On March 11, 1876, 150 years ago, Captain Panchito Gómez Toro of the Liberation Army was born. The fourth son of General Máximo Gómez and aide-de-camp to Major General Antonio Maceo, he died wounded while fighting the enemy in an attempt to recover his commander's body.
Panchito is, especially for young people, an example of love for the homeland and loyalty to one's leaders. José Martí referred to him as the most flawless human being he had ever known.
He was born in a Mambí camp in La Reforma, Sancti Spíritus, in 1876 and died in Punta Brava on December 7, 1896, at only 20 years old, already a captain in the Cuban War of Independence.
The story goes that a few days after Panchito was born in a Mambí camp, Maceo arrived and, upon meeting the new descendant of Gómez and Bernarda Toro, was overjoyed. When the mother told him that he had a small imperfection on his right foot, Maceo said it didn't matter, because the foot a warrior needed to ride a horse was the left.
An important event in Panchito's life was meeting José Martí on April 11, 1892, at the La Reforma farm in Santo Domingo. The rapport that arose between Martí and the Generalissimo's son was further strengthened during the time they worked together preparing for the Necessary War.
At 18 years old, Panchito traveled to New York with his father and stayed there to assist and accompany the Maestro on his journey through Tampa, Key West, Costa Rica, Panama, and Jamaica, as he sought support to reignite the fight for independence against Spain.
When the Generalissimo and the Apostle embarked from the Dominican Republic for Cuba in 1895, Panchito wanted to accompany them, but was dissuaded. Some time later, after Martí had fallen at Dos Ríos, the young man arrived in Pinar del Río on the ship Tres Amigos, as part of an expedition led by Major General Juan Rius Rivera, which landed on September 8, 1896, at the cove of María La Gorda, in Pinar del Río.
Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo, who was in the western part of the island during the final stage of the invasion, was astonished that the boy he had met as a newborn at the La Reforma camp had grown into such a man and appointed him his aide with the rank of lieutenant.
Panchito participated in the battles of Ceja del Negro, Manaja, Tumbas de Estorino, Loma China, El Rubí, and Bejerano, where he was wounded in the left shoulder. Already a captain, he had participated in 14 combat actions when the events of San Pedro occurred on December 7, 1896.
The Lieutenant General arrived in San Pedro Arriba on December 6, 1896, where several regiments with approximately 450 men awaited him. Maceo marched to meet them with between 40 and 60 men, but a lapse in security allowed the vanguard of a Spanish column to locate his camp, and they were surprised by Spanish guerrillas on December 7 at midday.
The Mambí commanders and officers quickly launched a counteroffensive, and faced with the energy and drive of Maceo's troops, the Spanish suffered 28 casualties and retreated behind a stone wall west of the camp, from where they defended themselves by unleashing heavy fire on the Mambí troops.
Maceo attempted to dislodge the enemy and force them out into a nearby pasture, but the action failed, creating a very serious tactical situation for the Mambí forces, whose weaponry did not allow them to engage in positional warfare.
Discarding the option of retreat, Maceo charged, machete in hand, toward a strategic point on the battlefield, but a wire fence halted his advance. Discarding the option of retreat, Maceo charged, machete in hand, toward a strategic point on the battlefield, but a wire fence halted his advance.
No sooner had he said this than he fell from his horse, struck by a bullet that entered through his jaw, severed his carotid artery, and died almost instantly. Faced with the intense fire, the Mambises retreated, and the body remained in enemy-held territory.
Panchito, wounded and ordered to stay in camp, charged with his arm in a sling and practically unarmed, in search of his leader's body, becoming an easy target for Spanish bullets.
Wounded and weakened by blood loss, he tried to commit suicide to avoid being captured alive. He wanted to write a note to his parents and siblings to explain his decision, but he couldn't finish the message. One of the Spanish guerrillas finished him off with machete blows to the head.
Eighteen brave men, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Juan Delgado, fiercely launched an attack to rescue the Bronze Titan and Panchito from enemy territory. Their assault was so fierce that the Spanish guerrillas, who were stripping the corpses of their belongings, abandoned the scene without realizing who they were.
That night, the insurgents washed the bodies of the two heroes and held a vigil over them. They decided to hide them on the Cacahual estate, owned by Pedro Pérez, Lieutenant Colonel Delgado's uncle, where they were secretly buried. After their exhumation in September 1899, Panchito's remains rest in the El Cacahual Mausoleum alongside those of his leader, the Bronze Titan.