A Special Day with Fidel, December 24, 1958
It’s December 24, 1958. All of Cuba celebrates Christmas Eve and the humanitarian feelings present in the Rebel Army propitiate a truce for the troops of the dictatorship, surrounded in the warehouses of the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank (BANFAIC).
It is impressive to remember how during the final days of the war of liberation against the tyrant Fulgencio Batista, that December 24th, the rebel soldiers fraternized with their adversaries, exchanged cigarettes and sincerely evaluated the needlessness of a bloodbath among Cubans.
The families of the besieged soldiers were allowed to personally take the dinner offered by the rebel leadership. Lieutenant Bella Acosta, of the Rebel Army’s Mariana Platoon, remembers that Commander in Chief Fidel Castro ordered the delivery of food, first to the soldiers of the opposing army and then to the rebel fighters, which was strictly accomplished.
Relatives and friends of the surrounded soldiers offered them new elements on the little ethics and morals of the high military chiefs of the dictatorship who, from Havana, demanded them not to surrender in the BANFAIC, yet they were not worried about the critical state of their troops in the East of Cuba.
Many years later, in an interview with the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Commander Tomás Borge, Fidel confessed that December 24, 1958 was a very special day for him and his mother Lina Ruz, as both met at the family home in Birán after two years without seeing each other:
“The war lasted 25 months, he went along with the troops without separating me one day. Well, I did separate one day, on December 24, 1958, when I went to see my mother who was in Birán. We had almost all the territory dominated, I went with two jeeps, 12 or 14 men, some machine guns, it was the only day that I went to something personal (…)”
“(…) I went to see her and came back, traveled all night, spent the day and came back at night (…)”
In what appeared to be a happy coincidence, on December 24 itself the dictatorship command makes a proposal to the Commander in Chief. Fidel comments on the matter:
“On December 24 we were informed of General Cantillo’s desire to have an interview with us, we accepted the interview. I must confess to you that, given the course of events, the formidable march of our military operations, I had very little desire to talk about military movements; but I understood that it was a duty, that we, the men, who have a responsibility, cannot allow ourselves to be carried away by our passions, and I thought that if victory could be achieved with the least possible bloodshed, my duty was to listen to the propositions that the military made to me.
That night, Jorge Enrique Mendoza, a journalist with Radio Rebelde, read an editorial illustrating the noble sentiments defended by the combatants of the Rebel Army during the liberation war:
“Tonight, December 24th, the Rebel Army is allowing all the mothers, wives, children and other relatives of the soldiers of the dictatorship besieged in the different barracks of the East, to penetrate them so that together with the kiss coming from their hearts, they can put the Christmas Eve sweets in their hands.
(…) The rebel soldiers, far from our loved ones, do not have Christmas Eve or the kiss of the beloved family member, but in our immense love for Cuba we allow the soldiers of the dictatorship what we cannot enjoy today (…)
(…) But the fact is that we fight for a better Cuba with all and for the well-being of all, always carrying in our hands white roses grown in our hearts by the apostolic preaching of José Martí (…)
Written by Jorge Lora
