Punta Brava

Punta Brava is a small suburb located just to the southwest of Havana, Cuba, with a population of roughly 1500 inhabitants.

Cuban War of Independence

Punta Brava and the nearby town of Guatao were the scene of massacres during the Cuban War of Independence;[1] Cuban General General Maceo died there in battle on December 7, 1896.[2][3] Fidel Castro referred to Maceo's death in Punta Brava in 1992 ("Maceo, you were not defeated the day you fell in Punta Brava);[4] on the other hand, for Castro's father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, the day Maceo died had been "one of the best and proudest days of that war," since it was his company that killed the general.[5]

The next year, Punta Brava was the site where a naked American named Kelley surrendered to the Spanish commander and was given a shirt and a pair of trousers: Kelley, who had disappeared from Havana in early April 1897, had reportedly told the insurgents that he was an expert in dynamite. They, believing he was a spy, stripped and hanged him, but the rope broke and Kelley managed to escape, naked but otherwise intact.[6]

1906 uprising

In 1906, an unsuccessful insurrection was deemed to be ended after a "negro Gen[eral] Quentin Bandera, the most daring insurgent in Havana province," was killed near Punta Brava with two "mulatto comrades all frightfully gashed by the machetes of the mounted rural guards who ended their careers."[7]

Cuban missile crisis

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets reportedly built a missile site in Punta Brava.[8]

Notables

References
  1. Merchán, Rafael María; de Quesada, Gonzalo (1896). Free Cuba: her oppression, struggle for liberty, history, and present. Publishers' union. p. 566.
  2. "Maceo Reported Killed: Said to Have Fallen in a Battle Near Punta Brava". The New York Times. 8 December 1898. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  3. de Quesada, Gonzalo; Northrop, Henry Davenport (1896). The war in Cuba: being a full account of her great struggle for freedom. Liberty. pp. 563-65.
  4. Pérez, Louis A. (2005). To die in Cuba: suicide and society. UNC Press. p. 345. ISBN 9780807829370.
  5. Márquez-Sterling, Manuel (2009). Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. Kleiopatria. p. 167. ISBN 9780615318561.
  6. "Kelley Alive and Free: He Was Hanged by the Cuban Insurgents, But Fell Down and Escaped". The New York Times. 22 April 1897. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  7. "Gen. Bandera, Rebel Leader, Killed in Cuba". The News-Democrat (Providence, R.I.). 22 August 1906. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  8. Hendrix, Hal (13 November 1963). "Soviet Missilemen Beef Up Cuban Sites". The Miami News. p. 10A. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  9. Isphording, Bruce (5 August 1975). "Tony Pacheco: Baseball's Bouncing Man to Wear Uniform to Grave". Sarasota Journal. pp. 1–B. Retrieved 8 November 2011.

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