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The Cuban Chronicles
Historians through our family's trials
My cousin and I (Roberto and Aldo)are pleased to bring you, not only
"30 Days to Freedom" and subsequently, its Spanish version "Sangre o Patria" but we wish to bring you other stories. Wrapped around each story there will be historical elements and how it affected each of the characters.
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We hope you will enjoy them.
The Cuban Chronicles - Installment 1
Tio Juan
Tio (uncle) Juan, was the oldest of 5 brothers and 1 sister the youngest, which you now know as Mima:
In 1958, just before Fidel Castro ousted Batista out of power, events occurred that would usher in hardship for one of Reynaldo and Rosa’s dear uncles.
Tio Juan started his Cuban military career approximately in 1944 at the age of 24, serving as a soldier in the now famous Cabaña. Military service, for many was the only way to get out of poverty. His father, our grandfather, was a very poor share-crop farmer, who often times could not make ends meet. Life was very hard for farmers or campesino's or guajiro's as they were known in Cuba. Tio Juan's enlistment, coincided with the death of his father.
Tio Juan, was a very good looking guy - tall, thin, well built, perfect for his, soon to be, new position. Eventually he was promoted to military escort at the Palacio Presidencial in Habana.
A few years later, Tio Juan had an opportunity to do something he always dreamt of; work as a aviation mechanic. But in order to serve in that branch of the Cuban service he had to transfer to the Cuban Air Force and become a gunner. A noteworthy piece of information regarding his post as gunner: in the several conversations I had with Tio Juan, he was very proud of the fact that he never shot off a single round other then a few during training and practice.
During this time, he studied and worked as a mechanic and as part of his military service he took the occasional reconnaissance mission to survey and observe the now well established gorilla fighters led by Castro.
In 1956, Castro and a few of his loyal followers returned from exile in Mexico, accompanied by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos and Castro’s younger brother Raul. Castro had been exiled to Mexico, after the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago.
Now Castro had returned and began, anew, his revolution in the Sierra Maestra mountains, expanding the July 26th movement and fanning the fire of discontent among the mainly poor population on the eastern side of the country. The date of the attack at Moncada was actually July 26, 1953. That date became a symbol for Castro's revolution and later became the name of his political party: M-26-7.
By now Tio Juan had served approximately 14 years in the military, mostly as a aviation mechanic. In fact, Tio Juan was approaching the time in which he could think about retiring from military service and earn a modest pension.
In early December of 1958, Tio Juan went on one of his usual reconnaissance missions. Heading east, in the distance the crew observed smoke coming from Sagua De Tanamo, a very small municipality in eastern Cuba. But before the crew could investigate, the plane experienced trouble and had to return to base.
By the time the crew was able to fix the problem with the aircraft and return to inspect the smoke they saw earlier, Sagua De Tanamo was completely engulfed in flames and spreading quickly. It was assumed by that flight crew that the rebels caused the fire and reported their observations upon their return.
By December 31, 1958 Castro had basically beaten Batista's forces and on January 8th, 1959 Castro and his band of gorilla soldiers marched into Habana and claimed victory.
Just a few days after, the pilots, crew and mechanics all were arrested and put into confinement. They were all located where all political prisoners were placed; Castillo Del Principe in Habana, as shown above.
The Principe, as it was commonly known housed many political figures, dissidents, prior to Castro but many more would see the inside of that fortress after Castro took power.
After the arrest of Tio Juan along with 43 others, they occupied cells in the Principe, without really knowing why they had been arrested.
So, at the start of the mock trial, his mother, our grandmother, bought a newspaper and had it delivered to Tio Juan, so he would understand what they were being accused of. The newspaper now headlined that they were the ones responsible for the attack and destruction of Sagua De Tanamo and the death of many inhabitants in that area.
After the trials, all 43 were sentenced to execution at the wall - Paredon. The supporters of Castro waiting outside, kept shouting for their execution, "paredon, paredon," this went on for hours. By the way, there was no jury. Fidel Castro was judge, jury and executioner. Castro went on to say, "...prisoners charged with war crimes, deserve only the penalty of death."
However, a General in the Castro regime who took some pity on the 43, made a on-the-fly change by commuting their sentence. He condemned the pilots to 30 years in Isla De Pino, now known as the Isle of Youth. And the rest of the crew and mechanics, they would serve 20 years.
The General escorted all 43 newly sentenced to their prison off the southern coast of Cuba. Isle of Pines was nothing more then swamps and mosquitos. Upon the General's return to Habana, he was shot in the stomach. Later the newspapers would print that, he committed suicide.
One final note for this first installment:
A few weeks prior to Tio Juan’s arrest and trial, Tio Roberto had warned him to leave and try and get to the United States. It was now obvious that Castro was winning and many consequences were going to befall any affiliated with Batista's regime, even mechanics.
Tio Juan rebuffed that idea by saying, “why should I leave, I have not done anything wrong. I'm just a mechanic.”
He served his full 20 year sentence.
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How this snippet ties back to the "30 Days to Freedom." Upon Tio Cirilo (who also was serving in the army) hearing of what was happening to his brother, he realized that he too was in danger and therefore it was time to go and help those that wanted to depose Castro.
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After a visit to see his brother in Isle of Pines' prison, Tio Cirilo decided to immigrate to the United States with the sole purpose of joining the rabble being trained by the CIA for the invasion, of what we now know as The Bay of Pigs.
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The Cuban Chronicles - Installment 2
Las Doce Cabañuelas
I thought today, I would discuss with you something different, still historical but a bit of a departure from our norm. In Cuba, like many other countries, generations past have possessed ancient knowledge, particularly in agriculture, that has been passed and allowed them to plan ahead. Our grandfather, used an ancient system that allowed him to prognosticate the weather for the year so he can plan accordingly his sowing and harvest and animal care. This system of prognostication was called, “Las Doce Cabañuelas”.
The cabañuelas date back to approximately 1020 BC, during the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles. Jews would build hut-like structures of palm leaves or straw, called cabañuelas, to commemorate the Jewish exodus from Egypt.
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During this time, it was common for Jews to pray to God for good weather to benefit their crops, the most sensitive being their vineyards. Eventually, this tradition evolved into las cabañuelas, or folkloric weather predictions. They began a process of observation and recording and eventually came up with a way to predict the weather for the year. Its accuracy is hard to say since there are no historical records of those observations only the handed down tradition from generation to generation.
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In today’s modern world, we rely on satellites, artificial intelligence and modern weather forecasts to prepare the land for sowing and harvest. In our ancient past, things were quite different and reliance on observation and recording of weather events, was crucial to survival.
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But ancient knowledge is all too often looked down upon with skepticism. However, our ancestors found ways to be successful. Such is the case of the doce cabañuelas. Many generations of peoples, had their own variation of this process to help them plan for sowing and harvest. Life depended on the success of agriculture.
Brief Explanation; farmers at specific dates during the year - in Spain its done in august and in Latin America it is done in January - would observe and record weather patterns during that specific month based on geographical location.
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First step: The cabañuelas of ida (forward). It is about observing and recording the weather for the first 12 days of the year. They are supposed to tell us the climate we will have in the twelve months of the year in ascending order. That is, January 1 will indicate the time of January, the 2nd of January will tell us that of February, and so on.
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Second step: The cabañuelas retorno (back). These observations take place from January 13 to the 24th. They are used to predict the weather of the months in descending order. That is, January 13 would be the time for December, January 14 for November, January 15 for October, etc.
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Third step: is the two month average weather cycle; the 25th to the 30th of January, will prognosticate the weather for every two months. That is, January 25 represents the months of January and February, the 26 is equivalent to the months of March and April, etc.
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The Final step; weather is measured every two hours. January 31 is divided into two-hour intervals in descending order. From 12 to 2 is the month of December, from 2 to 4 the month of November, and so on.
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Once the month of January has completely passed, the climate observations for each of the steps taken and an average is made or prognostication for the year. This result will indicate the climate of the month in question that we want. For example, to predict the weather for February, it would be necessary to take into account the weather observed and noted on January 2 + the weather observed and noted on January 23 + the weather observed and noted on January 25 + the weather observed and noted on January 31 between 10 and 12 at night.
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Other factors need to be taken into account to get a clear picture of what the weather will be during the year. For example; shape of clouds during the observation of each stated day above, direction of the wind, animal behavior, fog, dew and hail.
Those observations and historical data collection would give the observer / prognosticator a compass reading of how the weather would be during that year on any given month.
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Our grandfather additionally used small piles of salt and the smoke of a cigar. 1 pile of salt per day, for 12 days, would help him determine the moisture content per day and the smoke of a cigar would allow him to determine the direction of the wind.
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Listening to these stories as a kid, always intrigued me and I wondered how it really worked. On several occasions I asked Tio Juan and Tio Roberto to explain. But unfortunately it had been so long since they observed their father perform these climate observations, that they could not explain. Tio Juan even remembered it as some sort of spiritual ritual.
It has only been recently, after much research and reading of notes I have gathered throughout the years, that I have been able to make some sense of it all. I have not had the chance to put it into practice as of yet but I hope in the near future.
With all of the Uncles now gone, my mom, Mima, is the only one left to ask about all of this and she only remembers the kids gathering around to see her father put 12 piles of salt together, early in the morning and waking up to see the piles of salt intermittently wet and that is how he determined the rainy seasons. She was around 3 years old and today she is 91 years old, so there may be some lapses in what she remembers.
We marvel at our planes, rockets, cell phones and wireless communications and laugh when we hear the wisdom of the ancients. But we forget the pyramids, Archimedes, the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas with the buildings and roadways. All those were based on scientific knowledge acquired by ions of study and observation. Could not the same be said of Las Doce Cabañuelas. Many regard the Old Farmers Almanac and its highly guarded secret formula for predicting the weather, as the best. Maybe, Las Doce Cabañuelas was just an older and wiser version. Try it and decide.
Formula:
Ida (January 1 to 12) + Retorno (January 13 to 24) + By-Month;y (January 25 to January 30) + Hourly (January 31 @2 hour intervals)
Make note of: Clouds, wind, animals, fog, dew and hail.
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Email me, if you have any experience with this unusual ancient weather forecasting system.