The first La Bayamesa

Francisco del Castillo y Moreno, a poet, and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, wrote the music, and José Fornaris, the words, to a love song they called La Bayamesa.  One evening in March 1851, on calle El Salvador in Bayamo, Francisco and his friends stood before the window of the house of Luz Vázquez, with whom Francisco was in love, and serenaded Luz with their new song.  It was the tradition that if the girl opened her window and appeared, she acepta al pretendiente [accepted the suitor].  Luz did open the window that evening and she and Francisco were subsequently married and had seven children, Pompeyo, Francisco, Heliodoro, Atala, Leonela, Lucila, and Adriana.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Ten Years’ War, Francisco contracted tuberculosis and went to Spain for treatment, where he died, in Madrid, in 1867.  Luz actively supported the rebel cause in the days leading up to the attack on Bayamo in October, 1868, repartiendo proclamas y llevando mensajes [distributing proclamations and carrying messages] and was among the first to set fire to her home when it was decided to burn the city rather than have it fall into the hands of the Spanish.  Luz left, with her family and neighbors, into the manigua, where she tended the sick and wounded until she was captured by the Spaniards.  She was returned to Bayamo and imprisoned, with her family, in what had previously been a livery stable.  A short while later Luz died.

The home - and window - of Luz Vazquez			photos by Oscar A. Ros