Antonio Lorenzo Luaces Iraola

Colonel of the Cuban Liberating Army incorporated on May 11, 1869 under the command of Major General Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz.

Born in Camagüey in the house marked with the number 8 on San Francisco Street, today Luaces No. 55.

Upon concluding the American Civil War, in which he participated, he held the rank of colonel; he had acquired military experience and had become a defender of Abolitionism. He went to France in 1865, to perfect his knowledge of Medicine in Paris.

The beginning of the revolution in Cuba, on October 10, 1868, caught him in Cádiz, Spain, where he had arrived with a group of friends to cooperate with the movement that overthrew Isabel II. From that city he went to Gibraltar, and from there to the United States.

In New York he enlisted in the expedition organized by Engineer Francisco Javier de Cisneros who led it aboard the steamship Perrit, commanded militarily by General Thomas Jordan, and disembarked on May 11, 1869 in Nipe Bay.

Shortly after the landing he went to Camagüey territory, where he joined the forces under the command of Major General Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz, who noted on Luaces's service record: Valor beyond all test.

He conducted his early studies in his native city and, later, his parents, who enjoyed a comfortable economic position, sent him to the United States so that he could study Medicine and Surgery. In that nation he graduated as a physician and, when the Civil War broke out, he joined the anti-slavery army of the North in whose Medical Corps he provided his first services.

As a military man he participated in the Rescue of Sanguily, El Salado, Jacinto, Loma de Vapor, Buey Sabana, Sao de Lázaro, La Soledad de Pacheco, Cocal, Fiel Olimpo and Jimagüayú, where Major General Ignacio Agramonte fell.

Luaces, in addition to fighting, provided his services as a physician when circumstances required it, and sought to relieve the wounded and sick with the scarce resources available to the Medical Corps of the Liberating Army. Under the orders of General Máximo Gómez he continued demonstrating his valor in combat.

In 1875, Colonel Luaces remained in Camagüey territory under the orders of Brigadier General Henrry Reeve, El Inglesito, and on April 17 of that same year; when they were encamped in La Crimea, they were assaulted by the infamous Guerrilla of the Twelve Apostles which captured Luaces and a soldier named Manuel Carmenates.

Both were taken to Puerto Príncipe where they were tried by a court martial that condemned him to death; on April 21 the sentence was carried out. Shortly before being executed, Luaces exclaimed: Nothing is better nor more worthy than to die for one's country.