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        Santiago Rag
        Spanish-Cuban-
        American War,
        by Al Gowen 

        All Stores
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         

         
        http://www.neta.com/~1stbooks/gowan.htm
        SANTIAGO RAG, A Novel of the Spanish-Cuban-American War by Al Gowan. With six photographs and bookmark map.
        Access Press, 80 Orchard St., Cambridge, MA

        Fact:  To show what the loss of Cuba meant to the everyday Spaniard, there is today a common saying in Madrid when someone's apartment has been robbed, or something of value has been stolen- "Mas se perdido en Cuba!" or, More was lost in Cuba!
         

      • Fact: On San Juan Hill, in the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba, there are a number of bronze sculptures of  American soldiers in resolute poses. When I last visited the site in 1989, the sculptures were intact, but the original plaques placed there by the American donors had been replaced by plaques in Spanish, testifying to  the sacrifice and bravery of the Cuban mambis, who fought and died for over ten years before the Americans ever came. 

        •  
      • Fact: The Cuban officers were left out of all surrender negotiations with the Spanish. They were not invited to the surrender ceremonies until the very last moment, which General Calixto Garcia took as a personal insult. 

        •  
      •   Fact: Although the Cuban flag, (designed in New York ) was supposed to be raised when the Spanish surrendered, the American flag was raised instead.

        •  
      •  Fact: The Rough Riders were not initially commanded by Theodore Roosevelt, but rather, by Colonel Leonard Wood, who became military governor of Cuba after the surrender.

        • Captain Luna was his translator and aide. Leonard Wood later became governor of the Philipines, where one of his aides was the young Douglas MacArthur.
         
      •  Fact: The Cuban Insurrectionists (regular Cuban forces under Garcia and Gomez) were not given crucial roles in the fighting because the American generals thought them incapable. They were instead given the task of covering the American flanks and sometimes sent to cut off Spanish relief columns. 

        •  

         
         
         

          Fact: Clara Barton came to Siboney, Cuba soon after  the American invasion, to set up field hospitals. The Army surgeons did not, at that time recognize her American Red Cross, and refused her help. So she set up a field hospital for the Cubans, which was much
        better run than the American hospital. Some sick and wounded Americans pretended to be Cubans in order to get treatment. 

                 Al Gowan is completing a novel which takes place in  Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish American Cuban War of 1898. His previous novel, ZAMORA'S TATTOO, 
        has been published by Bibliobytes, an on-line publisher.  ("www.bb.com" then search the genres military, suspense, or adventure).

               He has published short stories in PLOUGHSHARES, 
        PAINTED HILLS REVIEW, TENNESSEE QUARTERLY 
        and QUIXOTE QUARTERLY.

                He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife Susan. Mr. Gowans E-Mail address is
                               agowan@world.std.com

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