MIAMI, United States. — Among the stories surrounding the figure of Carlos Manuel de Cespedesone of the least known is that of his love for Candelaria Acosta Fontaigne, a young Manzanillera who, in addition to reciprocating him unreservedly, would go down in history as the patriot whose hands made the flag of the Republic of Cuba in Arms.
Cambula, as she was known, used a stretch of dress, part of her father’s mosquito net and a piece of cloth she had saved to embroider the banner devised by Céspedes: with three pieces of blue, white and red, the star glued with pins and more than a rod long. On the same October 10, she personally delivered it to the flag bearer Emiliano Tamayo. Under that humble motto the first uprising against Spain took place, and the Guaimaro Assembly would be held in April 1869.
Candelaria was the daughter of the mayoral of the La Demajagua sugar mill, where she lived with her family. She was 17 years old when she began her affair with Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, whose wife, María del Carmen de Céspedes y del Castillo, had died in 1867. From such a union, in the middle of the jungle, a girl was born whom they named Carmita.
The rigors of the war forced the independence leader to send a pregnant Candelaria to Jamaica. In Kingston she gave birth to her second son, Manuel, and she was helped by Cuban émigrés, especially Dr. Mayner and the patriot José Joaquín Palma. In her solitude, Cambula received and read the letters that Céspedes sent her, until her death in combat, in 1874.
Candelaria did not return to the Island until 1881, once the Ten Years’ War had ended. He settled in the town of Marimón, Santiago de Cuba, with his two children, who spoke English perfectly. Four years later she joined the Catalan Antonio Acosta, with whom she had two other children: Ernesto Amado and Isabel.
The banner embroidered by Cambula survived the war and was hung with all homage in the House of Representatives of republican Cuba. The humble patriot, who was satisfied with having left her children and grandchildren a free homeland, died on May 23, 1932.
