Francisco Javier Cisneros Correa

A prominent Cuban patriot of the 19th century wars of independence. His most outstanding participation was in the Ten Years' War.

He was born in the city of Santiago de Cuba, where he completed his initial studies at the Seminary of San Basilio el Magno. Later, in Havana, he entered the Colegio El Salvador. He graduated as an engineer from the Real y Literaria Universidad de La Habana; and completed his training in Paris and in New York.

Appointed chief engineer in Cuba for the English company Bristish and American Company, he directed the construction work of the railroad from Trinidad to Casilda, and also of the railroad line from Caibarién to Sancti Spíritus, both in the central region of the Island.

He also practiced journalism, which he began as a contributor to the reformist newspaper El Siglo. At the time of the independence uprising of 1868 he was director of the Havana newspaper El País.

Through both of these press outlets he connected with prominent Cuban reformist and revolutionary intellectuals.

When the Ten Years' War for Cuban independence began on October 10, 1868, Francisco Javier Cisneros was forced to emigrate, due to his separatist ideas, to the United States, where he arrived on November 27, 1868. He quickly joined the Revolutionary Junta of New York, and participated in the organization of several armed expeditions, to introduce into Cuba logistics and men destined for the emancipatory struggle.

Among the expeditions organized, directed and conducted by him, the following stand out: that of the steamer Perrit (May 1869), of which he was sea chief until reaching Nipe Bay, on the northern coast of eastern Cuba; that of the yacht Anna (January 1870), which departed from the city of Charleston and disembarked at Covarrubias Cove, also in the eastern zone; that of the steamer George B. Upton (May 1870), which reached Cuban shores at Punta Brava, near the eastern Manatí Bay; the one carried out in the same steamer in June 1870, to Samá Point, on the northern coast of Holguín, and the expedition of the steamer Hornet, which also disembarked at Punta Brava.

In those years of arduous patriotic struggle, Cisneros was arrested on three occasions, and sentenced to death, a sentence that was never carried out.

During those initial years of Cuban independence struggle, Cisneros conducted negotiations with the Colombian government, together with the patriot Manuel de Quesada y Loynaz, to obtain military aid to add to the Cuban cause, and managed to arm in the Valle del Cauca an invading contingent of three hundred Colombians, ready to fight for Cuba. In the aforementioned Hornet expedition of January 1871 he was able to enlist more than sixty Colombians. Also as part of his revolutionary work, he traveled assiduously through several Latin American countries. In 1872 alone, he visited Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Jamaica.

In 1873, during a stay in Paris, he developed a relationship with Colombian businessman José Germán Ribón, who proposed that he direct the construction of the planned Antioquia railroad in his country. Cisneros's response remained pending, due to his multiple occupations.

Upon concluding his participation in the Cuban struggle, Francisco Javier Cisneros held the rank of brigadier general of the Cuban Liberating Army. He had been residing then, since February 4, 1874, in Colombia.

Through a contract with Marco Aurelio Arango, Secretary of Public Works of Colombia, Cisneros assumed the responsibility of building the Antioquia railroad, which would be 51 kilometers long. On November 28, 1874 the work began. In 1879 the contract was reformulated to extend the line to Medellín, which extended its length to 201 kilometers. The following year the first 47 kilometers were put into operation, but the Colombian liberal revolution of 1885 forced work to stop.

While executing this work, Cisneros signed another contract in 1878 for the construction of the Valle del Cauca railroad –138 km long–, with general Julián Trujillo, who represented the Colombian government. The starting point of the new work would be Buenaventura, on the west bank of the Cauca River. In 1882 the first 20 km were ready, between Buenaventura and Córdoba, which connected the Cauca with the Pacific Ocean. The line was completed in its entirety in 1914, several years after Cisneros's death.

The prestigious Cuban engineer was in charge of the construction of another important railroad line, La Dorada, which from 1881 traversed the Colombian state of Tolima, in a course parallel to the Magdalena River.

Between 1881 and 1883, he built the Girardot-Tocaima railroad, 30 km in length, although the entire line later extended to 46 km.

In 1888, when the work on the railroad in the state of Bolívar was completed, which connected the port city of Cartagena de Indias –on the Caribbean Sea coast– with the interior of the country, celebrations were held in the city of Barranquilla for its inauguration. Francisco Javier Cisneros was publicly honored, in recognition of his merits, as part of the celebrations.

River transport through the Magdalena River also received impetus from Cisneros's work, who, in late 1877, created conditions for the circulation of ships destined for the traffic of passengers and merchandise through that waterway.

The efforts and great contributions of Francisco J. Cisneros were known to José Martí, who on more than one occasion dedicated well-deserved praise to him publicly. In the revolutionary newspaper Patria, Martí wrote on August 12, 1893 an article titled "Un cubano real", dedicated to honoring his figure.

Francisco Javier Cisneros had an active political and revolutionary life during the War of Independence. He contributed his own resources to the work of the patriots of the Island and founded several revolutionary clubs in Colombian territory, such as those named Maceo, Martí, Ríus Rivera and Cisneros. He maintained written correspondence with the Delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, Tomás Estrada Palma –who assumed its direction after José Martí's fall in combat on May 19, 1895–, in relation to those collaborations.

Francisco Javier Cisneros died on July 7, 1898 in a hotel in the American city of New York.