2014-10-10 · by Jerry A. Sierra. When Gerardo Machado y Morales was born on September 28 1871, the Ten Year War was in its third year, and the 30-year period of armed struggle and insurrection that finally separated Cuba from Spain had begun.. Machado was the youngest Cuban General in the war of independence that ended with U.S. occupation (in 1898) when he was 27.