Gerardo Castellanos García

Author of numerous historical studies, he was born during his father's exile in Cayo Hueso and came to his homeland in 1899 with his family.

He was the son of Commander of the Liberating Army Gerardo Castellanos Lleonart. He completed his first studies in his native city, while at the same time working in tobacco manufacturing. Here he studied piano and violin. In 1900 he obtained a modest position in the General Treasury of the Republic, later the Ministry of Finance, where he worked until his retirement.

Between 1900 and 1939 he served functions in what would become the Ministry of Finance and in parallel collaborated with various cultural institutions.

With his work Panorama histórico he obtained in 1936 the First Prize in the national contest of the Department of Education. Among Gerardo Castellanos' works were distinguished the biographies he wrote of Vicente García, Serafín Sánchez, Henry Reeve (El Inglesito) and other heroes of the wars of independence.

He was a member of the Academy of History, the Geographic Society of Cuba, and other Cuban and foreign cultural institutions. He collaborated with different publications, among which were El Diario de Cuba, El Mundo Cubano, Revista Bimestre Cubano, Bohemia, as well as others from Guanabacoa, the town where he resided. He used the pseudonym Gerardo Casiol.

Literary Works

Castellanos García, the most patriotic and prolific Cuban historian, with more than 30 important books on the history of Cuba, his work is extensive, which reflects the zeal with which he undertook two difficult tasks: that of researcher and that of writer, in both with excellent results, among them are:

Roots of October Tenth of 1868
Juan Bruno Zayas, Physician and Soldier (1924)
A Champion, Serafín Sánchez (1926)
Arangúren. From the Mambí Cycle (1926)
Adolfo del Castillo in Peace and War (1927)
Lands and Glories of the East (1927) Francisco Gómez Toro
In Search of San Lorenzo concerning Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (1930)
In the Furrow of the Generalissimo (1932)
Toward Gibara (1933)
Historical Panorama (1934)
Thinking of Agramonte (1939)
Trinidad the Secular and Revolutionary (1942)
Historical Reliquary (1948)
In three of his most accomplished works he historically situated the figure of his father, the commander of the liberating army Gerardo Castellanos Lleonart, who was in exile when Castellanos García was born. Soldier and Conspirator (1923), Mission to Cuba (1944) and Motives of Cayo Hueso (1935).