Maceo´s Campaign Chair Returns to Cuba

A piece of tremendous historical and patrimonial importance for all Cubans was delivered this Friday by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, to the historian of Havana, Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, in a solemn ceremony held at the Palace of the Captain Generals in Havana, attended by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez.

The patrimonial piece is a chair carved in palmwood, the national tree that distinguishes the Cuban landscape. Also carved in its trunk, there’s a star that resembles that of the Cuban flag and the initials "A.M." of Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo y Grajales.

The chair was seized by the Spanish army in campaign, in the vicinity of the Sierra del Rosario in Pinar del Río. Presented as a war trophy to the Captain General of the Island, it was moved to Spain and exhibited in the halls of the Historical Military Museum of San Carlos in Palma de Majorca.

The Palma City Council and its authorities have temporarily ceded the chair to be shown to the Cuban people at the Sala de las Banderas of the Palace of the Captain Generals, and will be displayed together with Antonio Maceo's saddle, that was finally delivered to Cuba by Spain back in 1986.

In his keynote speech, Spanish president Pedro Sanchez underscored the historical significance of the gesture, which he described as a reunion between the two nations.

“Today, a long and administrative process of almost twenty years, which results in the temporary transfer of Maceo's chair to the city of Havana, to be shown at the City Museum, comes to a close,” said. Mr. Sánchez in his speech.

“Today, I want this chair made of palmwood to be a symbol of the friendship between two peoples, the Cuban and the Spanish, two peoples united by common memory, bound together by transcendental episodes; episodes that define to a large extent what we are today. We must know our history and be able to assess it from a rigorous and respectful approach,” the Spanish president went on to say.

For his part, the historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal, said that today “one of the most delicate fibers of our national history has been touched”, in sheer reference to the gesture of delivering Antonio Maceo’s chair to the City Museum of Havana.

The event was also attended by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba's ambassador to Spain, Gustavo Machín, and the head of the Spanish diplomatic mission on the island, Mr. Juan Fernández Trigo.