Diego Vicente Tejera

Cuban patriot, poet, journalist, essayist, literary critic. Independent and socialist politician, defender of the poor and workers. Founder of democratic socialism in Cuba, an intellectual whose literary work cannot be separated from his life and political and revolutionary action.

He was born in Santiago de Cuba. Son of Santiagueros Diego Vicente Tejera y Piloña and Ascensión Calzado y Portuondo.

He studied at the Seminary of San Basilio el Magno, in Santiago de Cuba, which he abandoned after losing his vocation for the priesthood. He entered preparatory school, from which he moved to the Institute of Secondary Education.

As a result of multiple causes from childhood, he developed great sensitivity to social issues and a high calling for sacrifice, rejection of the disciplinary regime he experienced at San Basilio Seminary; a certain innate rebelliousness; the stories he heard at home about the causes of the Haitian Revolution, the social struggles that took place during his adolescence, all led him to lean toward social justice and politics.

At only 16 years of age, he attempts to enlist as a soldier in one of the Spanish columns departing for Santo Domingo, an attempt that fails, which is why he and his friend Palacios undertake their first action against Spanish colonialism, writing verses against the metropolis, making 100 copies of them and distributing them.

In line with the previous action, he takes a bottle of acid from the Institute's laboratory and breaks it in the mouth of the cannon that the Spanish had gifted to the city of Santiago de Cuba.

He deepened his knowledge of agronomy and studied medicine alternating with law, as well as philosophy, approaching the work of Marxist ideologues; however, due to the existing situation, he determined to abandon his studies once more.

In 1883 he married in La Habana to a beautiful and virtuous young woman María Teresa with whom he had three children: Diego Luis, Ascensión, and Paul Louis

He traveled through various countries in Europe and America and participated in innumerable historical events.

In 1866 he moved to the United States, a journey that took 19 days as they were battered by a storm. He remained in that country for several months and later traveled to Europe, visiting París, Londres, Bélgica, and El Rhin.

In September, upon learning of the revolution against Isabel III in Spain, he departs for Madrid. With the movement frustrated, he finds himself in the city without resources and with no one to turn to.

His beginnings as a writer had started in Venezuela, where he composed his well-known poem "En la hamaca," considered one of the most notable along with "El despertar de Cuba."

One could say that his fiancée was the bridge that connected various facets, his sensitivity toward beauty, toward love, toward solidarity, facets that from then on manifested themselves simultaneously in politics and in the arts.

He published two books of poems "Consonancia" (1874) and "La muerte de Plácido." He wrote Un ramo de violetas (1877), Poesías completas (1869-1879), Poesías (1893), Un poco de prosa (1895), and Italia por Cuba (1899), among others.

His work can be classified in various ways, as elegiac, epic, bucolic, philosophical, and social critique. As for the definition of its contents, it includes the struggle for identity and Cuban identity.

For example, the elegy "La muerte de Plácido," highlights the depth and force of anti-Spanish patriotism. Precisely because of this song he was accused by the colonial authorities of Puerto Rico.

The epic character is present in "Gloria a ti," which he dedicated to the conquerors of the North Pole. Bucolic elements can be found in several poems that describe and depict the image of Cuban fields and its people; but the one that most captivates and details with powerful harmony the morning dawn of Cuba is "La Hamaca," which, above all else, is bucolic.

In February of 1868 he returns to Puerto Rico, where he participates in the independence movement of Betances. After the failure of the Grito de Lares, he heads to Venezuela with Betances himself.

He receives his Bachelor of Arts degree and studies medicine for two years in Caracas.

In 1869 the movement of Guzmán Blanco begins and Tejera participates in the resistance against it. In March of 1870 he participates in the Battle of Petares. A month later he participates in the resistance to Guzmán Blanco's siege of Caracas, where his companions fall one by one, while he remains until the end when he is wounded and captured. Released, and at his father's suggestions, he settles in Barcelona. From these events onward, he distances himself from all conspiratorial activity and breaks his first lances in the intellectual sphere.

Return to New York

From Barcelona he moves to New York to request Miguel Aldama, who served as representative of the Cuban independence movement in the United States, to send him to Cuba, a request that was denied, so he remains in that country.

With the Pacto de Zanjón signed, he returns to Cuba and collaborates on various publications. Shortly after, he departs again for Spain, but when the ship sinks, he is taken to New York.

At 37 years of age, he comes into contact with Cubans in the diaspora, where he meets José Martí.

In 1879 he returns to La Habana, where he intensified intellectual activity, frequented the literary circles of the time, and came to become a member of the Literature Section of the Liceo Artístico y Literario de Guanabacoa, then directed by José Martí.

From 1888 to 1892, he resides in París, working for a French entity. He publishes the revista América in París, travels to Cuba to inaugurate the Tomás Terry theater in Cienfuegos, and produces several literary works. He publishes his work Un sistema social práctico, sus grandes líneas.

In 1894 he settles in the United States, an illness prevents him from being a combatant in the new conflict occurring in Cuba.

In 1897 he holds a series of lectures in Key West, all referring to issues related to Cuban society.

In 1898 he arrives in La Habana, and in addition to founding the Semanario La Victoria, he participates in efforts to create the First Cuban Socialist Party, which is founded on May 22, 1899, and dissolves six months later. In the year 1900, a further attempt to found his party, under the name Partido Popular, fails, which marked his definitive separation from political activities.

At fifty-five years of age, an incurable illness took his life, dying on November 6, 1903.