Thursday, 22 September 2011 14:38
Diego Grillo, a Havanian pirate
Theater and literature have recently revived a pirate theme; for example, the Pirates of the Caribbean series with all of its stories and legends. This brings to mind a little known affair in Cuba´s history: Captain Diego Grillo.
Born in 1556 in Havana´s San Cristóbal, he was a pirate who axed ports, the Caribbean waters and even his own land. He was known as Dieguillo, Diego Martín and even the infamous pirate, Lucifer.
Diego was the fruit of a Spanish colonizer and a beautiful black slave-woman, and came to Earth in the heyday of piracy. Such examples during that time are Frenchman Jacques de Sores, Englishmen Sir Frances Drake and Henry Morgan, as well as Dutchmen Vaude Van Enrico, Perin Petre and Cornelius Jol, famously known as Peg Leg.
Rebellious in spirit, at only 13, Grillo enlisted with a small Spanish frigate, in which he was captured and later recruited by Francis Drake. And this is how his career as a filibuster began, raiding ports all over the Americas from 1577 to 1580. His wanderings from then are not exactly clear, unknown, until he reappeared in 1603 as Captain Diego Grillo and he established operative alliances with Dutch pirate Cornelius Jols in order to work in the area.
Grillo was appreciated for his great personal courage, and despite his vandal occupation, he was paradoxically a gentleman to his female prisoners; the beautiful Lady Isabel of Caraveo, widow of governor Campeche, said that he was courteous and protective.
The final circumstances of his life are not historically clear either. There are many versions, but the most accepted says that he died in England in 1640, enjoying the wealth that he had usurped throughout his career. Although there is also another that says the only pirate recognized in Havana´s history, spent his last days in Villa Clara´s northern Keys in the middle of the country.
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