On the legacy of the landing of José Martí and Máximo Gómez at Playita de Cajobabo

Image via the PCC

By Katherin Hormigó Rubio, translated from the Spanish

In the early hours of April 11, 1895, beneath a relentless downpour, a small boat reached the rocky shore of Playita de Cajobabo, in what is now the municipality of Imías, Guantánamo. In it came José Martí and Máximo Gómez, accompanied by Francisco Borrero, Ángel Guerra, César Salas and Marcos del Rosario. Martí, the Apostle, noted it in his Campaign Diary with three words that still echo today like a triumphant cry: "Leap. Great joy."

It was not just any landing. It was the moment when the Cuban Revolution of '95 went from being a distant flame in exile to a national fire. Today, 131 years on, this spot on the southern coast of Guantanamo remains a National Monument, a silent witness to how continuity of struggle, united leadership, and an enduring legacy forever shaped Cuba’s history.

The heroic journey: from Montecristi to the Manigua

It all started weeks before. Martí and Gómez had signed the Montecristi Manifesto on March 25, 1895, the revolutionary program that defined war as "necessary" to achieve a republic "with all and for the good of all." They left the Dominican Republic aboard the schooner Brothers, but the sailors deserted. In Haiti, they boarded the German steamer Nordstrand, and after a brief stop in Cap-Haitien, they chose to take rowboat out in the middle of the night during a storm, a risky gamble.

"We arrived at a pebble beach, the Playita (at the foot of Cajobabo)...Jump. Great happiness," Martí wrote. Gómez, the 62-year-old Generalissimo, veteran of a thousand battles, set foot on Cuban soil with the same passion as in the Ten Years' War. That night, they slept on the floor beside a modest house, while the Spaniards searched for them. But they were already home. The war, which started with the Grito de Baire on February 24, at last had its two main leaders present on the island.

This landing was not the beginning, but the logical continuation of a struggle that had been going on for almost three decades. The Ten Years' War (1868-1878) had remained unfinished with the Peace of Zanjón, a truce that many Mambises, including Gómez and Antonio Maceo, never fully accepted. Maceo, the Bronze Titan, had disembarked just ten days earlier, on April 1, at Playa Duaba in Baracoa. With his arrival and that of Martí and Gómez, the legendary triad was completed.

"We Cubans started the war, and Cubans and Spaniards will end it," they proclaimed in Montecristi. It was the same cause: total independence, without annexation or colonialism. The Necessary War was the answer to the broken promises of 1878 and the accumulated pain of generations that did not accept being "a colony forever".

Unity: Martí's vision and Gómez's sword

One of the great achievements of that April 11 was the unity between ideas and action. Martí provided the political strategy, the organization of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and the idea of a Cuba free of racial hatred and caudillos. Gomez, the Dominican who loved Cuba as his own, brought military experience, discipline and knowledge of guerrilla warfare.

Together they overcame differences and forged a united leadership. Days later, in La Mejorana, they would meet with Maceo. Although there were debates (Martí defended the civil republic; the generals, military efficiency), unity prevailed. That same unity allowed the Invasion of East to West in 1895-1896, which took the war to the whole country and broke Spanish power. Without it, the insurrection would have been isolated in the East.

Martí's jump in Playita de Cajobabo did not end with his death in Dos Ríos on May 19. His legacy is the basis of the independent Cuba that emerged in 1898 and, above all, of the Revolution that in 1959 vindicated its ideals.

Today, the marble monument shaped like a boat, located on the Cajobabo cliff, attracts hundreds of young people and students. In 1995, during the centennial, Fidel Castro visited the site and noted that "here the presence in Cuba of the three main leaders was completed."

The landing of Martí and Gómez at Playita de Cajobabo stands as a legacy of sacrifice, showing that the homeland is built on risk and unity. As the Apostle said: "Freedom is not begged for, it is conquered." And Gómez, always practical: "Charge, men!"

This April 11, Cuba once again feels Marti's "great joy." The landing of Martí and Gómez was more than just a nineteenth-century event; it’s proof that when the cause is just and unity is genuine, no empire can stop it.

This work was translated and shared via a License CC-BY-NC