July, 2024.- On this day in 1846, the patriot and poet Serafín Sánchez Valdivia was born in Sancti Spíritus, a surveyor who before 1868 was a school teacher and, shouting Independence or Death, joined the insurrection and participated in the three wars against colonialism where he managed to reach the rank of major general of the Cuban Liberation Army.
A man of exceptional self-denial, he opposed the Zanjón Pact, signed the manifesto proclaimed by the then Colonel Ramón Leocadio Bonachea, in Hornos de Cal (Jarao), conspired in the so-called Chiquita War, and took up arms on November 9, 1879; Once the armed reattempt failed, he went into exile, first in the Dominican Republic, where he became intimate with General Gómez, who had been his boss in the 1968 war, after the death of Ignacio Agramonte.
In the United States he met José Martí and became an important figure within the Cuban emigration in that country, and shared the hardships of exile, to the extent that a Cuban called him the worker general, because with his hands he earned his livelihood. in while he was in other countries.
Major General Serafín Sánchez Valdivia spared no effort for the independence of his homeland; He overcame the harsh trials of the jungle, the disunity of Cubans and the vicissitudes of emigration; He stood out for his upright character and impeccable conduct, but he not only fought in the three wars, but also served as a bridge between the veterans of ’68 and the so-called «new pines» of José Martí.
On November 18, 1896 he fought his last combat at Paso de las Damas; In that action a projectile pierced his lungs, having only the strength to exclaim: They have killed me! “It doesn’t matter: let the march continue.”
José Martí, who came to hold him in very high esteem, made the following conceptualization of the Sancti Spiritus native: “General Serafín Sánchez is worthy of the love of Cubans for the courage he has used in his service, for the dignity with which he lives in exile. of the work of his hands and by the republican passion that the heroic arm directs him. Here is a good citizen.”
