There is more to what abuelo endured but I've been wanting to put these stories that I heard - mainly as a child - in context, to have more details (I am learning a bit of Cuban history as I go along). So when the Spanish had abuelo Vicente in their hands, what were the events swirling around them?
The war between the Mambis and the Spanish was officially declared in Feb 22. By Jan 22, 1896 the Mambis (rebels) had succeeded in sweeping down the island from the east to west. The Spanish removed General Campos and replaced him with General Weyler - typical move of the side losing the war.
Mambi Soldiers Calvary of Gen. Gomez' Army, Remedios, Cuba
Weyler "reacted to these successes [of the Mambis] by introducing terror methods: periodic executions, mass exile, destruction of farms and crops. Weyler's methods reached their height on October 21, 1896, when he ordered people moved into the re-concentration camps: fortified cities and towns.
Spanish soldiers in Cuba War of 95
So what happened to abuelo is that, in the midst of the starvation, the soldiers would sit him at a table and put a lot of food in front of him. Then, while others watched the show, a soldier would smack the butt of his rifle on the ground menacingly while saying: Come, Pancho! [Eat, Pancho! - Pancho was used as a generic name] and he would have to cram the food down. If he started faltering or slowing down, the soldier would menace him again with the rifle and bellow Come, Pancho!. He would push it down until finally he would throw it all up. It was a refined, well-considered torture: a starving child, lots of food; because he vomits it all up, he ate food but also he didn't and he is still starved. Forcing him to eat fast with no chewing was essential so that there was little chance of digesting any of it.
Abuelo would tell this story himself. But before now, I never put into context the other story, the one rarely mentioned about how the soldiers would throw the babies and small children up in the air and impale them with the bayonets as they came down. The one time I heard him tell it, his usual booming voice went down almost to a whisper and there was a look of horror in his face. Now I understand what abuelo must have been thinking and feeling every time the soldier smacked down the butt of his rifle on the ground and bellowed Coooome, Paaaancho! .
He experienced other awful things but I never heard what they were because they were so awful and ugly, he refused to talk about it, they were unmentionable. It boggles the mind what tops this.
Yeah and think of it: he triumphed over all of it! He did not embrace this horror and make it his own; he was not shaped in its image. Although flawed, he grew up to be, intrinsically, a good man.
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