Carlos Manuel de Céspedes de Borja

Considered by Cubans the Father of the Homeland. On October 10, 1868, he initiated the epic struggle for Cuba's independence, urged those gathered proclaiming his determination of "independence or death" and proclaimed the freedom of his slaves. Major general of the Cuban Liberation Army and president of the Republic of Cuba in Arms. He died in combat against Spanish troops.

He was born in Bayamo, Oriente. Son of Jesús María Céspedes y Luque, also born in Bayamo, (now Granma) and of Francisca de Borja López del Castillo y Ramírez de Aguilar, born in Puerto Príncipe (now Camagüey).

He grew up in the countryside and during his childhood took classes in grammar and Latin with the friars of the Convent of Our Seraphic Father in Bayamo, who took him in as a student.

Later, at the Convent of Santo Domingo, he took courses in logic and ethics. From there he went to Havana, where he was accepted as a student at the Royal and Conciliar Seminary College of San Carlos and San Ambrosio. Later at the Royal and Pontifical University of Havana he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law, on March 22, 1838.

Céspedes married in 1839 his double first cousin, María del Carmen Céspedes y del Castillo. He had three children with her named María del Carmen, Carlos Manuel and Oscar. All of them with the surnames Céspedes y Céspedes.

On January 3, 1840, his first male child was born. That same year and once he completed his bachelor's degree in Law in Havana, he set out for Europe and obtained his degree in Law from the University of Barcelona and subsequently his Doctorate.

After completing his law degree in Spain, he participated in the insurrection of General Juan Prim, for which he left as a political exile bound for France. He later traveled through England, Germany and Italy before returning to Cuba in 1844, so he mastered and expressed himself correctly in several languages such as English, French and Italian. He knew and handled Latin and Greek from childhood. He opened a law office in Bayamo and wrote poems and a pamphlet in which he defended Cuba.

He secretly began his independence plans. He translated some Cantos of the Aeneid into Spanish which he never published and also wrote the Comedy The Two Dianas.

One event marked Céspedes's personality for posterity: in May 1870, the Captain General of the Island, Caballero de Rodas, sent him a message informing him that his youngest son, Oscar, had been captured and condemned to death, and proposed offering him the young man's life in exchange for a personal arrangement, whose terms would be discussed later.

Céspedes's response was categorical: "Oscar is not my only son, I am the father of all Cubans who have died for the Revolution". For this attitude Cubans proclaimed him Father of the Homeland.

In September 1867 he began to conspire in Manzanillo, where he lived, along with Francisco Vicente Aguilera and Perucho Figueredo. Later he founded and presided over the Revolutionary Junta of Manzanillo.

At the meeting held in San Miguel de Rompe, on August 4, 1868, he unsuccessfully defended the criterion of immediately beginning war against Spain, considering that conditions existed for it.

After urging his followers in favor of armed confrontation against the metropolis, urging them to fight following the examples of other liberators, such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, he proclaimed the independence of the island (Cry of Yara) on October 10, 1868.

On October 6, 1868, at the Rosario sugar mill, he was elected supreme chief of the armed uprising, which was agreed to begin on October 14, 1868.

However, upon learning that on the 8th a telegram had been sent to the military governor of Bayamo ordering his arrest and that of the main conspirators, he ordered his men to take up arms and concentrate at his Demajagua sugar mill during the night of the 9th.

There, at midday on the 10th, he urged those gathered proclaiming his determination of "independence or death" and proclaimed the freedom of his slaves.

On the night of the following day, the small army led by him attacked the town of Yara, where it received an unexpected response from the defenders, who had received considerable reinforcements without the Cubans' knowledge.

Faced with this surprise, they scattered in various directions, with Céspedes managing to regroup only eleven men. In that situation someone exclaimed in dismay: "All is lost", to which he responded with energy and conviction: "There are still twelve of us; that is enough to achieve Cuba's independence".

Now with forces increased by the new uprisings that occurred, they took the hamlet of Barrancas on October 15 and laid siege to Bayamo starting on the 18th, taking it on October 20. Céspedes was received by the population as their liberator.

He proclaimed himself captain general of the Liberation Army with the aim of achieving a rank in accordance with the highest Spanish authority on the Island.

However, on January 29, 1869, in Tacajó, he renounced using such a title. Although he was a firm defender of the total abolition of slavery, he found himself forced to decree, on December 27, 1868, that it be abolished gradually and with compensation.

With this gesture he tried to win over the landowners, from whom he expected to obtain resources that would allow him to acquire the necessary weapons for war. During a recess of the Chamber of Representatives, he signed the decree that established the abolition of slavery.

At the Constituent Assembly of Guáimaro, from April 10 to 12, 1869, he opposed the approval of forms of government that, being extremely democratic and republican, would limit the powers of the executive and the commanding general to direct the war, as he firmly maintained that to have a Republic, war must first be waged, and this required a central authority that would facilitate unity of command. At the session on the 11th he was elected President of the Republic in Arms of Cuba.

The exercise of his government was difficult for him due to the antagonism of the members of the Chamber of Representatives, who attributed to him an antidemocratic and dictatorial attitude. He found it difficult to exercise true command, as executive power, due to the caudillistic and regionalist roots of a large part of the leaders.

Many had become his enemies, fundamentally the members of the Chamber and the supporters of Miguel Aldama, general agent of the Republic in the United States, who wove a series of intrigues around his person. Although Céspedes was timely informed about the plot being hatched with the objective of replacing him from the presidency, he showed the sacrifice of his ideas to maintain the unity that the moment required.

However, this plot materialized on October 27, 1873, at the Bijagual camp, when he was deposed as president by the representatives of the Chamber. The decision was accepted in a disciplined manner by Céspedes, as he was aware that opposing it would have caused a division among Cubans capable of destroying the revolution.

He supported the idea of giving the war a national character, for which he appointed, on June 1, 1869, Domingo Goicuría as chief of Operations in Pinar del Río.

He conceived the idea of invading the western part of the Island, which could only be materialized years later. He was in favor of destroying Spain's wealth in the Island of Cuba to undermine its sources of sustenance for the war.

He upheld as principle the maximum application of the method of irregular warfare. He worked for the increase of armed expeditions from abroad and deployed extensive diplomatic activity by sending letters to different American governments in search of recognition, both for belligerency and for the Republic in Arms, and their support.

He tried to take the war to the sea, for which he appointed naval officers and granted Letters of Marque. He maintained total intransigence regarding the conquest of independence, of which proof is the fact that on February 15, 1871, he declared a traitor anyone who entered into negotiations with the Spanish.

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 Céspedes and Francisco Castillo Moreno. La Bayamesa was adopted by Cuban patriots, who changed the lyrics and made it a combative song against oppression.

After his removal they forced him to accompany the new government and the Chamber for two months. After his refusal to allow him to go abroad, he was confined to the San Lorenzo estate in the Sierra Maestra.

He headed there on December 27, 1873, without proper escort, as the government denied him one. In the quiet of the mountains he devoted himself to writing and teaching children to read.

On February 27, 1874, a Spanish column unexpectedly penetrated San Lorenzo. Warned of the imminent danger, Céspedes ran from the bohío where he was located toward the woods, exchanging shots with his pursuers. After receiving two bullet wounds, he threw himself down a ravine to avoid being taken prisoner. There his body was finished off and his corpse was taken to Santiago de Cuba, where he was buried.