Mariana Grajales Coello, the mother of Maceo and Cubans

Thanks to the value of the historical surveys that do not stop, the facts that make up the country report are clear. This was the case when the baptismal certificate of Mariana Grajales Coello, the mother of the Maceo and Cubans, was found relatively recently and proves that she was born on July 12, 1815 in Santiago de Cuba. This corrects the mistake that we have maintained for many years when it was claimed that he was born on June 26, 1808.

It has also been proven that Marcos, Maceo's father, is not the only one to be born. was not Venezuelan as he believed, but was also born Santiago de Cuba and it was determined that the date was April 25, 1808.

So the house of Marcos and Mariana was from the root santiaguera, from the two, and the forge of titans for the teaching that emanated to all his children, all three of Mariana's first marriage with the late Regueiferos, and ten with Marcos: the thirteen as theirs, as "son of 39". a lion and a lion ", according to Martí. In fact Mariana procreated 14 children, because the number 14, Maria Dolores, was born and died in 1861.

In badyzing Martí's complete sentence, we see that it reflects what parents must see in the formation of the family; says the Instructor: (the children of Mariana and Marcos) "they were happy because they came from the lion and the lion". Now we know that lions santiagueros, both.

By the force of sweat and machete, Marcos and Mariana expanded the small ranch acquired in 1852 called "The Desengaño" to turn it into hacienda "La Esperanza", adjacent to the previous one. then added to "La Unión", bought in 1861. In this, the whole family, parents, sons and daughters worked very hard, all equally; each participating as he could according to his age, both in the attention to harvests, as in the handling of animals, shooting, arrias or corral … Mariana and Marcos have all educated them in the work, the daily obligations in the home, and in the virtues, which included family and social thought and play.

In addition, Marcos taught the males the fencing of the machete, in which he was an expert; the machete not only as a weapon of work, but also as a weapon of war, of hand-to-hand combat; also in dressage and riding, all activities of great use in the war. In the evening and in the evening, Marcos and Mariana spoke to them about the ideals of liberty, of the person, of the family and of the country. On equality and fraternity. They read to comment later, the good books like the novels of Alejandro Dumas, the biographies of Bolívar, the Haitian leader Louvertoure, the stories of the French Revolution, and many others who raised their historical culture and ideological.

Children, Mariana was always the companion of the father, never the slave. Both badyzed family problems and problems, and made joint decisions after badyzing them from all angles. They were always together in happiness and pain.

Together they all went to the call of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes to liberate the Homeland. All went to war, fathers, sisters, Antonio's wife, boys all, even children, who wandered with Mariana through the camps and after mambises. The father, and the children Justo, Julio and Miguel, fell in the war of ten years. Fermín and Rafael, in Guerra Chiquita. In the space of the "fertile truce", the girls Mariana and Baldomera perished. The mother, Mariana, died in exile in Jamaica.

She gave it all, what she loved most, proudly for her country. During the 1895 war, Antonio and José fell. Only Tomás, Felipe, Marquitos and Dominga survived, although the three men were injured, and only four of them could see the end of Spanish rule on the island.

Can we doubt the patriotic education of all? lullabies? From this lineage we are born the other Cubans. It is so that we must educate our children today. To be lions and lions in defense of the socialist fatherland