Florida, April 4.- On April 4, 1871, Leopoldo Díaz de Villegas, son of Juan Díaz de Villegas, head of the Military Department of Las Villas and lieutenant of the Liberation Army, was shot, who, betrayed by a traitor, was a prisoner of The Spanish who, upon learning the identity of the young man, asked him to denounce the situation of the Mambi troops.
His execution was delayed for several days, because in addition to the neighbors’ efforts to save him, the Spanish authorities asked the father to lay down his arms, in exchange for his life, and asked Leopoldo to write a letter to his father asking him to abandon the fight. to which the prisoner resolutely refused, expressing “I am not a son who gives his father to dishonor. My last name is not stained like that.”
His father, the insurgent general Juan Días de Villegas, who was promised to respect the prisoner’s life in exchange for renouncing the fight for independence, exclaimed indignantly, “My son swore to win or die! Dying for the Homeland is his glory! And together with the Cienfuegos division of the Liberation Army he organized the attack and annihilation of the volunteers who worked for Count Balmaseda.
In response to the brave attitude of father and son, the Spanish gave the order for the execution, executed in the morning hours of April 4, 1871 under a tree in areas of Marsillán beach; That day the majority of the families left the town and the houses remained closed, in silent protest against the crime that was committed.
The attitude of Leopoldo Díaz de Villegas, only 20 years old, and his father, putting the love of the freedom of the Homeland above his life, constitute examples that bear fruit in the Cuban youth who continue those ideals.
