President of Cuba, 1909-1913. Born in Sancti Spiritus, he was barely out of school when he joined the rebels in the Ten Years’ War and subsequent Guerra Chiquita. During the Independence War, 1895-1898 he fought in numerous engagements without ever being defeated and ended a major general. Afterwards he became governor of his native Las …
The first president of an independent Cuba, 1902-1906. Born near Bayamo, July 9, he attended schools in Havana and the University of Seville, from where family matters forced his return before graduation. As soon as the Ten Years’ War broke out, he joined the rebels. In 1876 he was elected president of the provisional government, but in 1877 …
Santiago-born entrepreneur, writer, and journalist. At only 24 he was honored by the Liceo of Puerto Principe for his Conveniencia de reservar a la mujer ciertos trabajos. He was imprisoned in1876 for revolutionary activities and deported in 1879. At Ceuta in 1895 during the Independence War, 1895-1898, he was jailed for sending arms to the insurgents. His political …
Revolutionary general, second in command to Máximo Gómez Báez in both the Ten Years’ War and the Independence War of 1895-1898. Born in Holguín, the second of eight children, he was apprenticed to his uncle in Havana and then had to return to the family business, frustrating his ambition to study law. After his marriage to Isabel …
Poet, born in Camagüey, she achieved recognition as one of the greatest poets of the Spanish language. She used the pseudonym “La Peregrina” in most of her writings. She excelled in lyric poetry, but also authored plays (Leoncia, Alfonso Munio, etc), and novels (Sab, Espatolino, etc.). She lived in Spain 1836-1859 and from 1864. Her main poetic compositions were Llanto de la cruz, Soledad del …
A much-quoted neoclassical poet, best known for his ode Al Niágara, written in 1824 after a visit to the waterfall. Other well-known poems include En el Teocalli de Cholula (1820), El Himno del desterrado, and A Emilia. His dramatic works include Eduardo IV, o el usurpador clemente (1819), Moctezuma, o los mexicanos, and El campesino espantado. He is alo known for his works in French. …
Former soldier in the Independence War, 1895-1898, who became the leader of the Agrupación Independiente de Color, and who, on May 20, 1912, led several bands of blacks in an uprising against the white-dominated government. Afro-Cuban apologists have claimed the revolt was provoked either by the annexationist Frank Steinhart (hoping for another intervention by the …
A Creole cattle farmer and lawyer, and leader in the Ten Years’ War. For the first five years after 1868 he led the revolt in his native Camagüey, participated in drafting the Guáimaro Constitution, and carried out many brave military feats against the government forces. The best known of these was the daring rescue of …
Cuban mulatto patriot and hero of the Independence War of 1895-1898. Born near Santiago de Cuba, June 14, son of Marcos Maceo, a Venezuelan mulatto émigré, and a free Cuban Black, Mariana Grajales. His childhood was passed on the small family farm, where he was privately educated, and in making occasional trips to sell its …
Physician and epidemiologist, discoverer of the mosquito vector of yellow fever. Born in Camagüey on December 3rd, of a Scots father and a French Creole mother from Trinidad, he grew up on his father’s coffee plantation, but was sent to school in France and England. He then went to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating …
