Calixto García Íñiguez, born on this day in 1836, was a general in three separate Cuban uprisings for independence - the Ten Years' War, the Little War, and the War of 1895, which bled into the Spanish-American War.

García joined the Ten Years' War at the age of 18. Five years later, when surrounded by Spanish troops, he shot himself under the chin with a .45 caliber pistol to not give them the satisfaction of capturing him. Although the bullet went out of his forehead and knocked him unconscious, he survived. The wound left a great scar and gave him headaches for the rest of his life.

García played a key role in the ultimately successful War of 1895 and protested the subsequent lack of Cuban autonomy in the conclusion of the war (no Cuban was allowed to sign the terms of surrender and the Spanish leaders in Cuba were allowed to keep their posts in Santiago).

After American military commander William Shafter excluded Cubans from negotiations for the surrender of Santiago, declined to invite García to the surrender ceremonies, and let Spanish authorities remain in control of Santiago until the U.S. could establish a military government, García resigned from the rebel army in protest on July 17th, 1898.

García died of pneumonia on December 11th, 1898 while on a diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C. Today, his portrait is on the 50 Cuban peso banknote.

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  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
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    5 months ago

    I am becoming old man yells at clouds for haircuts

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    DUDES, I have seen you around. This is NOT a universally good looking haircut. Example via Google but holy hell if I was a weirdo who took pictures of strangers I'd have local examples of worse

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    I've most seen it as dudes just clean shaving a full inch around their ears and doing nothing else with the rest of their hair.

    And also, as a long time mullet haver, you guys are doing country musician mullets and not cool mullets.

    Bad mullets

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    Good mullet

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    A good mullet isn't strictly business in the front, a little bang shag is good and the rest should be long enough to pull back a bit, and the upper sides should be long enough to hang near the ear while the lower parts of the side are short.

    Also stop having bad mustaches.

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    I'm anti mustaches in general, but why are you shaving it to look like a teenager?