Francisco Vicente Aguilera Tamayo

Major General. Cuban lawyer and politician who fought in the War of '68. President of the Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo, for the organization of the Cuban conspiratorial process that led to the Ten Years' War. He held relevant positions in the Republic of Cuba in Arms and served as an agent of the revolution abroad.

He was born in Bayamo. Son of a wealthy family, he came to possess a fortune estimated at three million pesos, which included two sugar mills, fifty or more estates, coffee plantations, vegas, pastures, ranches, urban houses and 500 slaves, among other assets.

He completed his secondary education at the Carraguao school in Havana, one of the most prestigious of the era.

He joined the first conspiratorial lodge of the Grand Orient of Cuba and the Antilles —called Estrella Tropical No. 19— from which others would be founded in the eastern region.

On September 2, 1867 he traveled to Holguín, in his capacity as venerable master of the lodge, to found the Sol de Oriente lodge —later called Hijos de la Viuda— and coordinated actions in which the people of Holguín would participate in the planned independence struggle. He also contributed to the organization of lodges in other areas, such as Buena Fe, in Manzanillo, whose venerable master was Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo.

On August 14, 1867 a new organizational step was taken in the conspiratorial process with the formation of the Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo, which Aguilera presided, with Francisco Maceo Osorio serving as secretary. As part of the committee's functions aimed at organizing and extending the independence movement throughout the country, he made visits to Santiago de Cuba and Puerto Príncipe.

He was in favor of postponing the beginning of the armed struggle until the conclusion of the 1868-1869 sugar harvest, which could provide resources for organizing the uprising in the country. This thesis prevailed at the meeting held at the Muñoz estate in Las Tunas with representatives of the various groups of conspirators. But the critical economic, social and political situation existing in the colony, aggravated by the crisis of 1867, made waiting for the end of the harvest untenable. Spontaneous uprisings were already beginning in certain localities of the East, and between October 5 and 6, 1868, at a meeting held by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes with a group of people from Manzanillo at the El Rosario sugar mill, it was agreed to carry out the uprising, which occurred four days after that meeting.

Upon receiving news of the outbreak of the movement, Aguilera took up arms on the 17th at his Santa Ana del Cayojo estate. Céspedes appointed him a general of division and gave him instructions to cover the road to Holguín, with the objective of preventing the movement of Spanish troops that would go to reinforce the besieged garrison of Bayamo.

When the Taking of Bayamo took place on October 20 following, and the consequent establishment of the first political, administrative and military center of the revolution, Aguilera —like Pedro Figueredo Cisneros, Lucas del Castillo and other prominent figures from that locality— subordinated himself to Céspedes, which meant another important step forward in unity.

Together with also generals Modesto Díaz and Luis Marcano from the Bayamo jurisdiction, he remained in command of the troops to the north and south of the Cauto River, and those of Manzanillo, with the objective of keeping the latter city under siege and activating the insurrection in Bayamo.

In March 1869 he again adopted a very favorable position for the preservation of unity in the liberation ranks, following the appointment as dictator of general Donato Mármol, chief of the Jiguaní jurisdiction, with the consequent rejection of Céspedes' authority. The interviews held by Aguilera with Mármol, as well as the energetic pro-Céspedes position, made it possible for the divisive attempt to be abandoned.

The following month, Céspedes, elected president of the Republic of Cuba in Arms at the Assembly of Guáimaro, appointed Aguilera as Secretary of War, with the approval of the Chamber of Representatives, the legislative body of the revolution. Aguilera held the position until early 1870, when the Chamber created the post of vice president and he was designated to assume it.

On February 24, 1870 the legislative body granted him the rank of Major General, at the proposal of the President of the Republic, and on March 8 following Céspedes appointed him Lieutenant General of the State of the East.

In August 1871 he arrived in the United States as a special envoy of Céspedes to resolve the conflicts existing between the directive factions of the emigration, and also to raise resources and send arms to Cuba. From the beginning of his work he had to face the hostility of the followers of Miguel Aldama, representatives of the interests of the slaveholding sector of the Cuban bourgeoisie, and those of Manuel de Quesada y Loynaz, designated special agent by Céspedes.

In 1872 his functions abroad ceased once the president decided to appoint Quesada and Carlos del Castillo as confidential agents. When communicating his removal to him, Céspedes explained that it was intended to facilitate his return to Cuba, given his position as vice president.

Despite that decision, Aguilera continued in his efforts to organize an expedition with arms for the Island, for which reason he decided to collaborate in the expeditionary efforts headed by Quesada and, unintentionally, became estranged from the followers of Aldama.

He was called in vain to assume the presidency of the republic when Céspedes was deposed, as he had promised that he would only return with a great expedition. His situation would become more difficult when the interim president, Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, decided to appoint Aldama as his representative abroad and displace Quesada from that position.

On March 21, 1876, due to the forced resignation of Cisneros Betancourt and in view of Aguilera's prolonged absence, the Chamber agreed that the new president, Juan Bautista Spotorno, cease his interim status and assume the executive power of the Republic of Cuba in Arms.

Another provision of the Chamber from April 12 of the same year established the cessation of Aguilera's functions in his constitutional position, as of the date of the deposition of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

During his management abroad, Aguilera organized five expeditions that failed. On one occasion he reached Jamaica and Nassau, without being able to arrive in Cuba.

He fell ill with cancer and, despite his former opulence, the emigrants saw him walk at the end of his life through the cold streets of New York with his shoes in tatters. As a final note to this remarkable life dedicated to the independence of Cuba, at the beginning of the twentieth century the courts concluded that, despite the sacrifice of family fortune in the revolution of 1868, each of Aguilera's children was entitled to inherit only 6,000 pesos, assigned in barren lands and devastated plots.

Francisco Vicente Aguilera died in New York on February 27, 1877.