He arrived in the Sierra Maestra unarmed and barefoot. Some commanders refused to take him on because of his small stature and sickly appearance, but Commander Fidel Castro accepted him. Celia Sánchez gave him Mexican-style boots and a large peasant hat, and his comrades began calling him El Vaquerito (The Little Cowboy).
On the eve of the 67th anniversary of his heroic death in combat, on December 30, 1958, during the capture of Santa Clara, we pay tribute to the young guerrilla fighter who became an example of a revolutionary combatant.
In mid-April 1957, Roberto Rodríguez Fernández was 22 years old when he joined the uprising in the Sierra Maestra. He first served as a messenger and later as a combatant in Column 1 José Martí, commanded by Fidel, where he displayed extraordinary bravery with a Garant rifle almost his own size.
When he learned that the men in his group wouldn't be going on the Invasion of Western Cuba organized by Commanders Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, El Vaquerito volunteered and was accepted into Column 8 Ciro Redondo, under Che's command.
In July 1958, Che gave him command of several men, and because of his personal bravery and that of his men, he began calling this elite unit "the Suicide Platoon." During the Invasion, he participated in the Battle of La Federal, where the rebel column was ambushed by the Army. In that battle, along with Ángel Frías and Enrique Acevedo, he stormed a chalet where eight enemy soldiers had barricaded themselves, taking four of them prisoner.
When Caibarién was captured, the Suicide Platoon, under his command, was personally brought by Commander Guevara to expedite the capture of the city's barracks. Now a captain, Roberto Rodríguez used a loudspeaker to order the soldiers to surrender and walked into the besieged barracks to speak personally with the commander.
When the commander refused, El Vaquerito lay down on a cot in front of the soldiers and told them, "Let me know when you decide to surrender." This attitude demoralized the defenders, who began to give up, leaving their commander alone and forcing him to surrender.
On December 30, 1958, he fell in combat during the Battle of Santa Clara, just hours after the flight of the dictator Fulgencio Batista. El Vaquerito had received orders to attack the city's police station with only 24 men, where there were more than 300 well-equipped men, supported by tanks and small planes.
With a clever maneuver, he decided to reach an advanced position by moving from house to house through gaps in the walls of neighboring dwellings. He managed to climb onto a roof about 50 meters from the police station, and from there, standing up, he fired his Garand rifle at the station's defenders.
In the intense firefight, a bullet struck him in the head, and he fell mortally wounded. Almost lifeless, he was immediately taken to the rebel forces' headquarters, where he died. Upon learning that the captain of the Suicide Squad had been killed, Commander Guevara exclaimed, "They've killed a hundred of my men!"
Che ordered him buried in Placetas, an area that had already been liberated. There, under the harassment of enemy aircraft, his comrades and the local people paid him a simple tribute and carved that phrase on his first grave.
The police station he was attacking when he died was transformed into a school that bears the name "El Vaquerito" (The Little Cowboy). Since December 2009, his remains have rested alongside those who fell during the War of Liberation in the Mausoleum dedicated to the Las Villas Front, very close to where the remains of Commander Ernesto Guevara and his Bolivian guerrilla comrades rest.