The Struggle
for Cuban Independence and
Identity
An Introduction
Cuba's desire for independence from the Spanish empire existed for almost 100 years before Carlos Manuel de Céspedes issued the famed Grito de Yara that started Cuba's first formal war against Spain.
Efforts to obtain legal autonomy had been explored, and drastically failed. The only hope was in complete separation.
The Ten Year War (1868-1878) ended in a stalemate, but one man stood against the compromise and won the hearts and minds of Cubans throughout the island. Antonio Maceo became the symbol of a Cuban identity that included the idea of racial equality and the end of slavery.
Rebel rhetoric and ideology always emphasized an anti-racist agenda, and this became part of the Cuban identity that eventually went to war against Spain. Men like José Martí, Juan Gualberto Gómez and others, spread the idea of Cuba as a race-less society, and even if the reality of the island never quite lived up to the caliber of the dream, it makes Cuba unique in this struggle, and very different from the empires that would claim her.
In 1890 Martí formed the Cuban Revolutionary Party, and organized the third and final war effort against Spain. Veterans of the various previous wars for independence came aboard, Antonio and José Maceo, Maximo Gómez, Calixto Garcia and others.
The war started in 1895, and Cuba would never be the same. At the very end, Spain ceded control of the island to the U.S. government.
So ended the 19th century; the island under the control of a new empire, and the promise (in the form of the Teller Amendment) that soon the Cuban flag would fly over the nation's capitol.
José María
Heredia
Cuba's romantic
poet
Narciso López and the Cuban Flag
What is the Ostend Manifesto? | Read the full text of the Ostend Manifesto
Wars against Spain
Carlos Manuel de
Céspedes
The
Ten Year War | The
Little War
Excerpt from an editorial in Madrid's newspaper La Discusión, March 24 1870
José Martí - An intro and a full bio | The José Martí Timeline | Books about Martí
Antonio Maceo - An introduction | The Antonio Maceo Timeline | Maceo's Letter to President Estrada Palma | Maceo's "Protest of Baraguá" | José Martí on Antonio Maceo
Did Antonio Maceo and Flor Crombet fight a duel?
The 3rd and Final War for Cuban Independence from Spain
- Excerpt from the diary of General Máximo Gómez, one of the fathers of Cuban Independence |
- General Máximo Gómez speaks to the troops - 11/30/1895 |
- Letter from General Gómez to Estrada Palma
- Official proclamations issued on July 1 and November 6 in 1895 |
- Gómez' letter to U.S. President Grover Cleveland |
Frederick Funston | Funston Meets Gómez | Funston: Memories of Two Wars
The Abolition of Slavery in Cuba
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