![\"Hatuey](\"http:\/\/www.historyofcuba.com\/images\/gallery\/hatuey.jpg\")
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In 1511, Diego Vel\u00e1squez sailed from Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) to conquer and colonize Cuba. Among his soldiers in that expedition was Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s, who later conquered Mexico. When he arrived in Cuba, Vel\u00e1squez founded the island\u2019s first Spanish settlement at Baracoa.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, reports from the Indians of Hispaniola reached Cuba. Hatuey, a Ta\u00edno chief, had escaped in canoes with about four-hundred men, women and children, to warn the Cubans about what to expect from the Spaniards. He explained the need to join against their common enemy, the white men who had inflicted so much suffering on his people.<\/p>\n
As later recorded by Spanish priest Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas, Hatuey showed the Cubans a basket full of gold and jewels. \u201cHere is the God the Spaniards worship,\u201d he said, \u201cfor these they fight and kill; for these they persecute us and that is why we have to throw them into the sea\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tell us, these tyrants, that they adore a God of peace and equality, and yet they usurp our land and make us their slaves. They speak to us of an immortal soul and of their eternal rewards and punishments, and yet they rob our belongings, seduce our women, violate our daughters. Incapable of matching us in valor, these cowards cover themselves with iron that our weapons cannot break\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ta\u00ednos of western and central Cuba could not believe the horrendous message brought by Hatuey, and few joined him.<\/p>\n
Hatuey\u2019s strategy against the Spaniards was to attack, guerilla fashion, and then disperse to the hills, where the Indians would regroup for the next attack. For about three months Hatuey\u2019s tactics kept the Spaniards on the defensive, afraid to leave their fort at Baracoa.<\/p>\n
Through a traitor, Vel\u00e1squez was able to surround and capture Hatuey. On February 2, 1512, Hatuey was tied to a stake at the Spanish camp, where he was burned alive. Just before lighting the fire, a priest offered him spiritual comfort, showing him the cross and asking him to accept Jesus and go to heaven. \u201cAre there people like you in heaven?\u201d he asked. \u201cThere are many like me in heaven,\u201d answered the priest. Hatuey answered that he wanted nothing to do with a God that would allow such cruelty to be unleashed in his name.<\/p>\n
De Las Casas describes the fate of the Ta\u00ednos. A village of about twenty-five hundred who welcomed the Spaniards, fed them and gave them drink, was immediately wiped out once the feast was over, \u201cthey set upon the Indians,\u201d he wrote, \u201cslashing, disemboweling and slaughtering them until their blood ran like a river.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of those sent to the mines, he said, the Spaniards \u201crequired of them tasks utterly beyond their strength, bending them to the earth with crushing burdens, harnessing them to loads which they could not drag, and with fiendish sport and mockery, hacking off their hands and feet, and mutilating their bodies in ways which will not bear description.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from being one of the first guerilla-style warriors in Cuba\u2019s history, Hatuey is the first martyr in the struggle for Cuban independence.<\/p>\n
Does it remind you of something similar taking place in Greece right now, due to the written and signed by our politicians three\u00a0 Memorandums?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Legend of Hatuey In 1511, Diego Vel\u00e1squez sailed from Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) to conquer and colonize Cuba. Among his soldiers in that expedition was Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s, who later conquered Mexico. When he arrived in Cuba, Vel\u00e1squez founded the island\u2019s first Spanish settlement at Baracoa. Meanwhile, reports from the Indians of Hispaniola reached … <\/p>\n