José Silverio Jorrin Bramosio

He stands out for his dedication to protecting public education and promoting scientific agriculture in Cuba.

He was born in La Habana. He studied at the Colegio San Cristóbal de Carraguao. He studied Law at the Universidad de La Habana, from which he graduated in 1841.

He travels throughout Europe and the United States. He returns to his homeland in 1844 where he practices law in a Havana law firm. In 1839 he writes a Treatise on Linear Drawing, which is published by the Junta de Fomento. He drafts important memoirs on the construction of the New Necropolis, the creation of a normal gymnasium, and concerning the construction of a new building for the Universidad de La Habana.

He serves as Inspector of Schools and Vocal of the Junta de Instrucción Pública. He is appointed Alternate Magistrate of the Audiencia de La Habana. In 1869 he is exiled for his political ideas. He participates in the reformist campaign as a member of the Partido Liberal Autonomista, in which he is elected Senator for Puerto Príncipe between 1879 and 1881, and Senator for the Universidad de La Habana in 1885.

In the Spanish Parliament he advocates for social, political, and economic reforms. Author of the pamphlet España y Cuba (1876), written in Paris, in which he urges changes in Spanish policy regarding Cuba. In his work Cuba y los cubanos, written days before his death, he declares himself a firm supporter of independence.

He stands out for his dedication to protecting public education and promoting scientific agriculture in Cuba in its most varied aspects. For this reason he finances, from scholarships for young Cubans to study agronomy in European centers (as was the case of the deposit he made in the Banco Español de La Habana for the sum of four thousand pesos), to industrial projects such as that of Álvaro Reynoso, in his attempt to find an effective means of extracting sugar. (For ten years he holds the position of city councilman of the municipality, and later that of Síndico of the Havana municipality.

He acts as lawyer for powerful joint-stock companies, such as: the Compañía de Almacenes de Regla, the Banco de Crédito Industrial, and the Empresa de los Ferrocarriles de Cárdenas y Júcaro. He publishes numerous articles in scientific and literary newspapers. He donates to the library of the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País the most select works on agriculture written in the United States, Spain, France, Italy, and England. He promotes financing to said Society so that it may award prizes to farmers who obtain the greatest yields in their harvests.

He serves as Vocal of the Junta Superior de Instrucción Pública and President of the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, as well as Corresponding Member of the Sociedad Histórica de Nueva York.

He obtained a bronze medal at the Exposición de Ámsterdam for his work Disquisiciones Colombinas. Among his works are: Cristóbal Colón y la crítica contemporánea, 1883; Cristóbal Colón y el cuarto centenario del descubrimiento de América, 1888; Curso elemental de Dibujo lineal, 1839; España y Cuba, 1884; Filosofía del Arte, 1861; and Los autógrafos inéditos del primer virrey de las Indias, 1888.

He dies in New York, United States of America, on October 6, 1897.