"Mambises were the mostly Black insurgent soldiers who fought in Cuba's wars of independence against Spain. My father's father was a Mambí. His name was José Rodriguéz Figueroa. He was born a free Black man in 1868 in Santiago de Cuba, almost 20 years before slavery ended on the island. A war correspondent, he wrote for the rebel newspaper, El Cubano Libre, founded by General Antonio Maceo, known as the Bronze Titan."

LILI BERNARD