Fernando Figueredo

Fernando Figueredo Socarrás . Cuban patriot who participated in the independence struggles on the island of Cuba.

Summary

[ disguise ]

• 1 Biographical summary
  • 1 Participation in the independence wars
  • 2 During the neocolonial Republic
  • 3 Death
• 2 Works
• 3 Sources

Biographical summary

He was born in Puerto Príncipe, Camagüey on February 9 , 1846 . He was the son of the rich landowner Bernardo Antonio Figueredo Téllez and Doña Tomasa Socarrás Varona , a native of Port-au-Prince.

The family would settle permanently in Bayamo , where he was educated until 1862 when he traveled to Havana and remained in the capital of the Island for almost two years. In 1864 he enrolled at the Academy of Civil Engineering in Hudson , United States .

Participation in the independence wars

When the Revolution broke out in 1868 , Fernando returned to Cuba and joined the Liberation Army during the assault on Bayamo . His affinity with Céspedes’ character and purposes led him to occupy positions of the greatest significance and responsibility: secretary of the council, chancellor, head of his body of assistants, and virtually always his private secretary. To him he would give the cockade that the President used as a precious badge on his hat, the same one that years later Figueredo would give to José Martí , and which was part of the latter’s attire, on May 19 , 1895 .

He married in the middle of the bush on November 3 , 1873 with the young manzanillera Juana Antunez Antunez , with whom he had nine children: Bernardo, María de la Concepción, Tomasa, María de la Luz Evangelina, Pedro, Fernando, Carmen, Leonor and Bernarda.

After the deposition of the President, the government chose to appoint him chief of the General Staff of the First Division of the First Corps of the Army of the East , commanded by a faithful friend of Céspedes: Major General Manuel de Jesús Calvar ; He would later be secretary of the cabinet of President Juan Bautista Spotorno , a position that he declined, in March 1876 , upon being elected member of the House of Representatives for Oriente. In this body he held the position of secretary.

He ardently rejected the Zanjón Pact , describing it as the most embarrassing event staged by insurgent weapons. Figueredo quickly marched to the camp of General Antonio Maceo , with whom on March 15 , 1878 he led the virile Baraguá Protest , against peace without independence and without the abolition of slavery. When the Provisional Government was formed, chaired by General Titá Calvar, Colonel Figueredo was appointed secretary.

In May 1878 , the last efforts of the Cubans in arms having been defeated by the policy of attraction and the active military operations of the Spanish Captain General Arsenio Martínez Campos , Colonel Figueredo went into exile, settling in the Dominican Republic . He remained in the Antillean country until 1881 when he moved to Key West , in the United States.

His prestige as a citizen led him to be the first Cuban to serve in the state legislature for Monroe County , giving him the responsibility of superintendent of public instruction. From his memory and personal knowledge about the men of the great war emerged entertaining lectures on transcendent episodes of the Ten Years’ War , which he gave between 1882 and 1885 , which he later synthesized in his careful book The Revolution of Yara , containing of an article about the Baraguá Protest that deserved the thoughtful judgment of the Apostle Martí, in a memorable letter to Major General Antonio Maceo .

For Figueredo, Martí was a dear friend; In his home, in Cayo, there was a bedroom always prepared for him. It was there that he wrote some of the most outstanding pages among his letters, articles and political documents. From Tampa he performed functions as subdelegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and Agent of the Republic of Cuba. Martí’s pen recorded that endearing friendship in a profile published in January 1893 in the Periódico Patria .

“From one of these characters, El Yara shortly brought news of interest, and that is that our Colonel Fernando Figueredo, who today gives plenty to his family under the coca that he planted in exile with his hand, has just resigned from the distinguished position of Customs Inspector who, according to the custom of these Yankee policies, would have belonged to him for a long time, despite the change in the position that he brings with him in the draw (…there is not a day now that Figueredo does not employ, nor does Cayo employ a Cuban who works more than he for independence. That of teacher of the poor; that of correspondent of this house, that of bookkeeper in that one; he, everywhere, of secretary or president; the sun rises in his work, and sets always before his work; his eyes sparkle as on great days; he does not abandon his walking stick or his veteran’s hat: We could never see him, going from one job to another, without thinking about those other marches, that he walked so many times, – that we will walk!”

Patria Newspaper, 1893

During the neocolonial Republic

In the Republic that occurred after the end of the war due to the intervention and subsequent military occupation of the United States, Don Fernando held several public positions, including Director General of Communications, Comptroller General of the State and General Treasurer of the Republic, which he occupied with irreproachable probity. He was a distinguished member of the Academy of History, dedicating himself in the last years of his life to the profession of historian.

Death

He died in Havana on April 13 , 1929 .