Manuel de Quesada Loynaz

Cuban military officer. He achieved the rank of general in the Mexican army. Commander-in-chief of the Liberating Army of Cuba against Spanish colonialism.

He was born in the city of Puerto Príncipe (in the current province of Camagüey). His childhood took place on the Jobabo estate, one of the cattle ranches, where years later he would meet his future wife, Pamela Corbisón, with whom he would have four children.

He began conspiratorial activities in his native city against Spanish colonialism, working as an agent of the Sociedad Libertadora, linked to the separatist movement led by the Camagüey leader Joaquín de Agüero, until the latter's execution on August 12, 1852.

Three years later he embarked on a schooner bound for New York and from there went to Mexico, where he enlisted in the army with the rank of ensign. He advanced in his military career until he was appointed general of division and obtained the position of military governor of Durango, a post he would serve in other states of the Mexican Confederation.

During the conflict against the French invasion in 1863, he led troops in the Battle of La Rinconada in the State of Veracruz. He organized the Corps of Lancers known as Quesada's, with which he carried out numerous combat actions and to which his brother Rafael joined, promoted to colonel. Together with his brother Rafael, he participated in the siege of Puebla and other military actions against the French occupiers. Manuel de Quesada also accompanied President Juárez to San Luis Potosí and later escorted him to Saltillo.

In 1866, while the struggle for national liberation of the Mexican people was developing successfully, expelling the invaders from almost all of the north and a good part of the south, he departed with the Mexican general Jesús González Ortega to the United States. The commission aimed to obtain that nation's assistance in confronting the monarchy of Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, sustained by the forces of Napoleon III.

After the execution of Emperor Maximilian on May 15, 1867, he contacted a group of conspirators for Cuba's independence in the United States in order to form the nucleus of an expedition destined for the Island.

On September 1, 1868, he traveled to his native city, where he met at the sugar mill of Napoleón Arango with important figures linked to the Revolutionary Board of Puerto Príncipe. In the contacts established, he was informed about the decision to postpone the armed uprising until the completion of the 1868-1869 sugar harvest, as agreed at the meeting held at the Muñoz estate in Las Tunas.

He left the Island headed for Nassau, where he was surprised by the armed uprising of October 10, 1868, led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo, and the following month, the uprising at the Paso de las Clavellinas in Camagüey. From that English possession he prepared and directed the expedition of the Galvanic, made up of men such as Julio Sanguily, Rafael Morales y González, Antonio Zambrana, José María Aguirre, Luis Victoriano and Federico Betancourt, José Payán, among others.

On December 27, 1869, he disembarked at the estuary of the Guanaja in Camagüey, which allowed the revolutionaries of the central region to have better military resources and strengthen their ranks with the incorporation of a valuable group of young men, almost all from Havana.

He took command of the Camagüey army and established his general headquarters at El Tibicial, northwest of Puerto Príncipe.

At the time of the Assembly of Guáimaro, between April 10 and 11, 1869, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Liberating Army of Cuba. Two days later he issued a proclamation to the army in which he announced his appointment and called for unity, discipline, and perseverance among Cubans.

On May 11, 1869, he received the expeditionaries of the Perrit, led by American general Thomas Jordan, who disembarked in Nipe Bay after a fierce confrontation with Spanish forces. He also supported the arrival of the schooner Salvador, under the command of his brother Rafael de Quesada.

He carried out victorious military actions such as the destruction of the Spanish garrison of Sabana Nueva and on August 16, 1869, he failed in his attempt to take Las Tunas.

On December 15 of that year he held a meeting of notables at the Horcón de Najasa, property of the Camagüey resident Ignacio Mora, in which it was agreed to request greater independence for the command of the army from the Chamber of Representatives of the Republic of Cuba in Arms. For this purpose he called for another meeting with the participation of members of the Cuban government.

Faced with mistrust from the representatives, he decided to present his resignation from his military post. Simultaneously, in Palo Quemado on December 17, 1869, the Chamber of Representatives removed him from office, instructing him to turn over his records and other departments to general Thomas Jordan.

In early 1870, the president of the republic, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, appointed him his special agent abroad in place of José Valiente, president of the Republican Board of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Upon his arrival in the United States on March 1, the emigration was divided into two large groups: the "aldamistas," followers of Miguel Aldama, and the "quesadistas," made up of his supporters, among whom were Manuel Codina and Melchor Agüero.

On June 15, 1870, the expedition of the Virginius arrived in Cuba from Venezuela, led by Rafael de Quesada. The expeditionaries carried a proclamation in which the former commander-in-chief exhorted Cubans to continue the struggle and praised Venezuelan support for the independence struggle.

Between July 1 and November 3, 1873, he organized two other expeditions of the Virginius, once again under his brother's command, and carried out financial transactions in Peru, Chile, and Mexico.

On August 14, 1871, he transferred his powers as special agent to the vice president of the Republic of Cuba in Arms, Francisco Vicente Aguilera, assigned by Céspedes to resolve the conflicts existing between the directing factions of the emigration efforts.

In 1872, the president appointed him confidential agent again along with Carlos del Castillo, in place of Aguilera. After Céspedes's removal from his executive office on October 27, 1873, the interim president, Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, removed him and appointed his rival, Miguel Aldama, in charge of the agency.

Upon receiving the news, he was in France, raising funds to organize an expedition. He left the resources obtained in the hands of the Camagüey economist Carlos de Varona, residing in Paris, and departed for South America in the company of Antonio Zambrana and the Havana commander Pablo Iglesias.

Between 1874 and 1875, he managed fund-raising in Peru and Chile. Subsequently, he returned to Europe called by his sister Ana de Quesada, widow of Céspedes, and together they succeeded in organizing the expedition of the Anna.

He traveled to Mexico with the goal of preparing the expeditionary contingent with weapons and ammunition. He was supported by Aguilera until the latter's death in New York on February 27, 1877.

Following the signing of the Pact of Zanjón on February 10, 1878, Quesada departed for Costa Rica with his family, where he died on January 30, 1884, victim of pneumonia.