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The United States Military Occupation in 1898

On December 12, 1898, the Jagüey Grande City Council was created, the last municipal term at the end of colonial rule in Cuba. Continuing the tradition of struggle, the City Council joined the people's protest against the North American occupation and sent a cablegram to the President of the United States dated December 1898.

“The Jagüey Grande City Council agreed to support veteran cablegram against the intervening civil government. Arranging at the same time contact the Matanzas Veterans Center, Civil Governor and Secretary of State and Interior. "[1]

Cuevitas also joined the rejection due to the presence of the intervening forces and on July 25, 1900 the City Council agreed to change the name of the town to Agramonte and that of its streets to names of patriots from the war of independence.

[1] Minutes Book. Jagüey Grande City Hall, 1899. Vol. 3, Municipal Museum of Jagüey Grande.

Neocolonial Stage 1902 - 1958

In 1902 North American interests in Cuba were strengthened, the Jagüey Grande region entered a phase of transformation. Efforts for economic development are directed to sugarcane and other crops production, industrial development continued to be dedicated to the sugar industry, with Agramonte being the largest sugar producer of the time.

In 1913, the public electric service was installed in the Agramonte area and a year later in Jagüey Grande. That same year, local publications took off, favored by the arrival of the printing press through Prudencio Crespo. Newspapers such as Chispazo, El Veterano, Celebrities, El Colono, Nueva Era and El Sol among others, saw the light in the region and remained until the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Important journalists of the time were Antonio Mora and Pedro Ramón Rodríguez .

Antonio Mora delivering a copy of the magazine El Sol	Pedro Ramón Rodríguez, prominent journalist from Jaguar

The arrival in 1918 of the poet Agustín Acosta y Bello to Jagüey Grande to establish the first notary public office constituted the first pillar of literary work. In 1926 he wrote the poetry book "La Zafra". He remained in Jagüey until 1933. Agustín Acosta y Bello (1886-1979), left his mark on legal life and literary of Jagüey Grande.

The entire republican period was characterized by workers' struggles in the sugar mills of the territory, strikes, rallies, demands, and the always positive work of its maximum leader Juan Ortega in favor of workers and peasants.

The confrontation with the government was manifested since 1929 with the constitution of the Communist Party of Cuba in the Mendía theater clandestinely when a film was shown. Jagüey Grande was the third territory in the province of Matanzas to have its party.

The activity of the communists began quickly, on March 4, 1930 the Workers' Union was formed, on June 14, 1931 the Union of Agricultural Workers was created in the Agramonte area. Opposition to Gerardo Machado's government was concentrated in the El Modelo farm where there was an attempted uprising.

In the same way, the fight between the Census and Chaplaincies began when a Pro-abolition Committee was created on September 20, 1939. This fight was successful and received the support of the entire country, eliminating a colonial obstacle to the operation of rural properties.

In June 1943, there were only 12 teachers in Jagüey Grande that did not meet the needs of the locality, there were only 34 classrooms between urban and rural. Most of the children did not have access to studies, many others had to work to help their families. Upon completion of their primary studies they could not promote to the secondary level.

On October 22, 1945, the "Félix Varela" Superior Elementary School was founded, teaching until the 8th grade. Those who could continue studying did so in Colón, Cárdenas and Matanzas.

The political situation of the territory of Jagüey Grande prior to 1952 was characterized by integration into traditional political parties, with the greatest activity being found among those affiliated with orthodoxy and authenticity.

The Orthodox became an ascending political force, gaining adherents through the campaigns of social commitment promoted by Eduardo Chibas, a partisan leader who visited the town for electoral purposes on September 20, 1949.

After the coup d'état of Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, those interested in taking over the local government with official support, Batista's supporters promoted the removal of the mayor by issuing a decree on July 1, 1953 to remove him from office. José Pérez Suárez, a member of the authentic party. A week later, Mrs. Alta Gracia Bóveda Santana, a fervent supporter of Batista and an active member of the PAU, was appointed mayor.

In October 1952, the Clandestine Peasant Association chaired by Emérito García, the local leader of the Orthodox, was established on the Amparito, Agramonte farm.

In Jagüey Grande, the orthodox force was conceived through the doctor Alberto Ibietatorremendía Vega, who had maintained friendly relations with Fidel Castro Ruz since his years as a university student.

As part of the contacts that the young Fidel Castro made with opponents of the dictatorship, comrades Pedro Miret, Antonio Ñico López, Boris Luis Santa Coloma and Mario Muñoz visited Jagüey Grande and met with a group of Orthodox youth in the house of the Dr. Alberto Ibietatorremendía Vega, a meeting that marked a starting point in the organization of the Jagüeyense Nucleus for the preparatory and selection actions of the future assailants of the Moncada Barracks.

After the meeting, the procession headed by Fidel Castro Ruz went to the Santa Rita de Baró plant in Agramonte, with the same purposes. The revolutionary leader spoke about the need to prepare to fight the dictatorship and guided the conduct of target practice. Although none of the participants in these initial encounters with Fidel participated in the uprising, three children from this town enrolled in the Moncada payroll: brothers Horacio and Wilfredo Matheu Orihuela and Julio Reyes Cairo who were killed in the Saturnino Lora hospital.

After the liberation of the moncadistas on May 15, 1955 and the July 26 Movement was created in Agramonte in December of that year, three groups were located, one in the urban area led by Mario Pérez, another in the field headed by Emérito García and a third in the central Santa Rita de Baró headed by José Antonio Varona.

In the territory of Jagüey Grande the movement was structured a few months after 1956 with the presence of Máximo Reyes, commissioned by the movement in Colón to create the first cell in the area that was led by Dr. Alberto Ibietatorremendía Vega.

n 1956, a cell of the M-26-7 was organized in Torriente, led by Faustino Salvador Suárez, which received guidance from the Pedro Betancourt nucleus through Raúl Trujillo.

With the departure of Universo Sánchez to Mexico, attention to the M-26-7 in Jagüey Grande stopped being done through Colón and the directions then came from Jovellanos through Ricardo González Tejo.

Due to surveillance and the possibility of being imprisoned, the main opposition figures left the territory and Dr. Alberto Ibietatorremendía Vega joined the three rebel columns in the Sierra Maestra and Emilio Hernández Troya, student leader, moved to Colón to make life clandestine.

Such changes made the role of the M-26-7 in Jagüey decrease its actions, bringing with it the need for a reorganization that fell to the figure of Caridad Díaz "Nenita", in mid-1957.

The new leadership fell to the lawyer Fidel González Ruiz, although in practice the leader of the movement was Rodolfo Carrasco Arévalo, head of Acción and Sabojate, as the coordinator moved away from the fight under the pretext of being "burned" and closely watched. After the triumph of the Revolution, he left the country.

At the end of 1957, a new revolutionary group led by Orlando Morán appeared in Agramonte, who maintained links with the March 13 Revolutionary Directory and the member of its national leadership, Enrique Rodríguez Loeches, a native of this town.

By orientation of the M-26-7, in Agramonte the Student Federation was established in the only higher school at that time, the López Academy.

In 1958 a new opposition group made up of young people led by Esteban Rodríguez Cepero appeared in Torriente, which evolved in parallel with the other existing group. Throughout this stage of clandestine struggle, multiple actions were carried out, such as sabotage, irrigation of alcayatas, propaganda against the dictatorship, sale of bonds, fundraising, workers' strikes, rallies and other combative actions.

Prior to the general strike on April 9, the M-26-7 in Agramonte received an orientation from Jovellanos to raise several fighters in the area known as Chiva Muerta in order to carry out actions to support the general strike, which it materialized on April 7, 1958. The April 9 strike paralyzed the harvest, the centrals, the shops, and several sabotages and irrigation of alcayatas were carried out.

On October 14, 1958, in Agramonte, the definitive uprising of the young members of the M-26-7 was carried out, creating the Luis Ávila Rosales Column that settled in the Chiva Muerta area.

In order to sabotage the elections, on December 2 the members of the Luis Avila Rosales Column, divided into two sections, entered the town of Agramonte, shooting at the army barracks. When they retired they placed a flag of the movement at the entrance to the cemetery causing a stir among the population.

Also as part of the clandestine actions, on December 24, 1958, an uprising of members of the M-26-7 from Torriente took place in the Crimea. The group identified itself as the Matheu Brothers Brigade, led by Estéban Rodríguez, leader of the M-26-7 in the town.

The nucleus that operated in the Agramonte area was identified as the Luis Ávila Column, it was strengthened with the incorporation of several Perico fighters, so its radius of action was increased to support the invasion in late 1958, but the triumph of the Revolution in January 1959 surprised them.

With the fall of the dictatorship, the members of the M-26-7 in the territory occupied the official dependencies, dismantling the government of the dictatorship. This stage constituted a glorious and decisive page starring the children of this town since the 19th century.

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