A BRIEF HISTORY OF CUBA AND COLOMBIA
(Birthplaces of Gabriel García Márquez and Nilo Cruz)
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| Colombia declares itself independent of Spain. |
1810 |
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| Columbia is reconquered by Spanish General Murillo. |
1815 |
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| Simón Bolívar reliberates the country becoming its first president. |
1820 |
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| Two ideological factions establish the Liberal and the Conservative parties. |
1849 |
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1868 | Cuba begins struggle for independence from Spain. |
| [Several coups d'état occur over the course of the next half-century as the two parties vie for control] |
1895 | Jose Marti begins final campaign to win independence. |
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1898 | February: USS Maine sinks in Havana Harbor, under mysterious circumstances. The United States enters the conflict. December: Spain relinquishes control of Cuba to the United States |
| These coups culminate with the War of a Thousand Days. |
1899 |
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| The Liberals surrender the War. Total loss of life is approximately 100,000 (predominately Liberal) Around this same time, the United Fruit Company begins its nationally sanctioned monopoly of Columbian banana exports. |
1902 | May 20: the United States grants Cuba its independence but retained the right to intervene in its affairs. |
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1903 | The US leases Guantanamo Bay. |
| Striking banana workers are gunned down in the Banana Strike Massacre, 30 miles north of García Márquez’s hometown. The Columbian government denies the Massacre ever occurred. In this same year, Gabriel García Márquez is born. |
1928 |
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1934 | The US relinquishes the right to interfere in Cuban affairs. |
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1940 | Fulgencio Batista, a sergeant of significant influence, is elected President. He serves only four years. |
| Populist politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, causes a split in the Liberal party, calling for investigations of the “massacre.” The Conservatives seize power. La violencia begins. |
1946 |
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| April 9: Gaitán, now Liberal party leader is assassinated in Bogotá. |
1948 | Batista stages a bloodless coup. He suspends democratic process in Cuba. |
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1952 | Fidel Castro, who had been involved in increasingly violent political activity before Batista's coup, leads a failed armed uprising. He is jailed following a widely reported trial. He is subsequently freed and goes into exile in Mexico. |
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1956 | Castro lands his yacht Granma on the eastern shore of Cuba and begins a year-long siege of Batista’s dwindling government. |
| A movement known as the National Front calls for unity between Liberals and Conservatives. The Front succeeds in quelling La violencia. In the coming years, the Front would become a repressive entity, leading to the formation of various guerilla terrorist organizations. |
1957 |
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1959 | Batista flees Cuba on the first day of the year. Fidel Castro begins to consolidate power and dispose of political enemies. In this same year, Gabriel García Márquez begins writing in support of Castro. |
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1961 | Nilo Cruz is born in Matanzas, Cuba. His father, a staunch opponent of Castro, is imprisoned shortly thereafter as a political dissident. After his release, the Cruz family gains passage to the States. |
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Tuesday, February 9
