Fernando Freire de Andrade

One of the most active revolutionary intellectuals of the War of Independence. He had a prominent public life in the early years of the Republic.

Freire de Andrade was born in La Habana. He studied law and graduated as a lawyer from the Universidad de La Habana. In his youth he was a member of the Partido Liberal Autonomista. However, once the insurrection of 1895 began, Andrade decided to participate in the struggle. He left for the United States of America, putting himself at the service of Tomás Estrada Palma. He joined the Ejército Libertador as an expeditionary of the fourth crossing to Cuba aboard the mambisa schooner Dauntless.

He arrived in Cuban territory on October 13, 1896 at a place known as Río Hondo, located between the coastal limits of Cienfuegos and Trinidad, on the southern coast of the Island. The commander of the expedition was brigadier general Miguel Betancourt Guerra. Freire de Andrade immediately joined the General Headquarters of the Ejército Libertador, under the orders of major general Máximo Gómez; he received the military rank of commander.

The rapid rise of Freire de Andrade can be explained by his condition as a lawyer and intellectual, since the Ejército Libertador needed men of such qualities for the various tasks and activities related to the political direction of the war. In fact, along with the military rank he was invested as chief auditor of the armed body of Cuban patriots.

On October 3, 1897 he was appointed head of the Legal Corps of the Ejército Libertador. At the helm of this significant entity, Freire de Andrade developed all his activity until the revolution concluded. This body, along with the Medical Corps, were the two that had within their membership the greatest number of professionals and intellectuals of that conflict.

In the month of October 1897 he attended as representative of the 5th Corps of the Ejército Libertador at the Asamblea de La Yaya. In that political meeting a new Government Council was constituted and a new mambisa constitution was drafted that governed the legal, political and military life of the combatants and leaders of the insurrection until the end of hostilities in August 1898. By that time Freire de Andrade already held the rank of brigadier general.

Andrade was the author of more than one law of the legal system created by the revolutionaries throughout the armed conflict; among them stands out the second Penal Law of January 1, 1898 with more than 80 articles. In this his solid legal training based on Roman law is demonstrated.

As a result of the Spanish-Cuban-American War (April-July 1898), the hostilities in the insurgent fields ended in mid-August of that year. Subsequently, several high-ranking revolutionary leaders from the Ejército Libertador and the Government Council began to take steps to demobilize or cease these patriotic institutions.

With these objectives, Freire de Andrade was elected representative by the 5th Corps to form the so-called Asamblea de Santa Cruz (a coastal town south of the province of Camagüey), later Asamblea del Cerro, after moving from there to that neighborhood of the capital, which would be in charge of replacing the second Government Council of the Revolution.

Once all the elected representatives were gathered, on October 24, 1898, Fernando Freire was assigned the vice presidency of the Assembly, a position he officially assumed on November 7.

The following year, in 1899, despite the conclusion of military hostilities, certain internal discrepancies and divergences continued among some Cuban patriots.

Within the Assembly, several incidents arose in this regard. The most important of all occurred on March 9, 1899. That day, two representatives, Juan Gualberto Gómez and Mayía Rodríguez (José María Rodríguez) proposed the removal of Máximo Gómez as general-in-chief of the Ejército Libertador. Fernando Freire de Andrade presided over that celebrated session that consummated the proposal made.

During the first military occupation of the United States in Cuba, which took place between January 1, 1899 and May 20, 1902, Andrade was a magistrate of the Audiencia de La Habana and also served as president of the Chamber of the Audiencia de La Habana. Already in the republic he distinguished himself in the following positions: prosecutor of the Tribunal Supremo, secretary of Gobernación, representative to the Cámara for the province of La Habana; moreover, he became mayor of the capital in 1912.

In the last years of his existence he decided to retire from public life, after having been one of the great intellectual figures of the past revolution. He died in the city of La Habana on January 24, 1929.