2023-08-05 14:44:34
Just taking a look at the impressive biography of Alberto Bayo Guiroud is a reason to immediately wonder: how could this man have such a diverse history and get involved in so many events throughout his life.
Soldier, aviator, guerrilla trainer, poet, novelist, combatant…, he managed to be part of the most fervent history of Cuba and Spain by being the protagonist of transcendental events in the land of Martí and in that of Cervantes.
He was born in Camaguey in 1892, but six years later, after the defeat of Spanish colonialism in Cuba, his family went to Spain, where they stayed for a long time. He completed his studies at the Chenet Institute in New Orleans and, in 1912, entered the Toledo Military Academy, where he rose to the rank of second lieutenant in 1915.
In 1920 he would found the Aerodromo Bayo aviation academy and, three years later, he would face Captain Joaquín González Gallarza in the last duel held in Spain, from which Gallarza would be badly injured and Bayo expelled from the academy.
After his stormy stay in Morocco as part of the Spanish Legion, which led him to participate in various combats and receive a serious injury, he returned to Spain, where he loyally served the Republican forces that were trying to stop the thrust of the Francoist forces.
At the end of the Civil War, he went to France, where he was confined with his family in a concentration camp and lost an eye. This loss was not an obstacle for him, when he was released, he participated as a war pilot in the service of the French nation against the Nazis and, thanks to his courage, received the Order of the Legion of Honor.
He returned to Cuba, but in 1941 he settled in Mexico, where after the arrival of Fidel and the future Granma expedition members, he served as a military instructor at the El Chalco farm.V
He had plenty of courage to integrate the expedition; but by then he already had the respectable age of 64 years. From that time on, his close friendship with figures such as Fidel, Che and Raúl would be indestructible, as well as his contributions to the Revolutionary Armed Forces, in which he served as an advisor.
His death occurred on August 4, 1967 in Havana, where he was buried with military honors. Two of his books enjoyed special popularity and had several editions: The war will belong to the guerrillas and One hundred and fifty questions to a guerrilla.
But a curiosity marks the lyrical work of Bayo, about which the Batabano poet and researcher Juan Carlos García Guridi has written: he was the first to dedicate a poem to Fidel Castro, although many think that it is up to Carilda to be the initiator of this type of Tributes to the revolutionary leader.
¨Almost everyone believes that it is about the Canto a Fidel, by the great Matanzas poet Carilda Oliver Labra, but it is not like that… The first poem inspired by the figure of Fidel was written by General Alberto Bayo Giraud, it is titled A Fidel Castro, and dates from March 22, 1956, that is, four months before Ernesto Che Guevara’s Canto a Fidel Castro; around eight to Gracias, Fidel, from Francisco Riverón Hernández from Güinero and one year to Canto… by Carilda¨, clarifies Guridi.
Although without the popularity of Carilda’s poem or the lyrical forcefulness of Riverón’s creation, Bayo’s work is a more than sincere cry for freedom, endorsed by a man who never put his body into the hardest battles for the redemption of man in Spain and Cuba, and as such will always be remembered.
Instead of dancing, vice, and pleasures, instead of easy women, instead of wine that dizzy your youth with pleasure, you dedicate yourself to the Idea, you fill yourself with patriotic duties and with friends you forge healthy beings who only dream of manly tasks. .
You see that your homeland is gagged by a harsh tyrant, enslaved, and with your strong and beautiful youth, you become dim on the dangerous path of ripping off the traitor’s dirty sword, you ride on your generous idea without thinking that you can find your deep pit that will buried in shadows of nothingness.
You are a hero of the wounded Homeland to which you offer youth and life, your fibers healthy, pure, youthful, your thoughts for other virile, and in the heroic work that you have to see accomplished labors with the soul in joy swollen to see that they continue your thousands of footsteps waiting only for the order to leave.
The Homeland must reward your heroic efforts. You are the prototype of the Cuban who does not allow any chain of tyrant or owner to be placed in his hand because he does not suffer either owner or tyrant; and he has to crystallize your sweet dream of seeing us free from the dwarf traitor.
All Cuba looks at you; The whole world awaits your guerrilla thrust, that the dictator opposes you a meager fight, and thus there will be radiant light in the jungle and our freedom will be made of steel.
You were a hero in the Moncada struggle and although you saw your feat fail before the vile force of the dictator, you sowed in Cuba for your great courage the seed that we see germinating in this national, growing ardor to see tyranny cornered.
Fidel Castro, your path, your figure, will be the powerful beacon that shines airs of freedom throughout Cuba; We will continue to be happy with your flag, even if it were a youthful madness.
The great madmen go after Glory. The great madmen sow in history the fruit of the beautiful, great deeds. God bless your virtues, these if you free us from the mud of scum!
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