CUBAN REVOLUTION: CAMILO CIENFUEGOS' COMANDANTE SHIRT, GIFTED TO HIS COMRADE FELIX TORRES., Cienfuegos, Camilo, 1932-59.

Cuban revolutionary's green military shirt. Inscribed and dated by Cienfuegos, January 30, 1959.

Cienfuegos, Camilo, 1932-59. Cuban revolutionary's green military shirt. Inscribed and dated by Cienfuegos, January 30, 1959. A green, short-sleeved cotton military shirt of medium size, with comandante lapel patches and a period laundry tag on the lower button. The interior panel of the left pocket inscribed neatly in ink. Translation from Spanish: "January 30 1959. (Year of the Liberation). As I remember my friend and companion in battle: Commander Felix Torres. So you deserve it and wear it on Sundays, and that all the days be warm and sunny and because I know you always like to go out looking handsome. With a strong hug from your brother, Camilo Cienfuegos". Length 34 inches (865mm), width 23.5 inches (600mm).
Provenance: Camilo Cienfuegos, gifted to Felix Torres on January 30th 1959 (inscription on the shirt).

A HISTORICAL CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY COMANDANTE SHIRT, given by the senior Comandante, Camilo Cienfuegos, to one of his brothers in arms, Felix Torres. Both men had worked their way up through the revolutionary path. Cienfuegos was born in Havana and studied "bellas-artes" at Havana University. After a break working in the States, he continued with his studies, becoming involved with an underground student movement against President Batista. He witnessed the shooting of students in Havana in December 1955, and, having been forced out of school, returned to the US, working in Miami and San Francisco. By late 1956 he was in Mexcio City, where he met Fidel Castro, and joined his small rebel army. He was one of the 82 men who hitched a ride on a small boat, the Granma, and sailed for Cuba to start a revolution! Unfortunately, upon their arrival - after fighting through marshes and mango swamps - Batista's army found the group and cut most of them down. Cienfuegos, along with Che and Castro, was one of just 12 men who escaped and went into hiding in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Castro's men held out in the mountains and slowly brought other fighters over to their side. Cienfuegos was made a commander in 1957, and when the revolutionary forces broke out of their mountain hideaway, he was placed in charge of a unit, alongside Guevara and Vega. He forced the capture of a military fort at Yaguajay and, with Che, went up against the town of Santa Clara, forcing its surrender on December 31, 1958. Batista fled Cuba the next day and guerilla forces marched on Havana. Within the new government, one of the central aspects of the Revolution was Agrarian Reform and the redistribution of land to the poor. Cienfuegos, as head of the new Cuban Army, assisted Che Guevara and the new Agrarian Armed Forces in implementing the redistribution of land. He died, however, under mysterious circumstances on October 28, 1959. It is said that on a return flight from Camaguey to Havana - an overland route - his Cessna plane disappeared into the sea! If it was an assassination, it may have been the work of an influential disgruntled landowner or another political figure. Cienfuegos is lauded as a Hero of the Revolution, and on October 28 each year, the school children of Cuba throw flowers into the sea in his memory.