Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros grew up amidst the rebellion against the Spaniards. Her father Augustin Cosio was a rebel leader attempting to gain Cuban Independence from Spain, a revolution that had started under Jose Marti. In the Summer of 1896 Augustin Cosio was a captured and sent to a penal colony on the Cuban Isle of Pine (Isle of Youth), Evangelina accompanied him. Evangelina plead for her father’s release and in doing so drew the attention of Colonel Berriz. In her autobiography The Story of Evangelina Cisneros, as told by herself she spoke of an aggressive attack in which she cried for help and three men came to her aid, where they took the Colonel hostage and bound him with rope to be taken to the civil judge. The Colonel called out