Coming from a humble family, attached to the land and with poverty as the only future, Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez was born in 1940, in the neighborhood of Chamarreta, municipality of San Luis, in Santiago de Cuba province
Capitan San Luis in the Rebel Army, Rolando in the guerrilla of Che Guevara in Bolivia, fell in combat on April 25, 1967, in an ambush in the farm El Meson, between the rivers Ticucha and Iquera.
Che then wrote in his diary that day as Black Day and added: “We have lost the best man of the guerrilla and, naturally, one of its pillars”.
Eliseo Reyes stood out in Ché’s troop for his qualities as a soldier forged in the Cuban revolutionary struggle, in the Sierra Maestra, always under the orders of Ernesto Guevara. When he died, on the verge of his 27th birthday on April 27, he was also the Political Commissar of the guerrilla.
Capitan San Luis met Che in the Cuban mountains, where the thin and almost childish Eliseo, 17 years old, had arrived. His decision was firm: to join the rebel struggle.
They immediately began to call him San Luis. Che then became aware of his qualities, among which were also his learning speed, confidence and intelligence.
Capitan San Luis joined Che Guevara
After fulfilling several missions, and serving in various positions at the side of the nascent revolution, in July 1966 Capitan San Luis was among those selected to be part of the internationalist guerrilla detachment that would initiate the armed struggle in Bolivia.
After many years, his remains could be buried in the homeland, but no matter how much one thinks and feels at the moment of flowers and recollection, his compatriots and relatives know that his bones of a small giant are really in a wider world.
They extend, as Che said, through the enormous meadows of the just causes for which he fought. Likewise, they will always inhabit a young time that will never die.
