José Quintín Bandera Betancourt (1834-1906) was born in Santiago de Cuba (Oriente province). In 1850, he showed the first concerns against the colonial domination and became involved in conspiratorial activities together with others.
On January 1, 1869 he joined the forces of General Donato Mármol in Palma Soriano. Four days later he was incorporated to the Cambute brigade, under the command of Brigadier General José de Jesús Pérez. On January 13, 1869 he received the rank of corporal, being directly subordinated to the then Captain Limbano Sánchez. In that month he participated in the capture of El Cobre. Later he was among those who supported the expedition of the steamship Perrit. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to first sergeant.
In 1870 he was appointed commissioned on the coasts of Santiago de Cuba and its surroundings, with the rank of ensign. Reincorporated into the ranks, he took part in the battles of Caoba, in August 1871, and Rejondón de Báguanos. In 1872 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 1873 to captain. He stood out in the combats of Tubacao, Sábalo, La Yaya, Hongolosongo, as well as in the attack on Guisa.
In November 1875 he arrived in Las Villas as infantry chief of a contingent of eastern troops that, under the command of General Manuel de Jesús Calvar, marched to that province to reinforce the invading troops of General Máximo Gómez.
On March 2, 1876 he obtained the rank of commander.
In the nine months he remained in that campaign he participated, among others, in the actions of Turiguanó (Morón), María Jigüe, Estero de Morón and Ciego de Ávila. On his return to the eastern province, he was placed under the orders of Colonel Leonardo Mármol, who entrusted him with the mission of ensuring communications between Santiago de Cuba and the General Headquarters of the Liberation Army.
On February 15, 1878, General Antonio Maceo assigned him to the Santiago Infantry Regiment with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He participated in the Baraguá Protest, after which he took part in some combat actions. Finally, he received the order to guard the provisional government of Manuel Calvar until its dissolution on May 21, 1875 in Loma Pelada. He capitulated four days later in the town of San Luis.
He was the protagonist, together with Guillermon Moncada and Jose Maceo, of the events of August 26, 1879 in the streets of Santiago de Cuba, which started the Chiquita War.
In this stage his main actions were those of Guisa, Auras, Manzanillo, Bueycito (Buey Arriba) and Yabazón (Gibara).
Once this battle was over, he left for Jamaica together with Guillermon Moncada and Jose Maceo, on June 4, 1880. Violating the guarantees offered by the Spanish regime, one of their gunboats stopped the steamer in which they were traveling on the high seas and they were taken to Puerto Rico. They were then sent to Spain. After three months in prison in Cadiz, Quintin was sent to the castle of Mahon, in the Balearic Islands, along with other patriots. He was pardoned in 1886. In 1890 he participated in the failed conspiracy known as the Peace of Manganese.
War of 95
He was among the organizers of the War of ’95 in the region of Santiago de Cuba, where he rose on February 24, 1895 with the same rank of lieutenant colonel with which he ended the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878).
He joined the Cambute brigade (3rd brigade, 2nd division, 1st corps), where he was appointed chief of the Aguilera Infantry Regiment, which operated in the territory of Palma Soriano. He participated in the battles of San Francisco, Paraíso, Peralejo, Baire, Santa Bárbara, Vega and Cautillo.
On October 10, 1895, he left Mangos de Baraguá at the head of the infantry of the invading column, under the orders of Antonio Maceo.
He participated in the combats of Soledad, Guaramanao and La Reforma. His machete charges became famous. On the morning of December 3, 1895, being already in Villareño territory, he separated with some 400 infantrymen from the rest of the column to head south. Two weeks later he was provisionally appointed commander of the 1st division of the 4th corps, which covered the districts of Sancti Spíritus, Remedios and Trinidad. He established his area of operations in the aforementioned valley and remained there until February 1896, when he moved to the region of Sagua la Grande after fighting in San Juan de los Yeras and Loma del Tunero.
He regrouped his eastern infantry, with the help of Brigadier General Ángel Guerra, he started his march towards the West, as he had been ordered to join Maceo for some time. He was forced to fight in La Olayita and El Mamey.
On February 8, 1896, he met Máximo Gómez, who had set out in search of him from Matanzas. They continued the march and two days later with his battered infantry he appeared before Maceo, in El Galeón (Matanzas).
On March 13, 1896 he attacked Batabanó, in the province of Havana, under the command of Maceo. After two days he crossed the Trocha de Mariel to Majana to take part in the second campaign of Pinar del Rio. The following day, after the Galope combat was over, Maceo dismissed him from his command for having confused the mission he had given him through an aide. Bandera was arrested in a camp called Manuelita. However, he continued fighting. He participated in the actions of Laborí, Cayajabos, La Palma, San Diego de Núñez and Loma del Toro.
Following Maceo’s orders, he attacked San Cristobal with such success that Maceo congratulated him. The combats of Loma de Tapia, San Claudio, Vega Morales, Lombillo and Pico Rubí, among others, followed.
In July 1896, Maceo appointed him chief of the 1st Division of the 4th Corps, with the mission of regrouping troops in the Villareña region and lead them to reinforce the western direction.
On August 14, 1896 he crossed the Trocha de Mariel to Majana to occupy that position. He settled again in the region of Trinidad.
In October 1896, he came to the aid of the landing of the expedition of the steamship Dauntless, which under the command of Miguel Betancourt Guerra disembarked on October 18 at Río Hondo de San Juan, between the regions of Trinidad and Sancti Spíritus.
On November 27, 1896, General Calixto García ordered him to create the Division of Eastern Volunteers, which was to operate in the eastern region until he was ordered to march to the West.
On March 23, 1897, he crossed the Trocha de Júcaro a Morón, in the direction of Sancti Spiritus, at the head of a hundred eastern infantrymen, to settle again in the region of Trinidad, from where he refused to march to the West as long as he was not guaranteed the supplies he considered necessary. In the meantime, he remained practically inactive.
For this reason, and other indiscipline, Gómez ordered his dismissal at the beginning of July 1897 and ordered his legal prosecution. In the trial, held on August 28, 1897, he was accused of disobedience, insubordination, sedition and immorality. The last two charges were due to his open demonstrations against the chiefs and his relations with the women of Trinidad. He was punished with the loss of his military and political rights for an indefinite period; but he was allowed to keep an escort of twelve men and two assistants with whom he continued to fight on his own during the last year of the war, which he concluded as a surplus with the rank of major general.
U.S. Occupation
On February 15, 1899, the Executive Commission of the Assembly of Representatives of the Cuban Revolution agreed to recognize him as a colonel with a seniority date of July 11, 1897, and as a brigadier general since January 21, 1895, and recognized him, in a session held a week later, as a major general since November 11, 1896.
At the end of the War of Independence, due to the opportunistic intervention of the U.S. troops in 1898, Bandera settled in the Cuban capital and raised a family.
On June 27, 1901, when he was 68 years old, he married the young Virginia Zuaznábar and from this union five children were born.
In the Republic
On August 19, 1906, he rose up against the reelection of President Tomás Estrada Palma. His main actions consisted of the assault on the Havana-Guanajay train and the requisitioning of weapons and supplies in the areas of El Cano, Wajay (Boyeros) and Arroyo Arenas (La Lisa).
Submerged in poverty, he went to see President Estrada Palma in search of a job and the latter only offended him by offering him a handout. A commercial firm saw in him the possibility of propaganda for the sale of its soap, especially among the humble population and the black and mulatto washerwomen, a sector of Cuban society that saw in Quintin a paradigm. His portrait as a general appeared in posters and publications, and even the mambi himself traveled to towns and cities to stimulate the sale of the product. He received a decent salary and that helped him to support his family.