Maximo Gomez Baez was born in Bani, coastal population of south-central Dominican Republic, on November 18, 1836.
The trajectory of his life is characterized as a man of action; an action, yes, based on the depth of thought. He was very brave, combined with the wisdom that virtue quarterback. He started very young in the fortunes of war; in 1855, at the age of 19, he took up arms to defend their country from invasion from Haiti. He came to Cuba in 1865 to three years after joining the Ten Years’ War against Spanish rule.
Fighting alongside the Father of the Nation, its merits and proven experience earned him a first ascent, until he obtained the command of the insurgent forces in Oriente province. Because of the Trench truce went to Honduras from the Central American country and supported a failed uprising: the so-called Little War.
In 1892, along with Maceo and leadership of José Martí as delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, re-enlist in libertarian projects for Cuba, taking the military command of the War Memorial in combat 95. Martí and Maceo, the Generalissimo It survived as a hero embodying the liberation struggle; taking upon itself the accumulated glories of his comrades and ideas and their own. Maximo Gomez at the time became the redemptive synthesis because the Mambi Army front.
As always, I am returning to the verses of Martí in Yugo and Star: “Whoever wears light is left alone.” Abandoned by political opportunists, he faced these and the US government auditor who led an abominable historical recurve in the emancipation process of Cuba. He had no choice but to resign as chief of the Liberation Army, being sidelined until the day of his death in Havana in 1905.
Gomez, like Bartolome Maso and Juan Gualberto Gomez – tested Patriots – could have been a candidate for President of Cuba; but his personality did not suit the interests of annexation that then dominated the national reality, puffed by US interventionist government.
The November 18, 2015 marks the 179 anniversary of his birth. We remember him at that distance as a brave military strategist; incorruptible man; of strong character. It is a clear demonstration of internationalist and Latin American and Caribbean spirit of brotherhood.
Maximo Gomez is and will always be so Cuban and Dominican blood; as Caribbean and Latin America. It belongs to the glorious race of Our America.
Translated by: Daysi Olano Fernandez
