Cuba remembers American hero Henry Reeve
Cuba remembers American hero Henry Reeve
Revolutionary commitment knows no boundaries of nation or race
He was known to some by the nickname “Enrique, El Americano.” He was known to many as “El Inglesito,” (the little Englishman), because he was tall, blonde, and spoke no Spanish when he first arrived in Cuba to participate in the Cuban War of Liberation of 1868 to 1878. It has been said of him that he demonstrated on many occasions his positions for the abolition of slavery and the independence of Cuba from Spanish colonial rule. In 2005, in naming an international medical brigade in his honor, Fidel Castro said of this American that he put into practice the teaching of José Martí that one’s country is all humanity.
On August 4, 2023, Cuba commemorated the 147th anniversary of the fall in combat in the Cuban War of Independence of the American Henry Reeve, who joined the Cuban Army of Liberation as a private and rose to the rank of brigadier general, as a consequence of his bravery and prowess. The commemorative ceremony was held in the town of Yaguaramos, in the province of Cienfuegos, where there is a National Monument dedicated to the memory of the internationalist hero, unveiled in 1978, in the zone where he fought his last battle. Members of the Henry Reeve International Brigade of Doctors Specialized in Situations of Disaster and Serious Epidemics were present at the commemoration, as well as authorities of the government and the Communist Party of the province of Cienfuegos and health students and professionals from the local area. The commemoration was reported throughout the country in the Cuban daily newspaper Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Henry Reeve was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 4, 1850, the son of a preacher, Alexander Reeve, and Maddie Carroll. He was a drummer boy in the Union Army during the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865. He left Brooklyn at the age of nineteen to join an expedition under the command of former Confederate general Thomas Jordan, which disembarked on the northeastern coast of Cuba on May 11, 1869. Reeve was taken prisoner shortly after the landing, but he escaped, and he was able to join the forces of the Cuban Army of Liberation under the command of Major General Ignacio Agramonte.
Reeve possessed outstanding military qualities, which enabled him to move rapidly through the military ranks in the Cuban Army of Liberation. It was said that he demonstrated exceptional courage, integrity, and responsibility, for which he was respected and loved by the troops under his command. He was promoted to second-class sergeant on June 13, 1869; lieutenant, October 2, 1869; captain, June 16, 1870; major, January 16, 1872; lieutenant colonel, March 3, 1873; colonel, July 27, 1873; and brigadier general, December 10, 1873.
By the age of twenty-six, Reeve had participated in approximately 400 military engagements against the Spanish Army. He had been wounded ten times, the most serious occurring on September 28, 1873, which resulted in the permanent loss of the use of his left leg. After nearly six months of recuperation in a hospital, he returned to the field of battle, using a metal leg prosthesis and an improvised device to maintain himself firmly in the saddle.
Brigadier General Reeve was appointed by Major General Maximo Gómez to spearhead a march to the west, which he carried out beyond its stated military objectives. However, on August 4, 1876, with the impetuousness that was his characteristic, he was on the front line of an attack against superior Spanish forces. He ordered the retreat of his troops, receiving multiple wounds as he covered their withdrawal. After falling from his horse, he defended himself with a machete in one hand and a revolver in another, until running out of ammunition and strength; he shot himself in order to avoid being captured alive. He had spent seven of his twenty-six years in the Cuban Liberation Army.
In 2005, in response to Hurricane Katrina, Cuba formed a group of 1,586 doctors to assist humanitarian efforts in the United States. The Cuban offer of unconditional humanitarian assistance was declined by the USA, but Fidel named the group the Henry Reeve Brigade in honor of the fallen internationalist American hero, whose sacrifice was never forgotten.
On May 26, 2017, the World Health Organization awarded its Dr. Lee Jong-Wook Memorial Prize for Public Health to Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade. By that date, since its founding in 2005, over 7,000 health professionals of the Brigade had provided emergency medical assistance to 3.5 million people in twenty-one countries affected by disasters and epidemics, including Bolivia, Chile, China, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, and Pakistan. Especially significant was its mission during the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa.
In response to the COVID pandemic, Cuba sent 43 brigades to 33 countries, with 2,523 professionals treating patients who were victims of the lethal disease.
I imagine that Henry Reeve’s mother possibly would have preferred that he had not left Brooklyn in 1869; or that at least he had returned to his native land following his serious wounds of September 28, 1874. But because of the decisions he took, he lives eternally in the memory of the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban people. For the people of the United States, his life is a powerful statement in the name of those American citizens who are committed to defense of the sovereign right of Cuba to decide on its own political-economic system.
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