CALIXTO GARCIA IÑIGUEZ:

An outstanding patriot and one of the most brilliant strategists of Cuba’s military history, he participated in the three wars waged for Cuba’s independence in the second half of the 19^th century.  In search for answers to the demands of the liberation wars, he acquired, autodidactically, a solid, modern military training, characterized by a great mastery of the technical advances and great knowledge of the ballistics of those times. 

Having joined from the very beginning the revolutionary movement initiated by Céspedes, he filled the posts of Head of the Holguín Brigade and of the Eastern Department.  He distinguished himself in the difficult art of sieging and taking settlements, and in the planning and execution of combat actions. He harmonized the joint work of  headquarters, conducting the battles from the command posts and the use of sketches, maps and plans. Singularly gifted in leading troops, he preferred to be on the offensive and maintained his forces in constant field training. 

Calixto García opposed the Zanjón Pact and endeavored, along with José Martí, Antonio Maceo and other patriots, to resume the struggle as soon as possible, incorporating himself to it in May 1880.  After this attempt failed, he once again joined up when the armed struggle was reinitiated in 1895, as Head of the Eastern Department, where he led one of the most important campaigns of the war with the purpose of activating operations in the territory. 

When the U.S. intervention in the war took place, Calixto García strictly obeyed the instructions of the Government Council of the Republic in Arms and subordinated his troops to the foreign military command.  Knowing the fighting capacity of the Cuban and Spanish forces and the characteristics of the theater of military operations, he proposed an operational plan to defeat the colonial army. 

Despite the decisive participation of the Cuban forces in the battles that preceded victory, the U.S. command prohibited the Liberation Army to enter Santiago de Cuba.  Calixto García responded with dignity to this unjust and  arrogant act. Nevertheless, his proverbial optimism and his indomitable will yielded to this offense which forecast worse evils. 

Only his revolutionary calling and his profound patriotic convictions made him comply with the last tasks assigned him by the Government Council.  Thus, he died in Washington, where he had gone at the head of a commission discharging an assignment of the top authorities of the Republic of Cuba in Arms. 

In the commemoration of the centennial of his death, General of the Army Raul Castro said, “Calixto García was a fervent believer of the value and significance of the ideal he was defending and of two of his most valuable qualities: staunch patriotism and an iron will.”

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