José Martín Félix de Arrate Acosta

Historian. Connected by ties of consanguinity to the most prestigious families of the Havana oligarchy of the period. Considered as the first historian of Cuba by many scholars, among them Felipe Poey and Francisco Calcagno Monti.

He completed his first studies in La Habana, continuing them in Mexico, where he studied Law.

His work "Llave del Nuevo Mundo o antemural de las Indias Occidentales", published for the first time by the Real Sociedad Patriótica de La Habana, positions him as our first historian in time and for some as the first to feel Cuban. By hereditary oath he was perpetual regidor of the city council from 1734, and in 1752 ordinary mayor.

Furthermore, he wrote poems, a tragedy and a report to the King and to the Chamber of Castile regarding the surrender of La Habana to the English by Don Juan de Prado.

During the siege of La Habana by the English he distinguished himself through his efficient services to Spain. After La Habana passed again to the Spanish metropolis, he was part of the extraordinary cabildo of July 2, 1763 to collect the debts owed to H.M.

His Llave del Nuevo Mundo, published for the first time by the Real Sociedad Patriótica de La Habana in 1830, was enriched by a second part, appearing in 1831, with the «Notes of the Special Drafting Commission to the History of Arrate». It appeared edited again, by doctor Rafael Cowley and D. Andrés Pego, with the same introduction of the 1830 edition, in the first volume of Los tres primeros historiadores de la Isla de Cuba. Reproduction of the Histories of D. José Martín Félix de Arrate and D. Antonio José Valdés, and publication of the unpublished work of Dr. D. Ignacio Urrutia y Montoya, supplemented with a multitude of notes and expanded with historical descriptions of most of the cities, towns and villages of this Island that are mentioned in them (La Habana, Imp. y Librería de Andrés Pego, 1876, p. I-516). In addition to his Llave del Nuevo Mundo, which positions him as our first historian in time, Arrate wrote poems, a tragedy titled El segundo robo de Elena, the Novena al ínclito mártir San Ciriaco (Havana, Imp. de B. Blas de los Olivos, 1757), published by Manuel Pérez Beato, with a brief introduction, in Revista Bibliográfica Cubana (La Habana, 2 (7): 41-51, ene., feb. 1938), and a Report to the King and Chamber of Castile regarding the surrender of La Habana by don Juan de Prado to the English (1763), which is probably preserved in the Archivo General de Indias.