Much has been written about Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque: his courage, his qualities as a guerrilla leader, his unwavering loyalty to Fidel, his talent as a composer, the man. But little has been said about his innate ability to connect with the common people and, without intending to, become their leader.
This was the case with the people of Santiago de Cuba and the former Oriente province in the 1970s when Commander Almeida was appointed delegate of the Political Bureau for that region of the country, forming a masterful partnership with Armando Hart, as first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
Almeida was born in Havana on February 17, 1927, into a humble family, and would have turned 99 this month had he not passed away on September 11, 2009, at the age of 82.
When he assumed leadership of the former Oriente province in the early 1970s, at the age of 44, he already had an impressive record.He had been an assailant at the Moncada Barracks, was in the so-called Model Prison, in exile, was an expeditionary of the Granma, and the first combatant promoted to commander in the liberation war alongside Raúl Castro Ruz.
He had also served as head of the Revolutionary Air Force in June 1959, Chief of Staff of the victorious Rebel Army after the death of Commander Camilo Cienfuegos, head of the Central Army, which he founded, and Deputy Minister and Acting Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).
In his political life after the triumph, he was a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) from its founding in 1965, a deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power from its inception, and Vice President of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.
Although not from eastern Cuba, having been born in a humble Havana neighborhood and having to work as a construction worker from a young age, Almeida possessed a jovial character, a simplicity combined with authority, and a musical sensibility that allowed him to quickly connect with the indomitable people of that region.
An unforgettable anecdote I witnessed was his meeting at the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba with the leaders of all the comparsas and congas of Santiago de Cuba, whose previous carnival had been marred by several deaths and disturbances.
“I have summoned you,” he said, “because you are my tribe and I am your leader. I will provide you with goatskins for the drums, clothing for the comparsas, and whatever else is needed to make this carnival the best in history. But, on the condition that you commit yourselves to ensuring there will be no deaths, no fights, and that everything will be done with respect for authority.”
That was all. The comparsa and conga leaders, the true leadership of the carnivals, stood with tears in their eyes, applauding wildly, and told him: “Yes, Commander, we promise!”That year there were no deaths or fights between neighborhoods.
Another memorable moment of the Hero of the Republic and recipient of the Máximo Gómez Order, First Class, was on Saturday nights in Céspedes Park in Santiago de Cuba. The parking space on the sidewalk outside the Hotel Casa Granda was always reserved for him.
Commander Almeida would arrive after finishing his work, accompanied only by his driver. He would open the jeep door, and the greetings from the crowd would begin. Local characters, musicians, passersby, and the people of Santiago would respectfully approach him to greet him, discuss a problem, voice a complaint, or simply offer a handshake. Almeida would talk to everyone, joke around, and make no promises; he would simply listen and then take care of things.
A demanding leader, but also attentive to the problems of his subordinates, he used humor as an educational tool. With a simple comment to a leader about his weight, he could make him go on a voluntary diet, and nobody was capable of arriving late to a meeting called by him.
A self-taught man by vocation, Almeida authored a dozen books and won the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1985 for "Against Water and Wind," which recounts the events following Hurricane Flora's passage through the island in October 1963 and the journey from Havana of a helicopter rescue squadron, which he led as Chief of the Cuban Air Force.
As a musical composer, he wrote more than 300 songs, and the one dedicated to "La Lupe" upon her departure from Mexico on the Granma became an anthem of the early days of the Revolution."Give Me a Drink" and "Let Her Dance Alone," among others, establish him as an important composer of Cuban popular music.
After returning to Havana following the Political-Administrative Division that created the country's new provinces, Almeida served as president of the Central Committee's Review and Control Commission, president of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC) from 1993, and vice president of the Council of State until his death.
He died on September 11, 2009, from cardiorespiratory arrest, and his remains rest in the Mausoleum of the Third Eastern Front in Santiago de Cuba province, alongside other combatants of the Cuban Revolution, where his people pay him permanent homage.