Esteban Montejo In Biography Of A Runaway Slave By Miguel Barnet

In the book Biography of a Runaway Slave, the author Miguel Barnet meets with a 105 year old Esteban Montejo because he knew he had such a rich life and it needed to be turned into a story for others to hear. Esteban grew up a slave, and eventually escaped slavery to live on his own in the forest and eventually became a soldier in the Cuban war of independence.
Esteban Montejo became a Cimarron when he escaped slavery because he always lived in fear of slavery due to the way his life was from living in slavery and the way the slaves were treated by their masters. Esteban said “If you didn’t escape early on into the forest to be a Cimarron, you had to be a slave. It was better to be alone, on the loose, than in that slime and rot.”(p.40) the idea of escaping from slavery overwhelmed Estebans thought every day until he escaped one day. And after escaping, Esteban lived in the woods and hill all alone while being very fearful of capture. He lived alone because he had the idea that if he had any one with him that other runaway would or could sell him for his own freedom. He lived in caves and the up-top of trees hunting pigs and grinding leaves for coffee.
Esteban
sometimes said that life in the jungle was better than living in the city because he was on his own and he was his own master. He was able to go from town to town minding his own business. He always had food, either from hunting or telling someone he ran across that he had no work and they would always throw him a little something. He knew though, that he could not live his life like this, so he came down the hills and out of the jungle to search for work. When he came into the cities he realized that some, not all, of slavery has been abolished. He then came to a sugar mill called Purio. This mill was the first mill after coming out of solitary that Esteban worked at. While working at this mill under a Spanish overseer named PePe he knew that slavery had went away because he and the other worker were not beaten like they used to be. Inside these mills, he and the other workers lived in barracoons much better than those during his slave days. These barracoons were not locked and they looked like they were just built and the other workers put holes in the walls for ventilation.
Esteban recalls stories of priests who were like the devil.
He knew that the church was founded and created by the same people who were all for the inquisition of Cuba. Because the priests were influential in everything, this is specifically why he did not like this religion. Esteban Sais “With women they were devils. They converted the sacristy into a whorehouse.”(p.80) He was also told stories of how the priests threw the women down caves where the priests acted as executioners and killed them. Some of these caves were full of water and drowned these poor women. (p.80) Esteban like the African religion because the priests there did their due diligence, including collecting money for clothes and food. These priests did not leave the church; instead they passed all of their free time
there.
Esteban Montejo believed the war was needed because he did not like being under Spanish rule and wanted Cuba to be independent. He said the war was necessary because mostly all of the jobs around fell into the hands of the Spaniards. Also, he thought it was not fair that in order for women to work they had to be a daughter of a Spaniard. Also, they said that blacks were not good for jobs because they belonged in the forest. (p.155) Esteban said “There was no freedom. That’s why the war was necessary. I realized it when the leaders explained the situation, the reason why you had to fight.”(p.156)
The Americans Esteban encounters during the later part of the war were the most rotten people. They came in and wanted everything for themselves. The Americans said that the blacks did not completely fight in the war and thus caused the blacks being thrown out into the streets after the war. (p.194) “Not even one percent of the police force were blacks because the Americans claimed that when a black gets power, when he’s educated, it hurts the white race”(p.195) The Americans were just as much to blame as the white Cubans because they allowed themselves to be pushed around by the foreigners. “The Americans took Cuba by trickery. It’s true that we can’t blame them for everything. The really guilty ones were the Cubans who obeyed their orders” (p.198) The American soldiers caused problems in the towns near the docks by forcing themselves upon their women while being drunk. Esteban and company would run them away with their machetes one day and the Americans never bothered the women again.
During the revolution when they were at war against the Spaniards for independence a lot of them were confused on what they were fighting for. This caused a lot of men at the front lines to turn and run when the battles started. He states that once they figured out Spain’s tactic that they would then be finished. During the revolution, he and his group were named the Mambises by their enemy, which means the child of a monkey and a buzzard. “They started to think we were animals, not men. That’s how they came to call us Mambises. It was a taunting phrase, but we used it in order to cut off their heads.” (p.163) this term was given as an insult but was then taken in by honor and came to be a term that was widely used during the revolution. In this war, the only weapons Esteban had ware machetes while the enemy had more severe weapons. They were then taking a knife to a gun fight. But, in turn, these machetes did so much close combat damage that fear was the mambises biggest weapon against the Spaniards.
During their free time as slaves the often had a few different activities they would do to occupy themselves to clear the air of all the rough times they were going through. A lot of the fun they had took place inside the barracoons while some inside the taverns. One game played often was called tejo. During this game you had a corn cob split in two on the ground. You then placed a coin on top of it and drew a line on the ground a short distance away. They then threw a stone from your line to the corn cob and if the coin fell down off the corn onto the stone that man took the coin home with him. They also used bowl like we do nowadays except the bowling ball was made of wood and the pins were sticks in the shape of bottles. Anyone would be able to join in on these games. While these games were going on there were others making bets on them that often caused many great disputes which in turn, prohibited some games. (p.26-27) They also entertained themselves by playing cards and many were dancing to music. Esteban said “Sundays were the noisiest days on the plantation. I don’t know where the slaves found their energy. The biggest fiestas during slavery took place on this day of the week.”(p.30)
It is good that Miguel Barnet saw the potential in the 105 year old Esteban Montejo’s story and took the time to put his story into literature. It shows a lost time that many would have never known how bad it was in the Caribbean during these tough times. From being raised as a slave by slaves, to hiding from slave hunters, to fighting in the Cuban war of independence as a mambises, Esteban Montejo’s life story is a good story to be heard.