Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-06-15
THE NANIGOS OF CUBA.
True Story of the Infamous Secret Criminal Society That
Has Terrorized the Island.


people OF doubtful character live
those who in Spain are called the
chusma-the residents generally know
who are and who are not nanigos, and
the police know also, although they
have frequently made persons appear
as such who were innocent of the
charge. According to the police, the
nanigos are known by an indelible
blue mark which they tattoo on the
back of the hand between the thumb
and index-fnger, and there have been
periods during which the police have
arrested hundreds of persons in the
streets to examine their hands. If
these had blue mark they were put
IN prison. Sailors with tattooed marks
have sometimes been victims of this
method of pursuing nanigos, although
they did not belong to any secret So
ciety whatever. The real nanigos
have declared that the blue marks
proved nothing; that they were not q
necessary requisite for membership IN
societies; and that it would be a mis-
take for the nanigos to mark them
selves in way that would serve to
betray them. The police, however,
have continued to regard with great
suspicion the blue marks, and the
plucked hens also. When one of
these is seen in the yard of house it
is concluded that mango lodge is
celebrating its rites within.
Some years ago, a Governor of
Havana, General Rodriguez Batista,
boasted of having put an end by
peaceable means to these secret So
cieties. The heads of the. lodges de-
livered up to him the idols, drums
and other paraphernalia of their
worship; the press eulogized Senior
Rodriguez Batista highly, without
taking the trouble to find out what
arguments he might have used to
produce such speedy results. But
within short time after the Cover
nor's departure for Madrid the
nanigos were again in the field. Under
General Weyler's rule, aided by the
circumstance that the existing state of
war permitted the condemnation of
accused persons without trial, that is,
the employment of the authority OF
the police instead of the action of the
courts, measures were taken to clear
Havana OF nanigos. About q thousand
persons were deported to Spain; and,
according to the declarations of the
police, there remained IN the city some
1000 more
OF the thousand persons sent to
Spain, it is not certain that all, or even
the greater part belonged to the
association, and there arc strone
reasons for believing that many mis-
takes We're made. Any one who had
talked with the nanigos in the prisons
of Havana, in the vessels in which
they We're transported to Spain, or il
the Peninsula, afterwards, will have
heard many cf them say: 81 was 6
member; but there are many here who
were not members" They also gave
the names, the occupation and the age
of the victims.
: The method employed to determine
who should be transported could not
be more defective than it was. There
was no trial, nor anything resembling
one. No proofs, no defence, no wit
nesses, no publicity. Every Saturday
the Chiefs of Police of all the districts
met together. Each one presented
the list of persons arrested by him as
supposed nanigos. If magistrate
was interested in any one arrested by
order OF another magistrate, he spoke
in favor of his protege, who was set al
liberty. In Havana it was regarded
as certain that the police accepted
money from those arrested. 1t is be-
yond doubt that the manner of liv.
ing of all the police officials-in.
spectors, wGrdens, ETC., was not in
accordance with the modest salaries
which they received
The government OF Madrid has been
blamed without reason for having sent
back to Cuba the men thus deported
as nanigos. Having renounced hel
authority over the island, Spain could
no5 retain IN her prisons persons ovel
whom she no longer exercised any
species OF jurisdiction, and who, be
sides, had not been condemned by any
regular court.
The fault was not in sending then
back TO C1ba, but in having taker
them thence solely on the warrant ol
a police that had by no means therepu
ton of being oyer-scrupulous.
1t is probable that under the new
rule naniguria will disappear, for it is
plain that its environment, both politi
cal and social, has contributed to the
preservation of the association. The
population of Cuba is com posed OF
three elements-the European, the
American, and the African. In the
contact OF races it is not one race only
that is influenced and that undergoeS
modification. The European, and still
more the American, Of the poor and
ignorant classes in Cuba, has become
AfrarcaniZed. He has taken from the
African words for his vocabulary anc
music for his songs. The rites of the
nanigos show that he has also accepted
something of his idolatry, symptom
which tells what would have been the
conditioned the island if there had not
been constant and abundant infusion
into ifs nonul ation of other blood