Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda

He dedicated himself until his death to continuing the beautiful work of research and studies on the life of José Martí, initiated by his father Gonzalo de Quesada Aróstegui, being considered the most documented biographer of our National Hero.

From a young age he dedicated himself to making known the thought of Martí. He was the heir to his archives, a collaborator and disciple, and moreover became a professor of the Martian Seminary of the University of La Habana and director of the Fragua Martiana.

He created the Martí Museum, of which he was its honorary director. From there he withdrew, during the Machado tyranny, the documents he had lent, related to the life of the Apostle, upon not receiving the required attention for that endeavor.

The History of the Fragua Martiana dates back to the year 1938 when Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda, son of the illustrious Martian disciple, Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui, and Dr. Federico Castañeda supported by Emilio Roig, began investigations into the exact place where the San Lázaro Quarries were located, the site where the young Martí had suffered the rigors of prison in 1870. In this way on January 30, 1938, the aforementioned researchers exactly fixed the location of the San Lázaro Quarries, known through the Martian work The Political Prison in Cuba. Already in 1944 by initiative of Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda a Martian Corner was created in the Quarries.

Approximately one year later, researchers and Martians in general, begin to raise the urgent need to have an appropriate place to effectively develop the work of the Martian Groups that had been working on the Island since 1929, it is at this moment that by initiative of Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda, the idea of creating the Fragua Martiana is conceived.

On January 28, 1946, Carlos Prío Socarrás, at that time Prime Minister of the Government of Ramón Grau San Martín, expresses his interest in the Project and transmits to Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda that he could now announce at the traditional tribute celebration to the Apostle, that "There Will Be Fragua Martiana".

How was the idea developed? The following year the first official signs of the Pro-Fragua Martiana campaign begin to appear, directed by Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda.

Its first contributions come from a special function offered on RHC-Cadena Azul on November 23, 1947 and on May 7, 1948 in the collection for "Day of the Fragua Martiana"; from other donations and the sale of the "Martian Anecdotary" by Gonzalo de Quesada.

In the month of February 1950, the Newspaper Patria published the news of the culmination of the Pro-Fragua campaign. The publication thanked for "its patriotic enthusiasm, high Martian understanding and constructive dynamism" engineer [[Manuel Febles Valdés]], Minister of Public Works of the Prío government, "who has arranged the expropriation of the corresponding lands and has promised to build the Fragua Martiana". This decision had been preceded by the angry protest of Gonzalo, Borrell and other Martians that prevented the idea of constructing an apartment building in the place from being carried out.

During the pseudorepublic, the renowned historian Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda did not find official support for the development of his studies and research, but with the triumph of the Revolution he found broad support for his purposes of unifying Martian documents and thus began to be published, by the National Publishing House, the Complete Works of José Martí.