AN ANECDOT...PART OF MY OWN LIFE STORY...
by P.Martori
I was a teenager in the 50s. In 1953 I began my Pre-Universitary level , called Bachillerato.
Soon after getting to that Pre-Univ. School in my home town, I joined the movement ,
with several others who were leading the way in a new struggle against the new dictator
of Cuba : Fulgencio Batista.
I was then 13 yrs. old. I was already well aware of many of the socio-political and
economic issues of my country. I was reading since about 10-11 yrs. old almost
every day what ever fell on my hands, but my interests were in facts, sociological
and political.
So in the midst of that struggle I happened to be the target of the search by Batista's
police and soldiers one day...
They got to me, for I was hidding already in my teacher's home and took me to
the town's police station, the guys who were taking me from my teacher's house
were from another town ,where I was previously hiding some time before.
But to make this story brief or short, at the arrival to the police station, right there
at the same door , outside the station, they started to question me...
Seen that I was giving then tangents and evasives answers, one of the guy, said ,
let's take him inside...I will "soften" him...
Inside the Station ,in the back room of it, they surrounded me, ten or twelf of them...
They asked me for the names of the tow other guys who went to another town with me
and to buy some revolvers...
I always refused to give away those names , one of the guys BTW was not far from
that Police Station, in fact just a block away, probably having his supper time meal
at around 7:00 PM.
As the sbirres saw that they were not going to get any info ,at least so easily,
they began to hit me and beating me with their fists, with a long electrical cable,
and even at a moment , when I fell down , with their feet..
I was thinking that I could never betray my friends and comrades.
I was also seen myself dead and lying in some place outside that town
among the bushes that grow in the litoral mangroves
But as I had those thought I was seeking a way out of that infernal beating.
So I said I was going to talk...
I gave them false names , and I said I didn't know but just one of the guys.
and didn't know where they lived.
At this, the gang , set aside to a corner to conference and discuss ..
I didn't know about what...but that was the moment I profit to escape by running
from the back room of that station to the front door.
The guard at the front door , turned toward me and shoot.
It did not hit me, but I saw the shot hit the wall next to the door i was at this
moment going through.
He stood up with his rifle across his chest withthe intention of stopping me
but suddenly he turned away to prepare his old Crack rifle again to shoot at me.
I pass next to him and looked back to see if he was going to shoot again,
so I run toward the next corner of street and inclined myself all what I could
and zig zag toward that cornerof the street, by the time I got to that saviour corner,
more than 50 shoots rained toawrd me, none hitting me by the Grace of God.!
I saw, the dust little clouds , on the street and at the walls across the police
station made by the bullets...One of the bullets hit a teenager , 15 yrs. old who
happened to be running in that street trying to flee from the shootings.
He fell at the street intersection where I was already turning that corner.
I stopped looked at him on the street I for a second I thought to go and
rescue him, butn then inmediately ,i remembered that the shots were for me,
not for him , so he was not in danger. I kept running to the next corner,
trying to get out of the sight of the sbirres. I went into a house and went
all the way to the back and jumped to the roof of a small room and then
to a fence about three or four meters high. From there I jumped down and
then to the next back yard of this house, and so on til I got to the other
corner of the whole section or " manzana" in a diagonal trajectory.
When the robolution won power , and Ireturned from exile,
I went to my hometown just two weeks after that day of 1959.
People considered me a heroe, one of the most outstanding in the whole gang
of the towns revolutionnaries,I was greeted and treated at every ,almost step
in my way around that town.Every one wanted to be my friend , some were
friends from long time.I was by then only 19 yrs. old. I was invited to visit the
towns quarters of the Guardia Rural or Army, where some of the sbirres were
jailed already.
I saw several of those guys behind bars. I saluted them respectfully and with some
pity at the same time.
NEVER IN MY MIND WAS ANY, OR THE LEAST OF THE INTENTIONS TO PROFIT
OF THAT SITUATION AND OFFEND OR INSULT THOSE MEN WHO WERE NOW
DEFENSELESS AND WHO COULD NOT DEFEND THEMSELVES.
I also never went to watch when severalof these same men were executed
at the firewalls. in that same army quarter.
TO ME THAT WAS NOT A SHOW, THAT WAS NOT JUSTICE AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.
Those, my former ennemies and torturers, deserved a TRIAL WITH ALL THE
GUARANTEES OF THE LAW !
This is part of my little history and live proud of it because I always fight for
the principles and not for any personal agenda...
Pedro Martori
www.kastroasesino.blogspot.
http://WWW.CUBASI_KASTRONO BLOG
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