ESCEG workers pay tribute to two greats in our history, Antonio Maceo Grajales and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna

Due to one of those inexplicable coincidences in history, Antonio Maceo Grajales and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, the world famous Che, were born on June 14, but 83 years apart. It seems as if the qualities of the former were reincarnated in the latter and both, united in glory, set the bar at the highest point of courage, internationalism, ethics, honor and intransigence in the fight against imperialism and colonialism.
Antonio Maceo was born in 1845 in the city of Santiago de Cuba in a humble family. His parents, Marcos and Mariana, were workers, although not poor, since they had a rural property of nine caballerías (one caballería equals 13.42 hectares) in the mountainous region of Majaguabo, where they raised their 13 children in the rules of discipline , filial love, work, neatness in dress and thought, courtesy, respect for elders, honesty, solidarity, courage, tenacity and patriotism.
Maceo joined the War of 1868 on October 12 of that year, two days after it began, at the age of 23, in his own town of Majaguabo, along with his brothers José and Justo. Under the orders of Major General Donato Mármol, he fought in El Salado, Majaguabo Arriba, Maniabón, Baitiquirí, Arroyo Blanco, La Sidonia and Palmarito, among others. On January 16, 1869, he was promoted to commander and 10 days later to lieutenant colonel, due to his military capacity, audacity and strategic concepts in combat. Forced to emigrate, together with Martí and Máximo Gómez, he prepares the necessary war, in which he plays an extraordinary role. Once again he leads the invasion from the East to the West, waging victorious battles that confirmed his courage, audacity and mastery of the military art.
In charge on horseback against the enemy sheltered in the pastures of El Cacahual, Major General Antonio Maceo Grajales dies at 51 years of age, in full maturity of his action and thought. His death, which was a severe blow to Cubans and to the cause of Cuban freedom, was defined by Máximo Gómez in the condolence letter to his wife María Cabrales: «... With the disappearance of that extraordinary man, you lose the sweet companion of his life, I lose the most illustrious and the bravest of my friends and finally the liberating army loses the most exalted figure of the Revolution».
Ernesto Guevara was also born on June 14, but in 1928, in Rosario, Argentina. First-born son of Celia and Ernesto, his family had economic resources and had socialist ideas in which they educated their five children. Most of his childhood, adolescence and early youth were spent in Alta Gracia, where the family moved in 1932 in search of a favorable climate to counteract Ernesto's asthma, which began to suffer when he was two years old.
At the age of 23 and without completing his medical degree in Buenos Aires, he began on December 29, 1951, in the company of his friend Alberto Granado, his first trip on his motorcycle "La Poderosa II", which would take them to tour Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. The visit to the copper mines of Chuquicamata (Chile) is particularly revealing for him, due to the degree of exploitation of the workers and the discrimination of the native by the North Americans. Upon his return in July 1952, he notes in his personal notes: "That wandering aimlessly through our Capital America has changed me more than I thought." In just one year, he completed his medical studies and on June 12, 1953 he received his medical degree.
He stands out in the Battle of Uvero, the first victory of the nascent Rebel Army. On July 21, 1957, when he was 29 years old, Fidel appointed Che as Commander. Example, multiplicity and comprehensiveness distinguish him when from his enormous responsibilities he edits the newspaper El Cubano Libre. Under the pseudonym of Francotirador, he wrote several articles, in permanent educational work, and in February 1958 he founded Radio Rebelde. Likewise, it creates small war industries, in order to satisfy the primary needs of the conflict.He is appointed head of one of the invading columns in charge of taking the war to the west of the country. His role stands out in integrating the troops that were fighting in the Escambray against Batista into the Rebel Army and carrying out the heroic battle of Santa Clara, which was the fatal blow to the Batista dictatorship. By order of Fidel he advances towards Havana and occupies the Cabaña Fortress.
Much would also remain to be written about Che, about his work as Minister of Industries, as founder of the Prensa Latina news agency, as President of the National Bank of Cuba, about his diplomatic missions, about his guerrilla attempt to help the peoples of Africa and of their struggle in Bolivia. But no one better than Che himself in his farewell letter to Fidel would be able to define those moments as when he wrote: «Other lands of the world claim the support of my modest efforts. I can do what is denied you by your responsibility at the head of Cuba and the time has come for us to separate. Know that I do it with a mixture of joy and pain, here I leave the purest of my hopes as a builder and the most beloved among my loved ones […] and I leave a town that accepted me as a son; that lacerates a part of my spirit. In the new battlefields I will carry the faith that you instilled in me, the revolutionary spirit of my people, the feeling of fulfilling the most sacred of duties; fight imperialism wherever it is; this comforts and more than heals any tear.”
Like Maceo, Che died fighting, wounded, without bullets, and with his pistol damaged in combat, which prevented him from falling into the hands of the enemy, he is assassinated by order of the US Central Intelligence Agency on October 9, 1967, the day after his capture, when he was 39 years old. With one leg disabled by a bullet, sitting on a chair in the rustic elementary school in La Higuera, when he saw fear in the soldier they had sent to kill him, he stood up leaning on the chair and with the same authority he always had, he ordered him to the drunken soldier: "Shoot, there's a man here."
ETERNAL GLORY TO MACEO AND CHE