# Manuel Sanguily Garitte

**Date of birth:** March 26, 1848

**Date of death:** January 23, 1925

**Categories:** Society, Patriot, independence fighter, politician, journalist, essayist, historian, professor, military

He was an independence patriot, heroic combatant, brilliant orator, politician, parliamentarian, journalist, essayist, historian and teacher. Both with weapons and with words, he waged his battles against the domination and subjugation of our homeland to Yankee imperialism. For this reason, Manuel Sanguily opposed the Reciprocity Treaty between Cuba and the United States, as well as the monopolies that suffocated our personality in the branches of culture, production and life in general. In every moment of his fruitful existence he would be like a great national voice, a fervent accuser, a fierce political opponent.

Cuban military, politician and writer. During his youth he took sides in favor of the cause of the independence fighters. He actively intervened in the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), a conflict in which, despite his youth, Manuel Sanguily had such a distinguished performance that he ultimately achieved the rank of Major General. At the end of the war, the popularity he gained led him to exercise various political positions, in which he also achieved prominence thanks to his oratorical skills. He displayed an intense humanistic activity that made him one of the great animators of the cultural panorama of the island: he founded the magazine Hojas Literarias (1893-1894) and stood out as an essayist, in works of historical content such as El descubrimiento de América (1892) and La revolución de Cuba y las Repúblicas Americanas (1896).

Cuban intellectual and politician. Combatant in the wars for Cuba's independence against Spanish colonialism. He participated in the Constitutional Assembly of 1901, served as senator, Secretary of Foreign Relations and Secretary of Interior during the republic.

He was born in La Habana, on March 26, 1848. Orphaned of his father as a child, his godfather took charge of his guardianship and education. He entered the El Salvador school, founded by José de la Luz y Caballero, of which he was one of his most outstanding disciples; in the same institution he taught and taught classes in grammar and literature.

On July 12, 1864 he graduated with a degree in Arts from the Instituto de La Habana. At the Real y Literaria Universidad de La Habana he completed three years of Law and took the fourth year which he left unfinished, when the Ten Years' War for Cuba's independence began and he traveled abroad, later returning to the Island on an expedition.

He left El Salvador by steamer heading to Nassau, where he met his brother Julio Sanguily; he returned to Cuba aboard the Galvanic and disembarked on the coasts of Camagüey.

In February 1869, the Assembly of Representatives of the Center, an organization that brought together independence work in the region, sent him on a mission to contact members of the Revolutionary Board of Las Villas. Among his objectives was the strengthening of the criteria of republican organization of the people of Camagüey, contrary to the positions of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo, a proponent of the concentration of military and civil powers in his person.

He participated in the Assembly of Guáimaro, on April 10, 1869. He served as secretary to the commanding general, Manuel de Quesada, a position to which he resigned. In 1871 he took part in the attack on the optical tower of Sibanicú, Camagüey, an offensive in which he was wounded in the hip. The following year he served as head of the General Staff of the Southern District of Puerto Príncipe, participating in several assaults directed by Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz. Between 1873 and 1874 he fought with General Máximo Gómez in the campaign of Camagüey, participating in his principal military offensives: Palo Seco, El Naranjo, the battle of Las Guásimas and Cascorro. In 1875 he moved to Las Villas, fighting under the orders of Generals Gómez, Henry Reeve and Julio Sanguily. The following year he came under the command of Brigadier Gregorio Benítez and shared action in the assault and capture of Las Tunas, under the command of General Vicente García.

Under the pseudonym Otto, he collaborated in the newspaper La Estrella Solitaria. At the beginning of 1877, the Chamber granted him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and he was appointed confidential agent of the government of the Republic of Cuba in Arms, with the mission to travel to the United States as secretary to General Julio Sanguily. Between 1877 and 1878 he remained in New York, where he received news of the signing of the Pact of Zanjón, on February 10, 1878, which ended the war. In September of that year he traveled to Spain to complete his studies and graduate with a degree in Civil and Canonical Law from the Universidad Central de Madrid.

In mid-year he left for New York bound for La Habana, where he arrived in October and began to work temporarily in the law offices of Antonio González de Mendoza and Emilio Ferrer y Picabia.

He also collaborated in numerous publications such as El Triunfo, El País, La Revista de Cuba, by José Antonio Cortina, and Revista de Cuba, edited by Enrique José Varona, of which he was a proofreader. He also served as editor of El Fígaro and La Habana Elegante.

He opposed the Gómez-Maceo Plan in 1884, as he believed there were no conditions to restart an independence movement. He sympathized with the Autonomist Party, which he described as "the party of all Cubans," in opposition to the Constitutional Union Party, made up mostly of Spaniards who favored integrism.

In 1884 his lecture "Los poetas y la poesía" was published, delivered the previous year at the Literary Conversations held at the home of José María Céspedes. That same year his first work of historical character, "Los caribes de las islas," was published, and later "Cristóbal Colón y los caribes," and his first work on José de la Luz y Caballero in debate with José Ignacio Rodríguez.

On April 9, 1887 he spoke at the commemorative evening of the execution of the medical students, in honor of Fermín Valdés Domínguez, organized by the Liberal Youth Circle of Matanzas. After his speech was interrupted by Spanish authorities, he concluded it in the public square of the city.

Three years later he lectured again in San Antonio de los Baños and in Guanabacoa on José María Heredia.

In 1892 he was invited by José Silverio Jorrín to deliver a lecture on the occasion of the celebration of the IV Centenary of the Discovery of America. That same year he published in La Habana Literaria separate studies referring to three novels by French writer Émile Zola.

Between 1893 and 1895 Hojas literarias appeared, a monthly magazine that he directed and wrote personally, in which he brought out his qualities as a literary critic, politician and historian.

When the War of Independence began, in 1895, he left for Tampa and from there went to New York. He collaborated in Patria and El Porvenir, and delivered his speeches "Cuba y la furia española" and "Céspedes y Martí," in the latter he warned of the continuity between the Ten Years' War and the new independence struggle. In 1896 he lectured on "José Martí y la revolución cubana" and "La monarquía española y el sacrificio de los cubanos."

After the signing of the armistice between Spain and the United States, in August 1898, he maintained his political activities in centers of Cuban emigrants in the United States until his return to the Island, to attend as a delegate of the Second Army Corps to the Assembly of Representatives of Santa Cruz del Sur, to be held on October 24 of that year.

In that assembly he proposed, together with Juan Gualberto Gómez, to request a loan from the United States government to discharge the mambi army, an act that if accepted would facilitate recognition of the Cuban assembly by North American authorities during the first military occupation of the United States in Cuba.

To present this project to the United States government he traveled to that country as part of a commission of the assembly members, presided over by General Calixto García Íñiguez. The mission did not achieve its objectives, as the loan was rejected by President William McKinley and instead offered a donation of 3 million dollars.

Back on the Island, and once the United States military occupation was made official, in the newspaper La Discusión he published articles criticizing United States interference in Cuba and against annexationist positions. He was an active participant in the debates of the Assembly of Representatives of Cerro that removed General Gómez from his position as Commander in Chief of the Cuban Liberation Army. This decision made him, along with Juan Gualberto Gómez, the target of strong public criticism. During the years of occupation he directed the Institute of Secondary Education of La Habana, teaching in the Chair of Rhetoric and Poetics.

On September 15, 1901 he was elected delegate from La Habana to the Constitutional Assembly of 1901, charged with drafting and approving the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. The American governor, Leonard Wood, delivered the inaugural address. From the start of the debates he questioned the speech of the United States official, estimating that the Assembly was not charged with pronouncing on the type of relations to be established between the future republic and the United States.

During the sessions, he advocated for the separation of Church and State, for freedom of education and universal male suffrage. After taking a position of rejection to the Platt Amendment, a constitutional appendix imposed by the United States government on the Cuban Constitution, on June 12, 1901 he voted in favor of its approval. In explaining his vote he emphasized that this was an imposition against which any resistance would be futile, and, on the other hand, it was the only way to be able to establish the Republic of Cuba.

After the establishment of the republic, on May 20, 1902, he was elected senator for Matanzas. On May 3, 1903 he presented the first bill against the hoarding of Cuban land by foreigners. He also opposed the Commercial Reciprocity Treaty approved by the United States Congress and demonstrated the unfavorable effects for the country's economic future that its approval implied.

In 1907 he was designated, along with Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante and Gonzalo de Quesada, to represent Cuba at the II International Peace Conference in Holland and in 1912 he was appointed Secretary of Foreign Relations of the government of José Miguel Gómez. That same year he was provisionally designated Secretary of Interior and the following year Inspector General of the Armed Forces. Subsequently he was appointed director general of the Military Schools. Between 1918 and 1919 he presided over the Nationalist Party.

He died in La Habana, on January 23, 1925.