Vol. 75/No. 29      August 8, 2011

Below is an excerpt from Marianas in Combat: Teté Puebla and the Mariana Grajales Women’s Platoon in Cuba’s Revolutionary War, 1956-58. The Spanish edition is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for August. Puebla, a brigadier general in Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, joined the struggle to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1956 when she was 15 years old. She served in the Rebel Army’s first all-women’s platoon and was a founding member of the Federation of Cuban Women. The interview was conducted by Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press, and Luis Madrid. Copyright © 2003 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

WATERS: The founding of the Mariana Grajales Women’s Platoon marked a milestone in the Cuban Revolution. It demonstrated in practice the social course a victorious Rebel Army would fight for. As Karl Marx put it, you can judge any society by the status of women.

What led to the unit’s formation?

PUEBLA: In May 1958, as the dictatorship’s military offensive began, the army stepped up its repression against the population of the Sierra Maestra… .

After the army’s offensive had been defeated, we asked our commander in chief to allow us to fight arms in hand. He agreed. Fidel said yes, women had won the right to fight with a rifle face to face with the enemy.

On September 4, 1958, a meeting took place, a sort of roundtable. Fidel assembled his general staff at the time, those who were left in the Sierra Maestra… . There was a discussion at this roundtable meeting that lasted more than seven hours. Fidel had a very big argument there. There were still not enough weapons for everyone, and the men were saying, “How can we give rifles to women when there are so many men who are unarmed?”

Fidel answered: “Because they’re better soldiers than you are. They’re more disciplined.”

“In any event,” he said, “I’m going to put together the squad, and I’m going to teach them how to shoot.”

So on September 4, the Mariana Grajales Women’s Platoon was formed. As I explained, Isabel Rielo became the commanding officer. I was named second in command. The squad came to have thirteen combatants in it. The commander in chief chose the name as a tribute to Mariana Grajales, a heroine of our war of independence and the mother of Antonio Maceo, the legendary general who fought heroically in Cuba’s wars of independence for over thirty years.

Fidel was the one who taught us to shoot. We had to hit a quarter—or a 20-centavo coin—20 to 30 meters away, depending on how he wanted to test our aim. And he drilled us. We had to split that coin… .

Then Fidel informed us: “You’re now going to be my personal security detail.”

From that day on, when people saw us, they would comment: “The Marianas are here. Our commander in chief must be arriving.” We were his advance detachment. He did this to demonstrate his confidence in women, in women’s equality… .

The first combat we saw was the battle of Cerro Pelado on September 27, 1958. This was the Marianas’ baptism by fire. The entire squad participated.

This was a tough battle. Remember that the enemy had artillery. The area had become the last redoubt of the dictatorship’s troops who had fled the territory after our counteroffensive had begun. We had to fight to get them out of the Sierra Maestra. Five compañeros were killed in the fighting; there were no casualties among the Marianas. Fidel has talked about this battle.

Afterward, Fidel went up to Eddy Suñol, one of the officers who was most opposed to having us as combatants, and he said: “I have a mission for you. We want to send you down to the plains, but you’re going to take the girls with you.”

Right then and there Commander Suñol said no. “I’m not going to the cities with them.”

Frankly, he was forced to take us. Fidel told him: “Either you take the women or you’re not going.” Suñol took us, although he did so gritting his teeth.

We arrived in Holguín on the night of October 20. The first battle began at dawn on the 21st, near the Holguín reservoir, where we were surprised by two trucks and a jeep full of the dictatorship’s soldiers.

We were surrounded with no way out, because the soldiers were less than ten minutes away from us. We agreed among ourselves that we would never surrender. We’d die fighting.

WATERS: The army troops must have been surprised to see you.

PUEBLA: Yes, because they had never before seen women in combat.

Back at the command post, when the report on the battle was made, the question was asked: “How did the women conduct themselves? What was their stance?” After that battle, the issue was settled. Women could fight alongside the men. Radio Rebelde was reporting it. We suffered two wounded and captured eleven rifles.

MADRID: What about Eddy Suñol?

PUEBLA: Suñol sent a message to Fidel apologizing for having opposed him on this question and acknowledging that Fidel was right. Because that battle had demonstrated that what Fidel had been saying about women was correct. They are as good soldiers as the men.