Mercedes Sirvén Pérez–Puelles

She lived in Holguín before and after the 1895 War, and practiced her profession as a pharmacist in this city and in Gibara.

Mercedes came from a wealthy and patriotic family. Her father, Faustino Sirvén Durán, was the doctor of the Holguín municipality. In 1882 he demanded payment from the Cabildo for his back salaries, this claim would continue and in 1893, the Provincial Government ruled that they pay him his monthly salary and amortize what was owed by giving him a certain amount each month.

When the 1895 War broke out, Doctor Sirvén remained in the city as long as he could, always helping the insurgent forces, until December 12 when he joined the Liberation Army as head of Health Services in the Third Division of the Second Corps, commanded by Major General José Manuel Capote.

The Sirvén Pérez-Puelles family, originally from Havana, returned to Cuba after the Pact of Zanjón and settled in Holguín. It was formed by parents Faustino and María and three children: Ricardo and Mercedita who had been born in Bucaramanga, Colombia, and Faustino in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. All would grow up in Holguín. Ricardo and Mercedita became Licentiate Pharmacists, while Faustino studied medicine, like his father.

Mercedes Sirvén was a woman of singular courage. Her revolutionary pharmacy supplied medicines and medical materials to different war hospitals, both fixed and mobile, throughout Holguín and Las Tunas territory. Her brother Ricardo was the most efficient supplier. She made the distributions alone, with no company other than her mule and her rifle.

In October of 1896 Mercedita enters the insurgent forces, at the Palmarito de Gamboa estate, south of Las Tunas, the Doctor of Pharmacy Mercedes Sirvén established a field hospital, where Consuelo would serve as a nurse. At the end of that same year she was granted the rank of captain, and in 1897 she was promoted to Commander.

At the end of the conflict she was appointed to head the pharmacy of the Civil Hospital of Holguín and later she founded her own establishment in Gibara. In 1812 she returns to Holguín and takes charge of the Sirvén pharmacy-drugstore. She lives in this city until 1944.

I did not have the glory of being born in that piece of Cuban soil; but I feel like a Holguinera, because of the love I have for all those who are; because to Holguín I owe undeserved affections and honors; because to my fellow party members there, I owe their designation for me to represent the province of Oriente in the Cuban Congress; because there I have lived the best years of my life; because for my greatest glory, my children are from Holguín and because there I want that, in the pantheon of my ancestors, to sleep the eternal sleep of death.

Little by little, the family moved to Havana. The last was Mercedes, who died there on May 28, 1948.