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CUBAN FREEDOM VOLUNTEERS

From

moment that war begins in Spain there are many Cubans who decide to join the race but we have to distinguish the way in which they manage to integrate into the various units that fight against fascism in España.Se produce various situations, We must first consider the members of the Cuban community in Spain who decided to take up arms and must distinguish between those who were in Spain for reasons of conventional migration, often linked to family ties and a group of Cuban had come to Spain as exiles because of his revolutionary activities in Cuba.
Another group arrived in Spain from the United States where the party That country's Communist volunteers organized as American as the rest of the continent they got involved. The group of Cubans enlisted in New York was the "Century Guiteras" that would be attached to the "Lincoln Brigade" which ended with a majority of Americans made it possible for volunteers from all over Latin America, Mexicans, Argentines, Brazilians, and in general a trickle of volunteers who on his arrival in Spain
would join the ranks of the "Brigades International
."

A third group, the most substantial and diverse as Cuba was organized in response to the call PCC Jorge Dimitrov, leader of the Comintern that had already launched the creation of "International Brigades". While we must consider that not only was the PCC who carried out this task and that the volunteers came from various affiliations, is denying the role of the Communists was key. The PCC decided a network of recruitment, selection organized volunteers and met all the details of documentation and shipment to arrive in France where they already were coordinated by the French Communist Party members.

There was a variant in the presence of Cuban troops in the English civil war who sought individually how to get to Spain and enrolarse.El case known of these Paul is the otros.Como Torriente Brau but there can be seen linking the Cubans to the combat action in Spain proved to be of different nature, which emerged in different studies has precluded the development of rigorous and that lists any case, the primary source for researchers was the Cuban Communist Party archives that the numbers are only in relation to organized volunteers from that country and those who still remain outside coordinated their departure to Spain with the situation PCC.La underground and phase reorganization in which the Cuban communists were in 1936 justifies the whole process be carried out by a small group of people organizational model with a very secretive and rarely given to the handling of documents. In any case, there are two lists of reference to know how many Cuban soldiers fought in Spain, the first was made following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 , Ramón Nicolau being a key figure in this process and who promotes the recovery of the memory of the combatants cubanos.Ramón Nicolau was the person appointed by the Politburo in November 1936 gave clear instructions to capture and send volunteers to España.Fue the ultimate responsibility of the Cuban combatants both in the organization of groups in Cuba and English soil for the development of guerra.Siendo responsible for the "Institute of History of Communist Movement and the Socialist Revolution in Cuba" promoted the development of a written work that became the first and only reliable document for the study of the participation of Cuban combatants in Spain (* Cuba in Defense of the English Republic 1936-1939). This book written by a group of researchers under the direction and momentum of Nicolau, was published in 1979, forty years after the end of guerra.Se is an interesting oral history project in they were asked to living veterans who bring a biographical lines and had different sources to produce a full list of volunteers both deceased and survivors, with the Association of Veterans of the English Civil War "and" National Association of Combatant "who provided documents to alcance.La first of those no longer in business after the death of Mario Morales Bureau and Aneiro Subirat, who in life were responsible for maintaining and updating the lists in coordination with the National Association of Combatant. "



It is clear that the control of documents of this period went through various vicissitudes of hiding and remained scattered until from the "Institute of History of Communist Movement" and as stated under the sponsorship of Ramon Nicolau, began the task of gathering the documents and update information on this etapa.De this initiative is a list that tells us that the Cubans who died in combat on English soil amounted to 89 while the survivors amounted to 643, no doubt about figures not consistent with the assertions of Ramón Nicolau in interviews and writings indicated that the number of Cuban combatants in Spain was over a thousand and those who departed from Cuba amounted to 850 fighters.


The other list of combatants has been developed by Alberto Alfonso Bello, researchers of the period that matches the number of deaths but provides a slightly smaller number of survivors
, 622.Hay consider that the first of the lists is known in 1979 while the study is published in Bello 1989.En both lists include those who left Cuba and New York and who were in a situation of political exiles Spain but yet only includes some of the Cubans who fought in the ranks of the Popular Army having enlisted volunteers from his position as resident in difficulty closing España.La lists in this regard is that many of these did not maintain links organizations directly with Cuban aid to the republic and after the war many of them chose exile far from Cuba, so their participation in the war has only come to know as their testimony or that of third parties are allowed to know of its existence. ----------

HARVESTING AND DELIVERY OF FIGHTERS
start by knowing how it arises and is organized to send volunteers from cuba.com stated above, the initiative was taken by the PCC in parallel to the providing material support echoed the request of the Communist International, the Comintern, as we shall see later, had already decided to create an "Army of Freedom" willing to fight fascism wherever there necesario.La Comintern decided to create International Brigades who asked how the involvement of communist parties the world and not only Cuba was not a exception but was particularly participatory.


The November 4, 1936, ie almost four months into the conflict in Spain, the CPC Central Committee drafted a proclamation in relation to the war in Spain:
Cuban people! We have made great duties with the English people, its success will be our victory, ayudesmosles in difficult times! We demand the government legally our right to express our desire to support the English people! This proclamation

deducted legal complications for all matters relating to aid the English Republic and even more shipping men to participate in the contest, but despite the persecution of aid-related elements, the position of the United States founded fear for the advance of fascism in the world, gave way to an attitude of ambiguity the war in Spain to Cuba absorbed in their own way, the way the head of State Security, Fulgencio Batista, which always played the card of neutrality in whose name all possible short but trying to keep the image of distancing from the English conflict and swinging from one extreme to another in their sympathies to those faced occurred as the government somehow acontecimientos.En Cuban was surprised by the magnitude of the solidarity movement that was created around the English Government of the Republic adopted a permissive policy on humanitarian aid but not giving those involving the entry into scenes of items from the "underground opposition ".

On November 18, 1936 in the full Politburo decided to formally create a committee dedicated to sending volunteers to España.Ramón Nicolau, a decisive man in the early years of the PCC was appointed responsible for all the device that would capture and send volunteers to España.Nicolau was one of the founders of the first Cuban Communist Party in 1926 and subsequently had held top-level tasks within the political apparatus of the comunistas.Se had formed politically in the USSR, hence its designation gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe strong commitment that this will send fighters to España.Lo Nicolau was first in this new responsibility was to form a team of people in the underground struggle solvent able to maintain relationships with the network of Communist cells present throughout the country and bring a number of volunteers with the degree of commitment of the PCC with the Comintern . For this assignment was with Victor Pina, a man of action and partido.Si it is true that the whole organization of Cuban volunteers should have the approval of Nicolau and therefore the PCC, should be considered for this period, the PCC is an emerging party, formally established in 1926 and therefore with a level of implementation on Cuban society, which meant that most cases the volunteers would come from their ranks and other related organizations and other co-existing in the case of Joven Cuba, nursery volunteers, many came from so-called "authenticated", branch split from the Partido Revolucionario Cubano. In general, the volunteers come from organizations and ideologies which brings together diverse opposition to the Cuban government and the army chief, Colonel Fulgencio Batista in particular.La working class through nurture the union movement of volunteers, will be listed sugar and tobacco workers from all final Cuba.En there is concern in a sector of Cuban revolutionary activism moves to fight fascism in Spain without entering and taking ideological nuances that are the Communists who hold the key to go and fight in the PCC España.es who pulls the strings as yours are the contacts to arrive at French soil and from there to lead the groups to Republican Spain.

This reality led to the existence of two working groups: a first Commission which had representation from various political tendencies and another in which alone involved elements of the PCC and which really decided the momentous issues of this asunto.La first issue was considered at the time of recruitment was that in response to the call of the Comintern, the volunteers should have preferably with military experience. It was looking for former soldiers in active military or protest with the model imposed by Batista,
belonging to the army in the Cuban army anterior.El period had been technically dissolved after the government emerged from the riots of 1933 and refounded by Fulgencio Batista remained in control of the situation, either from the post of chief of staff or from the responsibility of the military Gobierno.Muchos sections of the Cuban army by his identification with the previous stage were now in the best position to be recruited.

The Commission formed by the different trends Pina was composed by Victor Cardoso and Luis Alvarez Tabio PCC.Por by the radical wing of the "authenticated" or "Authentic Party were" Lt. Emile Laurent Dubé and Lieutenant José Antonio Martínez Mendez.Juan Miguel O'Farrill and captain Juan Llaca Argudín came from the Cuban army dissolved and positions identified with "progressives." Lastly, Gaston Fernandez had Survielle was ensign and a very close to PCC, party which militate adelante.Esta from this stage and was the Commission created the consensus, but in reality and as mentioned, was a more restricted and controlled by the PCC which set the pace for this initiative because it had both keys recruitment of the dispatch of volunteers.
So while the committee chaired by Ramon Nicolau acted, the CCP launched a second working group composed exclusively of members of the commission came partido.El Politburo of the party following the instructions of the intensified its control Kominterjn on the organization of volunteers, this second Commission would remain under the control of Ramon Nicolau although this partío to Spain to watch the Cuban volunteers and the team fell under the command of Victor Pina Cardoso and completed by Mario Morales Mesa, Silvio Cardoso and "Whitey" all men expert in clandestine struggle and sabotage . With Nicolau in Spain Victor Pina was accountable for his work with Fabio Grobart, a Polish exile who was one of the initiators of the first Communist Party in Cuba and currently serving as Secretary of the Organization, being the point man in relations with the Komintern.Según the story of Victor Alfonso Bello Alberto Pina published in his book "Cuba in Spain" was Gorobart who supplied them with the necessary funds to operate, being Asela Administrator Jiménez these funds to cover everything related to voluntarios.Durante time he acted this team did lugar.Alquilaron constantly changing a vehicle in the street trench in the capital which would be responsible "Whitey" , an expert escort and driver. Victor Pina would be arrested in Santiago de Cuba when he made contact with four former officers of the disbanded national army, apparently it was a betrayal that ended with Pina imprisoned in the basement of the Moncada barracks that only could leave thanks to a unexpected event that the party knew of his existence through a English fruit seller at which Pina used to buy pineapples and its After receiving notice that Pina was imprisoned, which led to legal claims and will be put in libertad.Mario Morales Mesa was second and Victor Pina decisive man in the work of this equipo.Se was a man with extensive experience in armed actions and sabotage in recent years had earned the respect of the upper echelons of PCC.De Mario Morales path we emphasize that eventually went to fight in Spain and after passing through the fields French concentration returned to Cuba where he devoted himself to work underground gangster infiltrating the circles that had created great confusion in Cuba, and the Ministry finally Interior emerged from the revolution of 59, was one of the architects in the creation of the Cuban intelligence "from their responsibilities in the State Security.


For the recruitment of volunteers was made a discreet but effective call through the local committees of various organizations. The head of the Committee stood in Havana at the famous Manzana de Gomez, a building located directly opposite the Capitol, seat of the House of Representatives of the Nation, and Presidencial.Allí Palace, on the top floor of this office building, modern and relatively impersonal, rented an office that officially operated as an agency viajes.Desde there articulated the logistics of the organization,
such as tickets and documents that would bring the Cuban fighters on their way to war espana.com many of these came from various Cuban provinces were looked counted discrete hotels with the support of employees afines.Fueron hotels "Lincoln" and "Monserrate" the two combatants operating bases that were kept ready for days until hours before the game instructions are communicated to seguir.Para the provision of clothing and belongings of the volunteers were contacted English merchants supporters of the republic, namely a
store Suárez streets of the capital was the main supplier to the advantage of large facilities in the payment and the tarifas.Otro basic issue was to check the health of the volunteers, everyone must pass a rigorous exam to have them declared unfit for combat and for this task is enabled a query in the "Clinical Institute of Havana, there were examined by Dr. Luis Díaz Soto general and cardiologists and Pedro Luis Alvarez Tabio Rabbi Mendez.La sending fighters routine was therefore capture anywhere in the country, transportation to the capital and from there the concentration of groups of men with the operational documentation, ie many They traveled with their own document and those who were being monitored by police using documents provided by the outputs Comité.Las coordinated from Paris, where he had implanted a device receiving effective fighters from around the local responsibility mundo.La corresponded to the French Communist Party members, when Paris gave its approval in Havana was shipped to the group of fighters,
always lower than the hundred and organized in small groups expressing the most diverse reasons for ships was viaje.Se operating under the responsibility of a British shipping company with which the manager certain agreements were reached to issue tickets to various ports on the route from Spain but the final destination of all would be the peninsula iberica.En Cuban police several times wished to go to the ships and inspect the passengers knowing of the presence of volunteers bound for Spain, but in all cases capitanfrecuencia resorting to bribery of persons responsible for reviewing the barcos.Los volunteers boarded the boat, taking care to look indifferent, and often with "empty suitcases." One of the excuses used was to attend the "International" which was being held at Paris.The men landed on the French coast and usually travel by train to Paris, as members collaborated PCF used in ferrocarriles.Una time in Paris were enrolled in discreet hotels under the guise of being students or other grounds disuasorios.La Cuban organization Félix Pita Rodríguez gave the order to receive volunteers on their arrival in Paris, the Cuban intellectual which was already in France since 1932 acted in these tasks not only on the arrival of Cubans but also on their return.

An important point to consider in organizing the Volunteers of Liberty "Cuban was due to the influence of the CCP in the political control of the same as though the composition of the volunteers was large in all cases was a member of the PCC who exercised political control each of the groups that left Cuba for Spain holds the rank of "political commissars", a mechanism that was repeated in other countries as directed by the Comintern on the recruitment and organization of testimony combatientes.El Alba Giberto whom I interviewed in November 2005 on the advice: "I left Havana as a political commissar of a group of volunteers even though he had no experience and was the youngest of those who made up the expedition, but my membership Youth Party led to this charge. "

the account of Ramon Nicolau to the development of the play "Cuba and the Defense of the English Republic 1936/1939 "We know other details about the organization and monitoring was done of the Cuban combatants enrolled in the" International Brigades ":

" After the murder of Antonio Guiteras on the beach of El Morillo Cuban insurrectionary process was significantly affected . The group's management spent Guiteras conspiracy created by those who had been president of the Cuban government in 1933, Ramón Grau San Martín, in exile in Miami and maintaining an attitude bordering on defeatism in weighing the chances of an insurrection as well as a clear prevention in the tactics of "United Front", which originated in his stubborn refusal on the participation of Communists in any type according to projections futuras.Para planned movement is significant competition had the elements anxious to boot the struggle against Batista, having achieved remarkable progress of the work insurrection. A considerable portion of the
committed were in possession of vital military training to confront those in power, including a number of officers ejercito.Tras a meeting in Key Largo in the state of Florida with the presence of Grau San Martin in order to determine what action to take in the immediate future Grau San Martin dismissed the insurrecional.Tomando via the agreement to suspend the organizational work were declared free of their commitments organizations participating in it, where most of the components declared desire to come to the aid of the English people in their war of national liberation, accepting the cessation of conspiratorial activities for an insurrection in Cuba, only a postponement of the armed it would be necessary to conquer our Indepencia true and which would aim to help all the wealth of experience that they would buy on the fight side by side in the People's Army in the trenches of freedom. "

This testimony deduced Nicolau several considerations, one of them there was a high level of organization for a future armed insurrection on the island with a high level of participation of military cadres, another aspect to consider is that after the murder of Antonio Guiteras, his supporters organized on "Young Cuba" showed a lack of leadership, misguided and willing to participate in the revolutionary initiative that might arise, what that took advantage of the PCC to capture many of the volunteers from the past and as grupo.Por More significantly, the reluctance of Grau San Martin to form a "United Front" in which Communists were represented, led the whole potential that had been organized for military action in Cuba was now capable of integrating in the quota with which the Cuban revolutionaries decided come to the aid of the English Republic.

On January 3, 1937 left New York the first group of Cuban fighters framed in the "Lincoln Brigade". The first group to leave Cuban territory did from Havana April 15, spent nearly six 1937.Habían months from the start of the war until the departure of the first fighters and nine until the first group came from the effectiveness of the Committee Habana.La capturing and sending volunteers was evidenced in that the first group was up only forty and five days after the resolution of the Political Bureau of the CPC in relation to sending volunteers to Spain and, especially given the limitations own underground and the difficulties imposed by the control of the countries of the "Committee of nonintervention" in the sea and land traffic of potential volunteers to Spain. Ramon Nicolau

traveled to New York in December 1937, where he participated in various events in support of the "Republic" and met with the English ambassador Fernando de los Ríos.En U.S. New York embarked on the liner "Normandie" which led him to the French port of Le Havre and from there traveled to Paris in time in Paris tren.Una gave accounts of the work already carried out for the "Republic" to members of the French Communist Party and later participated in a summit of the "International Brigades."
later traveled to Spain to take an Air France flight from Barcelona Tolusse direction that was to circumvent the surveillance in the English-French border and kept the Italian fighters alemanes.Una time in Barcelona began to develop a heavy schedule of interviews with leaders Front political Popular.En Barcelona unveiled the Cuban mission responsible PSUC (Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia) and discussed various aspects related to the arrival of fighters from Francia.Posteriormente traveled to Valencia where the legitimate government of the republic had established based on the most serious moments of the siege of Valencia Madrid. met with Prime Minister Juan Negrin and Defense Minister Indalecio Prieto.Nicolau exercised the representation of Cuban combatants in Spain to the various political leaders who had to meet between December 1937 and December 1938, ie a full year in which the Cuban leader traveled through different territories of the Republican and crossed the French border on several occasions to address all matters relating to Cuba's participation in the guerra.Además direct contact with top government officials of the Republic, Nicolau focused its work in Spain from the principles of the Comintern for what had the invaluable assistance of secretary of the Communist Party of Spain Pedro Checa who opened the doors of the SCP, clasping his personal relationship with people as its Secretary General Jose Diaz and other members destacadísimos Dolores Ibarruri as "Passion" and Jesus Hernandez.Respecto of the International Brigades, Nicolau had sex with their top executives, Frenchman André Marti, a prominent Communist and a deputy elected in the French National Assembly and Luigi Longo, an Italian communist undeniable weight in the events of the Brigades Internacionales.Con the decision to withdraw from Spain International Brigades in September 1938, the PCE led those American volunteers who wanted to continue the fight could do it in "regular English army" to what Nicolau after appropriate consultation was prepared by volunteers reach this new situation which was accepted in a general.Nicolau left Spain in December 1938 due to Cuba across the border by train in Port Bou, the same way that months later they had to travel thousands of English people who fled the advancing troops left France franquistas.En attached some details of the Cuban contingent, and finally climbed back into the "Normandy" at the port of Le Havre.A your arrival island received commissions other than the English question but his commitment to the comrades who had been in the French camps led him to participate actively in the campaigns would be organized to achieve the return of these boat is learned maintain their independence on board with