Máximo Gómez Máximo Gómez y Báez ( November 18 , 1836 in Baní , Dominican Republic - June 17 , 1905 in Havana , Cuba ) was a Dominican Major General in the Ten Years ' War ( 1868 – 1878 ) . He was also Cuba ' s military commander in that country ' s War of Independence ( 1895 – 1898 ) . Early life and changes in allegiance . Máximo Gómez was born in the town of Baní , in the province of Peravia , in the Dominican Republic . During his teenage years , he joined in the battles against the frequent Haitian incursions of Faustin Soulouque in the 1850s . He was trained as an officer of the Spanish Army at the Zaragoza Military Academy . He had arrived originally in Cuba as a cavalry officer - a Captain - in the Spanish Army and fought alongside the Spanish forces in the Dominican Annexation War ( 1861 – 1865 ) . After the Spanish forces were defeated and fled the Dominican Republic in 1865 by order of Queen Isabel II , many supporters of the Annexionist cause left with them , and Maximo Gomez moved his family to Cuba . Cuban War of Independence . Gomez retired from the Spanish Army and soon took up the rebel cause in 1868 , helping transform the Cuban Army ' s military tactics and strategy from the conventional approach favored by Thomas Jordan and others . He gave the Cuban " Mambises " their most feared tactic : The " Machete Charge " . On October 26 , 1868 at Pinos de Baire , Gomez led a Machete Charge on foot , ambushing a Spanish column and obliterating it . The Spanish Army was terrified of these charges because the majority ( there were at least 200 Spanish casualties in the attack ) were infantry troops , mainly conscripts , who were fearful of being cut down by the machetes . Because the Cuban Army always lacked sufficient munitions , the usual combat technique was to shoot once and then charge the Spanish . In 1871 Gómez led a campaign to clear Guantánamo from forces loyal to Spain , in particular the rich coffee growers - mostly of French descent whose their ancestors had fled from Haiti after the Haitians slaughtered the French . Gómez carried out a bloody but successful campaign , and most of his officers went on to become high - ranking officers , including Antonio and José Maceo , Adolfo Flor Crombet , Policarpo Pineda " Rustán " , and many others . Following the death in combat of Major General Ignacio Agramonte y Loynáz in May 1873 , Gómez assumed the command of the military district of the province of Camaguey and its famed Cavalry Corps . Upon first inspecting the corps he concluded they were the best trained and disciplined in the nascent indigenous Cuban Army and would significantly contribute to the war for independence . Puerto Rican conflict . In the interlude between the two Cuban independence wars , Gómez held odd jobs in Jamaica and Panama ( among them , he supervised a laborers ' brigade during the construction of the Panama Canal ) , but remained as an active player for the cause of Cuban independence , as well as that for the rest of the Antilles ) . For example , when Puerto Rico experienced a period of severe political repression in 1887 by the Spanish governor of the time , Romualdo Palacio ( which led to the arrest of many local political leaders , including Román Baldorioty de Castro ) , Gómez offered his services to Ramón Emeterio Betances , the previous instigator of the island ' s first pro - independence revolution , the Grito de Lares , and who was exiled in Paris at the time . Gómez sold most of his personal belongings to finance a revolt in Puerto Rico , and volunteered to lead any Puerto Rican troops had such revolt occur . The revolt was deemed unnecessary later in the year , when the Spanish government recalled Palacio from office to investigate charges of abuse of power from his part , but Gómez and Betances established a friendship and logistical relationship that lasted until Betances ' death in 1898 . Promotion to General . Gómez rose to the rank of Generalísimo of the Cuban Army - a rank akin to that of Captain General or in modern terms that of General of the Army - due to his superior military leadership . He adapted and formalized the improvised military tactics that had first been used by Spanish guerrillas against Napoleon Bonaparte ' s Armies into a cohesive and comprehensive system at both the tactical and strategic level . The concept of insurrection and insurgency , and the asymmetric nature thereof can be traced intellectually to him . He was shot in the neck in 1875 , while crossing the fortified line or " Trocha " from Júcaro in the south to Morón in the North ; while leading the failed attempt to invade Western Cuba . After that he always wore a kerchief around his neck to cover the bullet hole , which remained open after healing ( he usually plugged it with a wad of cotton ) . His second and last wound came in 1896 while fighting in the rural areas outside Havana while completing a successful invasion of Western Cuba . Fabian strategy . He was wounded only twice during 15 years of guerrilla warfare against an enemy far superior in manpower and logistics . In contrast , his most trusted officer and second - in - command , Lt . Gen . Antonio Maceo y Grajales , was shot 27 times in the same span of time , with number 26 being the mortal wound . Gómez ' s son and Maceo ' s aide - de - camp , Francisco Gómez y Toro - nicknamed " Panchito " - was killed trying to recover Maceo ' s dead body in combat , December 7 , 1896 . Soon after , Gómez implemented another warfare technique that proved to be very successful for crippling Spanish economic interests in Cuba at the time : torching sugar cane " haciendas " and other strategic agricultural assets . He personally abhorred the idea of " setting to fire the product of our laborers ' work over more than 200 years in a few hours " , but countered that , given the state of misery most of these laborers still experienced , if that was the price to pay to redeem them from the economic system that enslaved them , then " " ¡ Bendita sea la tea ! " " ( " Blessed be the torch ! " ) Proposal to join the Spanish - American War . On March 5 , 1898 , the Captain - General of Cuba , Ramón Blanco y Erenas , proposed that Gómez and his Cuban troops join him and the Spanish army in repelling the United States in the face of the Spanish - American War . Blanco appealed to the shared heritage of the Cubans and Spanish , and promised the island autonomy if the Cubans would help fight the Americans . Blanco had declared : " As Spaniards and Cubans we find ourselves opposed to foreigners of a different race , who are of a grasping nature . . . The supreme moment has come in which we should forget past differences and , with Spaniards and Cubans united for the sake of their own defense , repel the invader . Spain will not forget the noble help of its Cuban sons , and once the foreign enemy is expelled from the island , she will , like an affectionate mother , embrace in her arms a new daughter amongst the nations of the New World , who speaks the same language , practices the same faith , and feels the same noble Spanish blood run through her veins . " Gómez refused to adhere to Blanco ' s plan . Retirement . At the end of the Cuban Independence War in 1898 he retired to a villa outside of Havana . He refused the presidential nomination that was offered to him in 1901 , and which he was expected to win unopposed , mainly because he always disliked politics and after 40 years of living in Cuba he still felt that being Dominican - born he should not be the civil leader of Cuba . He died in his villa in 1905 and was interred in the Colon Cemetery , Havana . Máximo Gómez Park , a park in Miami , Florida , United States , – better known as Domino Park – was named in his honour . Gómez ' s portrait graces Cuban currency on the 10 peso bill . The British alternative rock band Maxïmo Park , named themselves after a park in Florida which was named in his honour . The main avenue in the city of Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic is named after him . A secondary education school is named after him in his home town of Baní , Dominican Republic . A provincial university was named in his honour : Universidad Máximo Gómez Báez de Ciego de Ávila ( Cuba ) . ( www . unica . cu ) The current Dominican Republic Senator for the Peravia Province , Sen . Wilton Guerrero , has proposed changing the name of the province to " Máximo Gómez Province . " There is a statue in the front of the Instituto Preuniversitario in Camaguey , Cuba , where he is seen on a horse with his scarf galloping while armed as if leading a " machete charge " .