He is considered a hero in Cuba, and the Parque Vidal in Santa Clara was named in his honor.
Born in Cuba to a Cuban mother, Marina del Rosario Caro Reyes, and a Spanish father, Leoncio Vidal Tapia, Vidal and his family lived through the calamities of the Ten Years' War in the town of Corralillo.
The young and idealist Vidal brothers embraced the Carlist ideology, fled the school, and joined guerrillas around Manresa.
There, the Vidal brothers grew very close, and became integrated in the social and cultural life of the Cuban town.
They also the modernization of the island, including the introduction of electricity, the creation of a firefighting corps, the construction of an aqueduct, and efforts to increase literacy.
Vidal urged poor farmers to work with him to protest the unjust prices charged by middlemen.
Vidal's wife Rosa Caro and a group of other women played an important role in smuggling medicine, ammunition, clothes, food, and information.
Vidal's sister married a Spanish Guardia Civil officer, who fought the Cuban rebels in Placetas, Cuba.