May 20th is Cuban Independence Day. During the war for independence soldiers cultivated subsistence gardens when circumstances permitted. Esteban Montejo was born into slavery in Cuba in 1860. He estimate that 95 percent of Afro-Cubans fought in the ranks of the revolutionary forces, and many of them had been enslaved. Speaking of gardens in Camagüey, Montejo explains that a lack of military conflict there allowed soldiers to sow subsistence crops such as mangos, “sweet potato, squash, okra, corn, peas,, [lima] beans. . limes, yucca, and peanuts.”
