Antonio Lorda Ortegosa

Mayor General. Physician-surgeon. Patriot of Cuban independence. He gathered a group of patriots in order to promote a conspiracy in Santa Clara.

Contents [hide]
1 Biographical Summary
1.1 Patriot of Cuban Independence
1.2 Death
2 Source
Biographical Summary

He was born in Santa Clara, Las Villas. Still a child, he was sent to France, his father's homeland. In Bordeaux he began to study medicine, a career for which he felt a calling. Both in Bordeaux and in Paris, where he graduated as a physician before turning twenty years old, he was honored and awarded more than once.

In France he practiced his profession for little time, as love for his land called to him, and to it he returned, eager to live under its blue sky, to the rustling of its palms, warmed by its sun.

In October 1868, Antonio Lorda learned that in the East they were already fighting for Cuban independence, for justice, for rights; that men were already dying to end the rule of masters and lords; that they were already struggling to make the Cuban pariah a respected citizen through his work and effort, and he felt himself inflamed. He felt that a gust of wind, coming from the wilds where the epic had already begun to unfold, passed over his head, and, with enthusiasm, he gathered a group of patriots in order to promote the conspiracy in Santa Clara.

By his initiative, a Revolutionary Junta was formed in that city, composed of Miguel Jerónimo Gutiérrez, Eduardo Machado, Juan N. Cristo, Tranquilino Valdés, Arcadio S. García, Francisco Casamadrid, Francisco del Cañal and Francisco Navarro, among others. This Junta, barely constituted, began to work tirelessly and fearlessly in favor of the revolution, and proclaimed the necessity of supporting it.

Accompanied by Miguel Jerónimo Gutiérrez, Lorda came to Havana to meet with José Morales Lemus. The illustrious Havana patriot, informed of the revolutionary plans of the determined men from the Villas, offered to send them weapons in a schooner, an offer that was never fulfilled. The spirits of the patriots of Santa Clara being greatly agitated, they agreed, facing the imminent danger of being discovered and arrested, to take to the field, even though unarmed.

February 7, 1869 was the glorious day when the Cubans of the province of Santa Clara rose up in revolt against Spain's age-old tyranny. Thousands of men answered the call: thousands of men responded to the clear clarion that called them to sacrifice for liberty! After the first days and initial excitement and alarm had passed, Lorda proposed that they should immediately undertake the invasion of Colón territory and carry the war to the province of Matanzas. Such a proposal was rejected, and shortly thereafter the agreement was made to march toward the East, to meet with the caudillo of Yara, with Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

Months after the Republic was established, President Carlos Manuel de Céspedes appointed him Secretary of War, a position he held to everyone's satisfaction. While fulfilling such high duties, a cruel illness struck him down.

And after a few days, surrounded by sad and hungry friends, after a terrible day under heavy rain, through stones and brambles; after a night of anguish and horror, of infinite torment, that good man exhaled his last breath—that frank, loyal, patriotic and brave man; that man who had exchanged the comforts of his rich home to serve his land, to achieve its freedom and independence, for death in abandonment and misery, in a dark forest edge.

There, on the lands of the Babujales estate, he died and there his companions dug the grave in which he was to rest. One of the witnesses of that day says that they buried him near a tree called jigüe or sabicú.