Feeding the Revolution: The Spanish American War Part 2

Photo above of Cuban revolutionaries cooking an animal they hunted for their lunch in 1898. Image below of Cuban dish ajiaco with a recipe below



During the Cuban Independence War or Spanish American War, the white skinned Spanish forces referred to the darker skinned revolutionary forces, many of the soldiers dark skinned Afro-Cubans and mixed people, as Mambises. “Mambi means the child of a Monkey and a buzzard,” says Esteban Montejo a former slave who fought in the revolution with thousands of other former enslaved Cubans. Many former runaways fought for their personal freedom and the freedom of their country. Black, white, and Chinese Cubans fought side by side during the war. For food, Mambises depended on peasants farmers when they could but they stole food from Spanish loyalist and Spanish troops. “I think the thing I did best during the war was stealing livestock. . . The one who did that job gained respect” recalls Montejo. “I went out every night and came back with such good calves and pigs it was a marvel. Some wild and some tame.” Another sources I found says, “Cuban are carnivorous, they eat meat roasted, stewed, fricasseed, deviled, and boiled, and pig holds the place of honor.” Here is a recipe for ajiaco suggestive of what revolutionaries like Montejo might have eaten during the war:



Recipe for Cuban Ajiaco: http://www.tasteofcuba.com/ajiacocubano.html