Pedro Figueredo Cisneros

Landowner and lawyer. He participated in the Capture of Bayamo, author of the music and lyrics of «La Bayamesa», a war march that became the Cuban National Anthem and one of the symbols of the Nation.

He was born in the city of Bayamo. From a wealthy family, composed of Ángel Figueredo Pavón and Eulalia Cisneros.

He completed his early studies at the Santo Domingo convent in his native city, where he coincided with fellow Bayamo natives Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo and Francisco Vicente Aguilera.

In 1834 he was sent to study at the Havana school Carraguao, where he served as literary director and later as director of the private school José de la Luz y Caballero. For his artistic and literary talents he was nicknamed «El Gallito Bayamés».

In 1838 he graduated with a degree in Philosophy from that school. He traveled to Barcelona to study Law and also took piano classes, until in 1842 he graduated as a lawyer, moving to Madrid with the objective of validating his degree at the Central University, while he traveled through several European countries.

The following year he returned to Bayamo, where he married fellow Bayamo native Isabel Vázquez y Moreno.

In 1844 he requested from the Royal Audiencia of Puerto Príncipe the incorporation of his lawyer's degree, while his father, councilman, mayor and provincial military chief, granted him general power to represent him in all lawsuits. Four years later he was appointed second ordinary mayor of the city of Bayamo.

In 1851 he founded, together with Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the society La Filarmónica, a Bayamo cultural center that brought together intellectuals from the region such as Juan Clemente Zenea, José Fornaris, José Joaquín Palma and José María Izaguirre.

The year following the founding of this institution, he held the position of Marine delegate, and he already appeared on a list of suspects for disloyalty to the Spanish government. In 1853, he was called to testify about the stabbing of Queen Isabel II's portrait and was appointed subdelegated judge of Marine.

Facing the danger of being deported for disloyalty, he was forced to move to Havana, where he settled in 1854. As a lawyer in the national courts, he represented different judicial cases; among them, some from Bayamo families with interests in the capital.

In 1857 he published, together with José Quintín Suzarte and Domingo Guillermo de Arozarena, the newspaper El Correo de la Tarde, suspended for its strong criticisms of the Spanish colonial government. He also collaborated with the siboneyist magazine La Piragua, in which appeared «Excursión a la gran sabana de Yara» and the contradanza «La Piragua».

In 1858 he returned to Bayamo with his family and three years later he suffered house arrest for 14 months for writing to the superior governor of the Island, informing him of the incompetence of the city's military mayor Gerónimo Suárez Ronte.

Confined to his mansion, he studied military tactics and wrote articles about Cuban customs. His house became a meeting center for Bayamo natives.

In 1867 he joined the Redención lodge, presided by Francisco Vicente Aguilera. On August 13 of that year, they agreed, together with Francisco Maceo Osorio, to convene the constitution of the Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo, a center that brought together conspiratorial work in the region and in which he held the position of member.

He was also assigned to write the war march and travel on commission to Havana to establish contacts with supporters of the insurrection in the capital, meeting with José Morales Lemus, Miguel Aldama and other important figures in the region.

On May 3, 1868, he delivered to musician Manuel Muñoz, director of the orchestra of the Main Church, a copy of his composition «La Bayamesa», so that he could do the instrumentation. The following month, it was performed in the presence of the city's governor, colonel Udaeta, and other Spanish authorities during the celebrations of the religious feast of Corpus Christi.

On August 4 of that year he attended San Miguel del Rompe, a Las Tunas estate, where the meeting known as the Tirzán Convention took place, in which the organization and date of the start of the liberation struggle was debated. Faced with disagreements, on September 3 it met again, this time at the Muñoz estate also in the Las Tunas region, where it was approved to wait until the end of the 1868-1869 sugar harvest to start the struggle.

On October 7, the Island's captain general ordered his detention, along with Céspedes, Aguilera, Maceo Osorio, Bartolomé Masó Márquez and other conspirators. This unforeseen event caused the date of uprising, previously agreed by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers for the 14th, to be moved forward, and on October 10, 1868, the armed uprising took place in Manzanillo, initiating the war of independence against Spain.

Upon receiving the unexpected news of Céspedes's uprising, he organized, together with Maceo Osorio and Donato Mármol, the conspirators of Bayamo.

On October 12, after the setback of Yara by Cuban forces, and with the capture of the city of Bayamo decided, he received a message from Céspedes in which he informed him that he was heading with Dominican general Luis Marcano toward the Barranca area.

At his estate Las Mangas he met with 32 armed men, a group that he called La Rusia, and the following day, after rejecting peace petitions from Spanish authorities, he addressed a proclamation to the Bayamo people calling them to join the struggle.

On October 15 he met with Céspedes in Barranca and together with General Marcano they organized the capture of Bayamo. Canducha Figueredo, his 17-year-old daughter, was designated as the flag bearer of the troops.

On October 20, the Spanish garrison of the city was defeated and the Cuban forces captured Bayamo. The people around the plaza of the Main Church asked him for the lyrics of the war march, which he wrote and made known from his horse.

When the Provisional Government was formed in Bayamo, he was appointed chief of the General Staff and on November 6 published in the newspaper El Cubano Libre an article in which he was described as a private and public conspirator against Spanish colonialism.

Days later he participated in the ceremony of blessing of Céspedes's flag in the Main Church. In his presence, a group of 12 young people performed the notes of the hymn «La Bayamesa».

On January 12, 1869, he set fire to his mansion, as agreed by the Provisional Government in the face of the advance of Spanish general Blas Villate, count of Valmaseda, into the region.

From April 10 to 12 he was designated undersecretary of War and major general of the Liberation Army in the Assembly of Guáimaro.

On August 14, 1870, he was captured seriously ill and taken, an invalid with ulcerated feet, aboard the gunboat Astuto, which took him to Santiago de Cuba.

Two days later he was accused of the crime of disloyalty and condemned to death. On August 17, 1870, he died by firing squad at the walls of the old slaughterhouse of the Santiago city.

Source: EnCaribe.org