Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo

Carlos Manuel Perfecto del Carmen de Céspedes y López del Castillo (Bayamo, April 18, 1818 - Sierra Maestra, February 27, 1874) was a Cuban independence leader who started the War of the Ten Years when they rose up in arms against the Spanish government on October 10, 1868. He made known his plan of struggle with the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Junta of the Island of Cuba, granting their slaves their freedom and inviting them to join the the anti-colonial struggle. He was Major General of the Cuban Liberation Army and the first President of the Republic of Cuba in Arms. Dismissed as president in 1873, he settled in San Lorenzo, in the Sierra Maestra where, in 1874, he fell in unequal combat against the Spanish troops.

Biography

Early Years

Born on April 18, 1819 in Bayamo, former province of Oriente —now Granma—. He is the son of Jesús María Céspedes y Luque, also born in Oriente, and Francisca de Borja López del Castillo and Ramírez de Aguilar, born in Puerto Príncipe, the current city of Camagüey. He had as brothers Pedro, Francisco, Javier and Francisca de Borja " Borjita " and Ladislao or Manuel Hilario is mentioned as the possible brother lost in time.

He grew up in the countryside and during his childhood he received Grammar and Latin classes with the friars of the Nuestro Seráfico Padre Convent, in Bayamo, who welcomed him as a disciple. Later, at the Santo Domingo Convent, he took courses on Logic and Ethics. He went from there to Havana, where he was accepted as a student of the Real y Conciliar Colegio Seminario de San Carlos y San Ambrosio. Later, at the Royal and Pontifical University of Havana, he obtained a bachelor's degree in Civil Law, on March 22, 1838.

Ruins of La Demajagua.

First marriage

Carlos Manuel married his double cousin, María del Carmen Céspedes y del Castillo, in 1839. He has three children with her named María del Carmen, Carlos Manuel and Oscar. All of them with surnames Céspedes and Céspedes. Once he was widowed in 1868 by María del Carmen, he established a loving relationship with the young Candelaria Acosta Fontaigne.

Doctor of Laws

On January 3, 1840, their first son was born. In that same year, he left for Europe and obtained his law degree at the University of Barcelona and later his doctorate.

Exile in Europe

In 1843 he participated in the insurrection of General Juan Prim, for which he left there as a political exile heading to France. He later toured England, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Germany, and Italy before returning to Cuba in 1844, for which he was fluent and fluent in several languages, such as English, French, and Italian. He knew and handled Latin and Greek from a young age.

In 1844 he opened a law firm in Bayamo and wrote poems and a pamphlet defending Cuba. He secretly initiates his independence plans. He did the translation into Spanish of some songs from the Aeneid that he never published and he also writes the comedy Las dos Dianas .

In 1845 Francisco Vicente Aguilera was a prominent owner of three mechanized sugar mills in the Manzanillo area. The mill of Pedro Figueredo and "La Demajagua", mill of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, were also in Manzanillo.

The problem of black slaves was much greater in the West, in the vicinity of Havana, where they were excessively abused, while in the East they began to replace, in part, the human force they provided slaves, by force obtained through steam and mechanical transmissions.

In 1847 his second son was born, to whom he gave the name Oscar. His daughter María del Carmen died very young.

"La Bayamesa" —the first Cuban love song recorded in history— was performed for the first time —it is said— on March 27, 1848. The lyrics were composed by José Fornaris, the music is by Carlos Manuel de Cespedes and Francisco Castillo Moreno. "La Bayamesa" was taken by the Cuban patriots, who changed the lyrics and made it a combative hymn against the nation that oppressed them.

In 1852 he participated in the Las Pozas rebellion and was sent to prison after being arrested for his political attitude against Spain. His cellmates were his uncle Lucas del Castillo and the poet José Fornaris y Céspedes. On two other occasions he returns to prison, where he continues to compose poems and make translations. This happens during the first and second terms of the Captain General of Cuba, General Gutiérrez de la Concha.

This Bayamés lawyer and landowner loved music, poetry; he practiced fencing, horse riding, chess, and as he conspired in the recreation society and in the masonic lodge of his hometown he is banished twice.

Since 1856, he stands out as a lawyer and businessman in the city of Manzanillo, the place where he moved his residence.

Céspedes' literary production was abundant and varied. On December 7, 1866, in Guáimaro, he wrote the poem entitled La Conchita , of which a manuscript copy is owned.

In 1867, for the sum of &&&&&&&&&&081000.&&&& &081,000 dollars buys the La Demajagua Sugar Mill in Manzanillo. In August, Francisco Vicente Aguilera and Francisco Maceo Osorio meet in the newly founded Bayamo Masonic lodge, called Estrella Tropical No. 19. Aguilera is named a venerable teacher, but in reality he chairs an insurrectionary committee. The next meeting was in the House of Pedro Perucho Figueredo. Right there, Figueredo sat down at the piano and composed the music for the Cuban National Anthem. He is a member of the Bayamo Committee and listens to Holguín, Santiago, Camagüey and Las Villas. Céspedes heads the conspiracy in Manzanillo.

1868

In January 1868, Céspedes' first wife, María del Carmen, died of consumption.

Céspedes founded in April the Lodge of 'Good Faith' in Manzanillo and became a great teacher. On August 3, the first inter-municipal meeting was agreed, by the committees of Camagüey, Holguín, Tunas, Jiguaní, Manzanillo and Bayamo, represented by Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, Belisario Álvarez, Vicente García González, Francisco María Rubalcava, Félix Figueredo, Donato Mármol, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Jaime Santiesteban, Isaías Masó, Vicente Aguilera and Maceo Osorio. Céspedes and Isaías Masó represented Manzanillo and Vicente Aguilera represented Bayamo.

At this time, the beginning of a love affair between Carlos Manuel and Candelaria Acosta Fontaigne, a young mestizo woman who was the daughter of her mayoral in La Demajagua, Juan Acosta, is suspected. Candelaria, whom Carlos Manuel called Cambula, became famous for having made the flag raised on the same day of the insurrection. From this union two children recognized by Carlos Manuel were born, Carmita and later Carlos Manuel.

The Bayamo Committee sets December 24 as the start date of the rebellion. Céspedes, impatient, advances the date to October 14, but the conspiracy is discovered by Captain General Valmaseda. On October 7, an encrypted telegram was received in Bayamo, ordering the arrest of Céspedes. The telegraph operator Nicolás de la Rosa warned Céspedes through a nephew of his called Ismael Céspedes, son of his brother Francisco Javier.

On October 8, Céspedes summons the patriots to action against Spanish domination. They begin to meet at the La Demajagua sugar mill that they own. La Demajagua was to the east of Manzanillo. At the sugar mill he drafted and discussed the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Junta of the Island of Cuba that he was to make known the next day. It is known for being the Fight Plan of the Ten Years' War and for containing its objectives.

On October 10, at his La Demajagua sugar mill, he rose up in arms, and shouting "Long live Cuba Libre!", called Grito de Yara, proclaimed the independence of Cuba and freed his slaves. He leads the Insurrection, starting the Ten Years' War, commanding 147 men and little by little the number of supporters who follow him grows, reaching around & &&&&&&&&&017000.&&&&&017,000 men.

On October 18, together with Aguilera and Marcano, they take the City of Bayamo. Perucho Figueredo distributes flyers with the lyrics of the Cuban National Anthem and on October 20 it will be performed in Bayamo, for the first time in history.

On October 20, he takes Bayamo and creates a government that helps the poor.

Carlos Manuel Céspedes is taken on that day and under a canopy to the parish church, where he is assigned the title of captain general of Cuba Libre and leads an emotional speech, declaring the freedom of all insurgent slaves.

Soon he faced opposition from Camagüey, which did not forgive him for bringing forward the uprising and for having been awarded the position of Captain General. This group, headed by Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, decided in the meantime to delay its support for the insurrection, which allowed the Spanish to more comfortably prepare for the recovery of Bayamo.

Céspedes and his generals Donato Mármol and Modesto Díaz, planned the defense of Bayamo with the aim of preventing the Spanish from crossing the Cauto River, but Mármol, impetuous, gives the order to his troops to cross the river and surprise Valmaseda, the enemy tries to recover the town but fails, the Bayamese burn it rather than hand it over, and, taking a detour, the Spanish recover Bayamo.

1869

Bayamo is the symbol of Cuban rebellion and its inhabitants, before allowing their surrender to Valmaseda's troops, set fire to all their houses and turned the city into a gigantic torch on January 12, 1869. By chance, the House that belonged to the Céspedes family and in which the Liberator was born, remained standing and is currently a museum.

Dulce, the new Spanish captain general, creates the Administrative Council for Seized Assets and confiscates all the properties of the insurgents. Faced with the differences of the rebel chiefs, mainly those of Camagüey, on April 10, 1869, in the town of Guáimaro, the Constitution of the same name was proclaimed, which was drafted by Ignacio Agramonte and Antonio Zambrana. Approved by all, the Republic of Cuba in Arms was born there and the political discrepancies between the leaders of Camagüey, Bayamo and Manzanillo were settled. In the Guaimaro Assembly, Céspedes is elected as the first President of the Republic of Cuba in Arms and continues to fight. Slavery is abolished. Salvador Cisneros Betancourt presides over the House of Representatives and Manuel de Quesada y Loynaz is appointed head of the army. The Chamber has powers to remove the president and the military chief.

Céspedes aspired to the total and absolute independence of Cuba, while Cisneros Betancourt favored the North American annexation. The government in arms establishes his settlement in Guáimaro, but the Spanish do not take long to evict him from that place.

On November 4, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes remarries Ana de Quesada y Loynaz, sister of Manuel de Quesada y Loynaz.

1870

The government in arms, wandering, moves to Berrocal, Sabanilla and Magaramba. The House of Representatives objects to the attitudes of Manuel de Quesada and dismisses him. Céspedes tries to have his resignation accepted instead of dismissing him, but it is denied, so he decides to send him to New York on an official mission.

His son Oscar is taken prisoner by the Spanish troops. General Caballero de Rodas sent the message to Céspedes that he would release his son if he gave up continuing the fight for Independence. Céspedes responds: "Tell General Caballero de Rodas that Oscar is not my only son: I am the father of all the Cubans who have died for the Revolution." On June 3, Oscar was shot, for that reason Cubans today call Céspedes "Father of the Nation."

While in Magaramba, the poet Juan Clemente Zenea, who was traveling with a Spanish safe-conduct, deceives Céspedes and he receives him in the belief that he is a rebel emissary, earning his trust as the days go by. On December 13, accompanied by Zenea, Ana de Quesada begins her journey to New York, but she is arrested along with Zenea by the Spanish. After multiple incidents and harassment, finally Ana de Quesada is released from her. She arrives in New York and lives with her mother and her sisters Caridad and Conchita. Some time later, Ana discovers that she is pregnant.

1871

In February, Céspedes regretted that Manuel de Quesada had not returned to Cuba leading an expedition and he commented on it to his wife in a letter.

In July Rafael de Quesada, Ana's brother, disembarks with a small expedition and Céspedes receives Ana's first letters from New York. Ana tells him in her letters about the divisions and intrigues between the Cuban groups represented by Aldama and Manuel de Quesada, exiled in New York and for this Céspedes sends General Vicente Aguilera and his compadre Ramón Céspedes y Barrero to New York, as negotiators. Céspedes receives a letter from Manuel de Quesada opening up and the former comments to Ana that the best way to do it would be for him to arrive in Cuba with a large expedition.

The conflict that Manuel Quesada y Loynaz had with Céspedes was that the former wanted to manage himself as a military chief, but without obeying orders from the Government in Arms, which was made up of the House of Representatives and the president. Céspedes sends Ana a letter written through Cambula, the former's lover before they married, and asks her to be generous and understand that the only relationship that unites them is the "little daughter" he had with her and that he loves Céspedes learns by letter that Ana became pregnant before leaving and in August she has jimaguas (twins) that bear the names of Carlos Manuel and Gloria Dolores, both with the surnames Céspedes and Quesada.

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes announces to Ana the capture of the entire family of her brother Pedro Céspedes by the Spanish and that her brother Javier's family managed to escape but losing everything. He also says that the Milanés family was robbed and robbed. Céspedes asks his wife, Ana, to remain living next to her mother in New York, not to try to return to Cuba, since it is not a place for a decent woman, at that time of the terrible war they were living through. In August, he comments to his wife by letter: "Carlitos, Javier, Pedro and the other family are in Oriente, the first is in Manzanillo." He refers to the two brothers Pedro and Javier and his son Carlos Manuel Céspedes y Céspedes, from his previous marriage.

On behalf of the Quesada family, José Ignacio, brother of his wife Ana, was always his most faithful and loyal companion. With Manuel Quesada he did not have a good relationship, but with Rafael Quesada the relationship was better, since he led several expeditions. Two other sisters of Ana de Quesada, Caridad and Concepción, were with her mother in New York. In Cuba, Carlos Manuel's sister, Francisca de Borja, still remained.

In October, he comments on his visit to Cambula's house, to see his "little daughter", perhaps for the last time, since they had recommended that he Cambula for her safety I had to go abroad.

1872

When Manuel Betancourt and Betancourt arrived with a small expedition, the camp was filled with rejoicing and Máximo Gómez, Calixto García and the crowd shouted «To the West! Let's go to the West!" General Gómez begged Céspedes “Let it be me, Mr. President! Me, for me!"

1873: Fall of Agramonte and deposition

The military actions of Major General Ignacio Agramonte in Buey, Curaná, Lázaro and Cocal del Olimpo, making his way to circumvent the defensive line from Júcaro to Morón and lead the armed rebellion through Las Villas to the western end of the Island, supposed a great victory and the worldwide recognition of a Republic in Arms, unified by the same ideal. Fate did not want it to be Agramonte who carried out this feat, because an enemy bullet, on May 11, 1873 in the Jimaguayú pasture, knocked him down and he lost his life.

In the month of July, she writes a long letter of complaint to her "little sister" Caridad —Ana's sister— who lives in New York. On July 6, an expedition commanded by Rafael de Quesada disembarked on the island, but when the boats broke, they were unable to disembark more than a part of the cargo.

Due to disunity among Cubans, Céspedes is deposed. Regarding his departure from the Presidency of the Republic of Cuba in Arms, which took place on October 28, 1873, taking his place Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, Marquis of Santa Lucía, he says:

As for my deposition, I did what I had to do. I was crushed at the altar of my homeland in the temple of the law. For me, no blood will be shed in Cuba. My conscience is very quiet and awaits the failure of history. And let's put an end to politics here.

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

In December, he wrote the following:

Yesterday I was released and I stayed in Cambute. They say they will give me a passport and so you can do whatever you think is right about this particular, according to what I say above; but warning me before with specification, as well as Mariano.

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

1874: Death

The safe-conduct never arrived and he was forced to enter an intricate site in the Sierra Maestra to a place called San Lorenzo, where he remains accompanied only by his eldest son Carlos Manuel, and where he teaches children to read and write.

On February 27, 1874, his son was outside the camp, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes was surprised in San Lorenzo, by a column of Spanish soldiers from the San Quintín battalion, possibly led there by the denunciation of an informant.

Abandoned to his fate by the House of Representatives and without any escort, practically blind, he tries to defend himself, since he does not allow his enemies to capture him alive, and, already mortally wounded, he falls down a ravine.

Manifesto of the Tenth of October

He elaborated the Manifesto of October 10 that made known the objectives and the causes for which the former Creoles, now converted into Cubans, were preparing to violently defend the territory in which they lived and which they are now beginning to call Homeland and nation.

This document proposes, among other aspects:

... No one ignores that Spain governs Cuba Island with a bloody iron arm... that having her deprived of all political, civil and religious freedom, her unfortunate children are expelled from their soil to remote climates or executed without formation of process by military commissions in full peace... he has her deprived of the right of assembly as he is not under the chairmanship of a military chief, he cannot ask for remedy for his evils without being treated as another rebel.

October 10 Manifesto.

Main bouts

He led the Cuban troops when the combat of Yara took place on October 11, the first combat and first defeat of what would be the future Liberation Army. He pronounced a famous phrase when he found out that there were only twelve men left: «Twelve men are enough to achieve the independence of Cuba...».

He participates and leads, together with other patriots, the capture of Bayamo, on October 20 of that same year, and he is seen together with Pedro Figueredo in the act where the Cuban National Anthem is sung for the first time.

Destitution and death

Representing the Assembly of Guáimaro for the former province of Oriente, he defended, against the criteria of Ignacio Agramonte and others, the need for a government led by the military without the weight of civilians that prevented the rapid development of military actions. Due to his work in this assembly around the search for unity, he was named President of the Republic in Arms. His mandate extends from 1869 until October 27, 1873, when the House of Representatives dismisses him. The legal act takes place in the town of Bijagual de Jiguaní, according to Eusebio Leal Spengler: "in the presence of a strong contingent of Mambi troops and high-ranking military commanders of the Revolution."

For months he is seen wandering along with the baggage, as the government denies him permission to leave the government entourage and go abroad. His goal: to continue helping the revolution. Finally, when he was allowed to leave the seat of government, alone, deprived of the escort that corresponded to him due to the high position he held, he retired to San Lorenzo, an intricate place where a kind of mambí hospital operates. On February 27, 1874, he fell fighting against a Spanish troop that discovered him and tried to arrest him.

His dismissal, together with the death of Ignacio Agramonte a year earlier, paved the way for the indiscipline, caudillismo and regionalism that would cost the Cuban people so much in that war to flourish.

His remains are buried in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Céspedes and chess

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes had a strong relationship with chess in his life, beyond the simple practice of the sport. These are some of the most relevant facts:

• French translation The Laws of Chess Game, book written by Master Louis-Charles Mahé of La Bourdonnais and published them in the paper The Redactorfrom Santiago de Cuba, beginning on October 4, 1855.

• Guest played chess until the day of his death.

The Father of the Nation played chess frequently, with his assistant Fernando Figueredo Socarrás. The pieces and the board used to be carried through the eastern jungle on a pack donkey named Mason. But every time shots rang out, the animal ran scared, although it always returned to the mambí camp, when calm returned.

The last time this happened, he was captured by Spanish forces, who later returned to Céspedes the objects carried by the donkey Mason, but retained the pieces and the board, claiming that chess could be used by the mambises for plan war tactics.