October, 2024: «The old soldier of freedom», this is what the Mambi general Enrique Loynaz del Castillo called José Quintino Bandera Betancourt, fighter of the three wars of independence and participant together with Antonio Maceo in the Protest of Baraguá, who ended the War of 1968 wearing the stars of lieutenant colonel of the Liberation Army.
Born in Santiago de Cuba on October 30, 1834, since he was young he showed his first concerns against the colonial domination and got involved in conspiratorial activities together with his fellow countrymen Hilario and Manuel Cisneros, José Valiente, Francisco Oberto, Pedro Santacilla, Cayetano Hechavarría and Francisco de Paula Bravo, retired commander of the Venezuelan militias.
On January 1, 1869 he joined the forces of General Donato Mármol in Palma Soriano; he was famous for his machete charges; by dint of courage he conquered different military ranks; he was the infantry chief of a contingent of easterners who, under the command of Manuel de Jesús (Titá) Calvar, marched to that province to reinforce the invading troops of Máximo Gómez.
The patriot who took part in history under the name of Quintin Bandera was the protagonist, together with Guillermon Moncada and Jose Maceo, of the events of August 26, 1879 in the streets of Santiago de Cuba, which started the Little War and Spain, violating the guarantees offered at the end of the conflict, sent him to its prisons.
He was among the organizers of the Necessary War in the region of Santiago de Cuba and at the call of José Martí and the Cuban Revolutionary Party on February 24, 1895 he took up arms again and in a few months he was already a brigadier general; he participated in the Invasion of the West and after the conflict, due to the opportunistic intervention of the American troops, he settled in the Cuban capital and raised a family.
Quintín Bandera was assassinated by the rural guard during the Guerrita of August 1906.
