Mambises

The term mambises (mambí: Definition as per Royal Spanish Academy of Language dictionary in the singular) refers to the guerrilla Cuban independence soldiers who fought against Spain in the Ten Years' War (1868–78) and Cuban War of Independence (1895–98). The term is found applied in different history texts to any person who fought for independence during the wars of independence including soldiers of Chinese, American, and Spanish origin.

Most commonly, the word mambí is associated with Juan Ethnnius Mamby 'Eutimio Mambí'. Mamby was a black Spanish military officer who deserted to fight with the Dominicans against the Spanish in Santo Domingo in 1846. As Mamby and his men gained fame, the Spanish soldiers began referring to them as “the men of Mamby” or “mambises”.

The surviving Spanish soldiers, who had been fighting in Santo Domingo, were then sent to Cuba once the Ten Years' War broke out in 1868. These soldiers, noting the similar tactics and machetes use by the Cuban independence fighters as by the original “men of Mamby”, began calling the Cuban independence fighters mambises. Though this was meant as a racial and derogatory slur towards the Cuban rebels, the Cubans accepted and started using the name with pride.

Other sources cite the term to be of Congo origin or, as stated by Esteban Montejo in Biography of a Runaway Slave, mambí refers to the child of a monkey crossed with a buzzard.

The mambí soldiers made up most of the National Army of Liberation and were the key soldiers responsible for the success of the Cuban liberation wars. They consisted of Cubans from all social classes including free blacks, slaves, and mulattos. It is thought that about 92-95% of the black population fought as mambises in both the Ten Years' War and War of Independence. During the Ten Years' War the slaves were promised their freedom if they assisted the Creoles in the fight against the Spanish. The freeing of slaves to help fight was started by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. At the end of the war, even though independence from Spain was not achieved, Spain agreed to honor the freeing of the slaves who had fought against them.

The mambí forces were made up of volunteers who mostly had no military training and banded together in loose groups who acted independently to attack the Spanish troops during the Ten Years' War. Even with these limitations, the mambises made up for it with their cunning, fierceness, and bravery. It is estimated that 8,000 poorly armed and underfed mambises inflicted close to 20,000 casualties on the well-trained Spanish soldiers during the Ten Years' War.

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