Hero of Yaguajay". With Yaguajay captured, Cienfuegos's column was able to advance against Santa Clara in conjunction with Guevara's forces, and the other non-Castro forces from the Escambray front. Together, the two columns captured Santa Clara on December 31; most of the defending soldiers gave up without shooting. Batista fled Cuba the next day, and the guerrillas were victorious.

Later, Cienfuegos would serve in the Cuban Army's high command, fight anti-Castro uprisings, and play a role in agrarian reforms.

Politics and death

File:Camilio.jpg

Cienfuegos with Fidel Castro in 1959. The team name Barbudos means "bearded ones"

There has been debate as to Cienfuegos's political leanings. He came from a Spanish anarchist family and believed strongly in the tenets of Anarchism. Cuban author and historian Carlos Franqui suggests otherwise in his book, Family Portrait With Fidel. Franqui, one of Cienfuegos's closest friends during the Cuban revolution, asserts that Cienfuegos "sympathized with socialism" and that he followed the Marxist Che Guevara politically. Other sources tend to agree with Franqui. Both Cienfuegos's father and his brother, Osmany, were, and in Osmany's case still are, radical leftists. What is known from their own writings, statements, and deeds is that many leaders of the 26th of July Movement, including Raul Castro and Che Guevara, were in the far left of the political spectrum. Both Camilo and his brother Osmany were on that side of the spectrum, but not dogmatic in their political beliefs.

Several days before his death, Cienfuegos arrested his former revolutionary comrade Huber Matos on Castro's orders. Comandante Matos had complained to Fidel Castro that the 26th of July Movement was being rapidly infiltrated by communists, who were assuming positions of power. Receiving no response, Matos sent a letter to Fidel relinquishing his position as military chief of Camaguey province (October 20). Cienfuegos was under the impression that Matos was leading an open revolt, but he found that was not the case. Nevertheless he carried out the arrest.

On October 28, 1959, Cienfuegos's Cessna 310 ('FAR-53') disappeared over the ocean during a night flight from Camagüey to Havana. An immediate search was called which lasted several days, but no plane could be found. By November the search was called off and Cienfuegos was presumed lost. He quickly became a new hero for the Cuban revolution.

Rumors concerning Cienfuegos's disappearance have been rife. Some have speculated that Cienfuegos was killed on the orders of Fidel Castro; These rumors have been difficult to uphold, however, as Cienfuegos had appeared exceptionally loyal to Castro throughout his involvement, and had vigorously supported the arrest of Matos only days earlier. Che Guevara, who was also close to Cienfuegos (naming his son Camilo after the fallen revolutionary), dismissed any rumors of Castro's involvement. Another rumor circulating was that a Cuban air force fighter plane shot Cienfuegos down mistaking his plane for a hostile intruder. Historians seem to agree that Cienfuegos's death is more likely to have been an accident, and not the result of foul play.

Museum

A museum to Camilo Cienfuegos was built after his death in Yaguajay, at the site of the barracks defended by Batista's forces during the 1958 battle. The army base is now a hospital. The museum includes a diorama of the battle, as well as artifacts relating to Cienfuegos' life before, during and after the revolution. A large statue of him is on top of the museum, which is similar in size and design to the Che Guevara Mausoleum in Santa Clara.

Remembrance

Cuba has named a socialist order, the Order of Cienfuegos after Camilo Cienfuegos.

Few men have succeeded in leaving on every action such a distinctive personal mark. He had the natural intelligence of the people, who had chosen him out of thousands for a privileged position on account of the audacity of his blows, his tenacity, his intelligence, and unequalled devotion. Camilo practiced loyalty like a religion.

— Che Guevara

• On every October 28 school children from all over Cuba throw flowers into the sea (or into a river if they live inland) to honor Camilo Cienfuegos.

• In October 2009, in honor of the 50th anniversary of his death, a 100 ton steel outline of Camilo's face was added to the side of the Ministry of Informatics and Communications building at the Plaza de la Revolución. Accompanying the stencil facade are the words "Vas bien, Fidel" (You’re doing fine, Fidel), representing the famous response of Camilo to Fidel at the January 8, 1959 rally where Castro declared that the Columbia military barracks would be made into a school, and then asked Camilo, "Am I doing all right, Camilo?"

• Camilo is also remembered on the 20 Cuban peso bill and the 20 Cuban convertible peso bill. He was also pictured in the now discontinued 40 cent coins.

• The University of Matanzas bears the name "Camilo Cienfuegos."

• There are six military high schools named "Camilo Cienfuegos," which provide pre-military training to students aged 11 to 17.

• The neighbourhood known until 1950 as Central Hershey, in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte, Havana, was renamed Central Camilo Cienfuegos.

• In the 2008 film Che, he was portrayed by Santiago Cabrera.

See also

• Anarchism in Cuba

References

• Anderson, Jon Lee. 1997, 1998. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. Grove/Atlantic ISBN 0-8021-3558-7 ISBN 0553406647 ISBN 978-0-553-40664-1
• Barrio, Hilda & Jenkins, Gareth. 2003. The Che Handbook. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-32246-1 ISBN 1840725028 ISBN 978-1-84072-502-5
• Faria, Miguel A. 2002. Cuba in Revolution - Escape from a Lost Paradise. Hacienda Publishing. ISBN 0-9641077-3-2
• Franqui, Carlos. 1984, 1985. Family Portrait with Fidel: A Memoir. Random House. New York. ISBN 0-224-02268-7 ISBN 0394726200
• Thomas, Hugh. 1970, 1998. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. Da Capo Press, New York. ISBN 0-306-80827-7
• Thomas, Hugh. 1971, 1986. The Cuban Revolution. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. (Shortened version of Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, includes all history 1952-1970) ISBN 0-297-79037-4 ISBN 0-297-78954-6

External links

• Bio of Cienfuegos
• "Who was Camilo Cienfuegos?" at History of Cuba
• Camilo Cienfuegos seen by Che
• Camilo, la Estrella Cercana, a podcast about Camilo at Radio Rebelde (Spanish)
• Camilo Cienfuegos at Find a Grave