Photo internet.
The Spanish volunteers of Havana began the year 1869 with a series of acts that culminated with the expulsion of Captain General Domingo Dulce.
Among the events that shocked the capital were the attacks on the Villanueva Theater, the Cafe del Louvre and the Aldama Palace. Fanaticism came to such an extent that a burial of a sparrow was organized. Justo Zaragoza, a writer from the colonial period, called the fervent funeral as an "extravagant and intentional farce," which began with a frivolity and then became a political event.
On March 25, 1869 a volunteer found under the laurels of the Plaza de Armas a dead sparrow. He picked up the little bird and took it to the guard corps of the Royal Force Castle. As the battalion was in that place, they decided to entertain themselves by making a garment and an altar to place the sparrow. From that moment the joke had a patriotic character.
The event was published in the newspapers and invitations were given to visit the volunteer sparrow. All the people who were among the good Spaniards and those who wanted to prove that they were sympathizers of the Crown, went to the place. Attending the wake were the wife of the Marquis de Castell Florit, that of the political governor of Cuba and other ladies of the high society.
To the Castle of the Royal Force came wreaths for the sparrow and donations to erect a monument. Humorous obituary articles and several compositions about the deceased sparrow appeared in the newspapers of the time. The tickets to visit the place where the bird's body was lying, produced, in a single day, more than three hundred Spanish coins. For this reason cities like Matanzas and Cárdenas claimed the sparrow to celebrate public holidays in favor of Spain. Curious, but true story.