Narciso lopez
Narciso López de Urriola (Caracas, November 2, 1797-Havana, September 1, 1851) was a Spanish soldier born in Venezuela who created the flag and coat of arms of Cuba.
Based on an idea by Narciso López, together with other Cuban exiles in New York such as the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón, José Aniceto Iznaga Borrell, his nephew José María Sánchez Iznaga, Cirilo Villaverde and Juan Manuel Macías, they drew up in 1849 the Cuban flag, which is today the official flag and flag: 2 white stripes, 3 blue, a red triangle and a lone star. On it they swore to fight and offer their lives to make Cuba an independent republic of the Spanish empire. López led up to five attempts to liberate Cuba until he was executed by the colonial authorities in Havana for high treason by garrotting on September 1, 1851.
Some historians, such as Hugh Thomas, argue that Narciso López became a promoter of the annexation of Cuba to the slave-holding states of the southern United States. As a political current, the annexationism of Narciso López was encouraged by the expansionist interests of the United States. Failing in the attempt, the southern states opted for secessionism from the industrialized north, which led to the American civil war.
Military career
Narciso López was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1797. His parents were Pedro Manuel López and Ana Paula de Oriola, both of Basque origin.
During the emancipation process of Hispanic America, he served in the Spanish army, fighting among other battles in Las Queseras del Medio in 1819 and Carabobo in 1821 where he led the Guías del General Regiment of the Fifth Division of the army of Marshal Miguel de la Torre. His last performance in Venezuela was in the Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo in 1823. When the Spanish fleet was destroyed, Colonel Narciso López fled to Cuba with the remnants of the royalist army, including Calixto García de Luna e Izquierdo (grandfather of Calixto García) and Marcos Maceo (father of Antonio Maceo and José Maceo) who fought for the independence of the Caribbean island.
Four years later he went to Spain, and there he frequented Creole circles. He fought in the civil war that broke out in Spain (First Carlist War), where his military merits elevated him to the rank of brigadier in 1836. In 1839 he received the post of governor of Valencia and a year later he was promoted to general. He also held the position of Military Governor of Madrid and representative in the Cortes for Seville. He took part in the Spanish revolution of 1840.
He returned to Cuba in 1840 with Jerónimo Valdés, who had been named Captain General. He entrusted him with the Governorship of the Cuatro Villas (Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus, San Juan de los Remedios and Santa Clara), and the Presidency of the Executive and Permanent Military Commission, also marrying María de los Dolores de Frías y Jacott, sister of the great Cuban landowner and intellectual, Francisco de Frías y Jacott, IV Count of Pozos Dulces.
López and the independence of Cuba
After the fall of Valdés, his successor, the Captain General of Cuba Leopoldo O'Donnell, removed him from his posts in 1843, and since then he aligned himself with and committed himself to the causes of the Cuban landowners, in line with the maintenance of slavery in the South of the United States.
In contact with the local autonomist groups that owned large fortunes in Cuba, he embarked on actions against the metropolis in the Manicaragua mountains, such as the so-called Cuban Rose Mine conspiracy of 1848, which had ramifications throughout the island and after whose failure he was forced to flee to the United States, where he received the protection of the governor of the state of Mississippi.
In that same year, the contact between Cuban independence groups (the one from Trinidad, led by López himself, and the aristocratic one from Havana and Camagüey, led by the Marquis of Santa Lucía), resulted in the organization of a Council Cuban in New York. José Aniceto Iznaga Borrell, Gaspar Betancourt and Alonso Betancourt went to Washington for the purpose of meeting with US President James Knox Polk, a strong supporter of the expansionist doctrine of Manifest Destiny. To get to this, they requested the intervention of Jefferson Davis, Senator for the State of Mississippi, and William J. Brown, Undersecretary of Communications. They all appeared at the White House on June 23, 1848. From that platform they tried to sensitize the American political media, proposing to President Polk the purchase of Cuba from the Crown of Spain, negotiations that, when carried out directly with the federal government, could mean the end of slavery which was not convenient for the interests that López represented.
Narciso López, for his part, dedicated himself in New York to preparing an expedition for the liberation of Cuba, opening subscriptions and financing through the Iznaga family, propaganda activities and even, together with Teurbe Tolón in New York, to the design of a flag, in the image and likeness of that of Texas for its incorporation into the Union as a new star, and which would later become the current Cuban flag.
In July 1849, López decided that the expedition would depart from Round Island, Mississippi. Cuban exiles and some North American veterans of the war against Mexico participated in it. Others were going for the offer of $1,000 and 64 hectares of arable land in Cuba that would have been paid to them if successful. López offered command to Southern politician Jefferson Davis, who recommended Colonel Robert E. Lee for $200,000. Dollars. Faced with the opposition of the government in Washington, Lee refused to break the Neutrality Treaty with Spain of 1818 and consequently, López decided to personally lead the expedition of several hundred men. However, the expedition was thwarted in September 1849 when United States President Zachary Taylor sent a naval force to capture López's ships, as a consequence of a change in policy regarding the annexation of Cuba.
In a second attempt, López organized another expedition, this time from New Orleans. He enlisted the help of Mississippi Governor John A. Quitman, a Mexican War veteran to whom he offered command of the venture, which he declined. On May 19, 1850, with 600 volunteers from Mississippi and Louisiana, he disembarked in Cárdenas, hoisting for the first time what would be taken in the Assembly of Guáimaro as the national ensign of Cuba, for which Cárdenas is also known by the Flag City name. After burning the house of Governor López, he controlled the town for several hours, but its population did not support the revolt, after verifying that the objective was to maintain slavery. The inferiority of his forces and the approach of Spanish troops forced him to re-embark, his ship being pursued by a Spanish warship as far as Key West; despite the failure, he was greeted as a hero in the American South.
On July 4, 1851, a group led by Joaquín de Agüero rose up against the Spanish in Las Tunas and declared the independence of Cuba. The revolt would be quickly annihilated and Agüero was captured in Camagüey ending his days in front of a firing squad, but the news did nothing but open the appetites of investors speculating on the Cuban future, which motivated López to organize once again to attempt a new and last invasion of the island.
On August 3, 1851, an expedition of 420 men, including a "regiment" of Southern volunteers under the command of William J. Crittenden, nephew of incumbent President Millard Fillmore. On August 12, 1851, the mercenaries aboard El Pampero, disregarding the orders of the federal government, landed on the island with the intention of establishing an independent republic and its subsequent annexation to the United States.
The landing took place on the Morrillo beach in Pinar del Río, present-day municipality of Bahía Honda, Province of Artemisa. The invading detachment was pursued by the Spanish army sent from Havana. He held a first victorious armed encounter in the town of Las Pozas. However, given the numerical superiority of the Spaniards, he was forced to retreat towards the Sierra del Rosario, in the upper reaches of the Bayate River. A part of the detachment (fifty men), which had remained at the landing site under the command of Colonel Crittenden, second commander of the expedition, re-embarked in El Pampero and was captured by the Spanish steamers Cárdenas and El Habanero. The expedition members were taken to Havana and shot on August 13. In response to these deaths, the Spanish consulate in New Orleans was destroyed, while the shops of several Spaniards in the city were looted by mobs. Subsequently, the government of President Millard Fillmore negotiated the release of the rest of the American prisoners in Spanish hands.
Days later, López's mercenaries fought a disastrous battle against the Spanish General Manuel de Enna and Brigadier Rosales, although General Enna himself was wounded and later died. With the forces decimated, without internal support, accused of piracy and fighting for the Sierra, López held two more battles, the last one at the Puerta de La Muralla, near San Cristóbal and was finally captured in Pinos de Rangel; In total, some 200 expedition members died in the fighting and the rest were captured: 160 of them were sent to Spain. López was taken to Havana on August 31 and executed for high treason, by means of a vile garrote, on the morning of September 1 of that year on the esplanade of the Punta castle: he possibly became the most controversial figure in history from Cuba.
The order for his execution was issued by the then Captain General of Cuba, José Gutiérrez de la Concha, who had fought under the command of López during the outbreak of the Carlist wars. López's last words were "My death will not change the destinies of Cuba.
Consequences of the expeditions of Narciso López
The defeat and death of many expedition members, coming from New Orleans, caused the destruction of the Spanish consulate in that city and the name change of numerous inhabitants to hide their Spanish origin. Several members of the Iznaga family, faced with the possibility of being accused, moved to the state of Mississippi, where they acquired tracts of land for the cultivation of cotton through slaves. Inspired by López's exploits, the American filibuster William Walker organized new expeditions to seize Nicaragua, but he ended up shot in 1860 in Trujillo (Honduras). The southern states changed their annexationist policy for the secessionist one that led to the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. The invasions of this Venezuelan adventurer contributed to the formation of the concept of Latin America and US anti-imperialism.[citation needed]
Writings
- Reply of Field Marshal D. Narcissus López to several charges regarding the last events of Valencia, Madrid: Eco del Comercio Printer, 1839
- To the deputies. Valencia: [s.n.], 1839
- Promissory note for $2000 and Cuban lands, given in return for aid to Cuban expedition of 1850. New Orleans, Patriotic junta for the promotion of the political interests of Cuba, 1850.
- Narcissus Lopez and Cuba Island. Caracas, 1851.
- Gaceta from Havana. Collection of the parties and other documents published in the official Gazette of Havana concerning the invasion of the pirate sheaf led by the traitor Narcissus LópezHavana: Imprenta del Gobierno y Capitanía General por M., 1851.