---
title: 'El soldado de Cuba: —¡Ven tú, cobarde! (The Soldier of Cuba: ''Come here, you coward!'')'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/el-soldado-de-cuba-blanco-y-negro-1898/
description: A Spanish soldier on a Cuban shore shouts 'Come here, you coward!' across the water at Uncle Sam, who stands before the Capitol holding out a long pole…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Caricature of Cuban insurgents as tiny, dark-faced figures carried on a pole and in a basket by Uncle Sam. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![El soldado de Cuba: —¡Ven tú, cobarde! (The Soldier of Cuba: 'Come here, you coward!')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/el-soldado-de-cuba-blanco-y-negro-1898.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/el-soldado-de-cuba-blanco-y-negro-1898.jpg)

# El soldado de Cuba: —¡Ven tú, cobarde! (The Soldier of Cuba: 'Come here, you coward!')

A Spanish soldier on a Cuban shore shouts 'Come here, you coward!' across the water at Uncle Sam, who stands before the Capitol holding out a long pole bearing a platter of tiny armed insurgents while a basket beside him is labelled 'Insurrectos vivitos'. The tells are the loaded label 'cobarde' and the diminutive 'vivitos', which cast the United States as craven and the Cuban insurgents as small creatures in its keeping.

- **Date:** May 7, 1898
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Blanco y Negro (Madrid illustrated weekly); cartoonist Ramón Cilla
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Spain](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=spain)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Sagasta Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=sagasta-government)
- **Leader:** [Praxedes Mateo Sagasta](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=praxedes-mateo-sagasta)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [Spanish American War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=spanish-american-war)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1898-05-07,_Blanco_y_Negro,_El_soldado_de_Cuba,_Ven_t%C3%BA,_cobarde,_Cilla.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1898, before 1931; PD-Art / PD-scan per Wikimedia Commons) Ramón Cilla, Blanco y Negro (Madrid) no. 366, 7 May 1898, via Wikimedia Commons

## Text on the object

Original (Spanish) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
LA NUESTRA

El soldado de Cuba:—¡Ven tú, cobarde!

[label on basket:] INSURRECTOS
VIVITOS

[signature:] Cilla
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
OURS

The soldier of Cuba: 'Come here, you coward!'

[label on basket:] INSURGENTS
LITTLE LIVE ONES

[signature:] Cilla
```

[← Homenagem da Revista Illustrada aos gloriosos vencedores de Canudos (Tribute of the Revista Illustrada to the Glorious Victors of Canudos)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/homenagem-vencedores-de-canudos-revista-illustrada-1897/) [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)