Pedro Felipe (Perucho) Figueredo y Cisneros and Isabel Vazquez y Moreno

Pedro Felipe (Perucho) Figueredo y Cisneros was born on February 18, 1818, in Bayamo, Cuba and was baptized in the Iglesia de San Salvador, in Bayamo, on March 12, 1818.  Between 1831 and 1834, he was educated at the Convento de Santo Domingo in Bayamo, where he studied general physics and logic.  He also learned piano and violin and in 1835, was admitted to the Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gerónimo de La Habana.  He received a bachelor’s degree in civil law in 1838, and four days later, passed his examinations in canonical law.  While studying, he tuned pianos to help pay for his tuition.

In 1841, he sailed to Spain and studied at the University of Barcelona, after which he attended the Universidad Central de Madrid from which he graduated as a lawyer on January 5, 1844.  For some time he remained in Europe, where he began to understand the attitude of Spain towards its colonies.

On December 17, 1844, the Colegio de Abogados [lawyers] de Cuba granted permission for him to practice law in Cuba and he returned to Bayamo.  He helped administer his father’s property and in 1845, married Isabel Vazquez y Moreno. After the marriage Perucho and Isabel settled on his father’s country property of Santa María del Rosario near the refinery Las Mangas, and in 1848, he was named alcalde ordinario segundo [???] de Bayamo.  He chose not to practice law, but instead managed his father’s estate where he sought to improve the lives of the slaves by providing them with better food and living conditions.  He was later to grant them their freedom but several, including Severino, who was given to Isabel and Perucho as a wedding present, voluntarily stayed with Perucho long after they were free.

A few years later, in 1851, there was an invasion of Cuba led by the Venezuelan General Narciso López.  The invasion failed and López was executed by the Spanish.  In order to celebrate the occasion, the governor gave a banquet to which Perucho was invited.  Speeches, gloating over the end of López had been made, when a young man burst into the hall and delivered a violent address.  He condemned the affair as being in bad taste and, carried away by anger, let fall certain phrases which revealed his sympathy for the beaten invasion.  The young man was Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

Perucho, by now delegado de marina [???], identified with Céspedes and the independence movement and began to attend meetings at which talk of an uprising against the Spanish was discussed.  He and Céspedes founded the cultural society, La Filarmonica, at which songs were sung, plays were staged, and poems were read, all with the theme of the independence of Cuba from Spain.

By 1854, Figueredo was juez subdelegado de marina [???] and regidor del ayuntamiento [member of the city council], but, hearing that he was suspected of being involved in an incident in which a portrait of Queen Isabella of Spain was damaged, he moved from Bayamo to Havana.  He bought a house on Galiano Street and, in 1856, began to practice as a lawyer.  He composed music and wrote articles for the literary magazine, La Piragua. He organized a publication called El Correo de la Tarde, in which he printed articles supporting the independence of Cuba, which was soon closed down by the Spanish authorities.

In November 1856, his father died and Perucho and his brother, Miguel inherited their father’s refinery, Las Mangas and the property Santa María del Rosario.  In 1858, Perucho sold the house in Havana and returned to Bayamo.  Not long after his return, a Spaniard was named mayor of Bayamo and Perucho wrote a letter of protest to the gobernador superior of the island for which he was arrested and put on trial.  He was sentenced to fourteen months of house arrest but put the time to good use.  He composed music, taught piano to his daughters, studied military tactics, and secretly corresponded with Carlos Manuel de Céspedes who had by now become the accepted leader of the independence movement.

In 1867, the Spanish government decreed a new tax of 10% on agricultural produce.  Bayamo and the province of Oriente was most noted for its sugar refineries, coffee, and tobacco plantations.  It also produced cotton, cocoa, corn, and lumber, all subject to the new 10% tax.  To the landowners of Bayamo, this was the final straw, and Céspedes, Figueredo, and the other leaders decided that the time had finally come for them to rise against the Spanish.

Francisco Vicente Aguilera founded the masonic lodge, Redención in Bayamo and this soon became the place where the conspirators were to meet.  On August 2, 1867, the Comité Revolucionario de Bayamo was formed with Aguilera president, Francisco Maceo Osorio, secretary, and Figueredo, the committee’s spokesman.  The revolutionaries in Oriente continued to plan their uprising and, at a meeting on August 14, 1867, one of them asked Perucho, as a musician, to compose what he called “our Marseillaise”.  The next evening more than 30 people gathered at Perucho’s home and were the first to hear his new march, La Bayamesa, played on the piano by Figueredo.

Early in 1868, the Comité Revolucionario de Bayamo sent agents to various cities to solicit funds.  Perucho traveled to Havana and received a promise from the Junta Revolucionario de La Habana that three to six million pesos would be placed in an account in the US to finance an uprising.  Before Perucho could return to Bayamo, however, the American General Sherman arrived in Havana and told the Junta Revolucionario de La Habana that General Ulysses Grant was sure to win the upcoming US Presidential election and that one of the first acts of his administration would be to “finish with the Spanish dominance”.  Sherman urged the revolutionaries to remain calm and to do nothing and, accepting this, they withdrew their offer of financial aid to the Oriente revolutionaries over Perucho’s strongly worded objections.

On June 11, 1868, Perucho’s La Bayamesa was performed in public for the first time at the Old Church of Bayamo during the procession of Corpus Christi.  Present was the Spanish governor, Udaeta, who, after the procession, ordered Perucho to appear before him and accused him of writing, not a religious hymn, but a patriotic march.  Perucho replied that Udaeta, not being a musician, was in no position to say that it was a patriotic march, to which Udaeta replied “You are right, I am not a musician, but rest assured, I am not deceived.  You may leave convinced of it.”

On August 4, 1868, representatives of several committees met at Las Tunas, a town to the northwest of Bayamo, to set the date for the uprising.  There was much disagreement, with some representatives wanting to rise up immediately and others suggesting that they wait until they were better armed and organized.  On October 8, 1868, the Spanish General, Lersundy, having heard of the planned revolt, sent a telegram to the Governor of Bayamo ordering the arrest of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Pedro Figueredo, Francisco Vicente Aguilera, Francisco Maceo Osorio, Bartolomé Maso, and Francisco Javier de Céspedes, members of the Comité Revolucionario de Bayamo.

The telegraphist of Bayamo, Ismael de Céspedes intercepted the telegram and sent a copy to Perucho who informed Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.  By return, Perucho received the news that Céspedes had begun to gather men and weapons for an immediate uprising at Yara.  Perucho immediately issued a proclamation urging the farmers of Bayamo to join with him and with Céspedes, saying:  “Yo me uniré a Céspedes y con él marcharé a la gloria o al cadalso”  [I will unite with Céspedes and I will go with him to glory or to the scaffold].  He converted the refinery Las Mangas into a camp where weapons and gunpowder were stored and men were trained.  His “division” consisted of 32 men armed with shotguns and others with picks made of yaya [lancewood], sharp pointed spears, and knives.

On October 13, 1868, the Spanish governor, Udaeta, sent three mediators to the rebels in Bayamo, offering them guarantees of safety if they would lay down their arms.  The next day Figueredo was able to announce that the mediators had decided to join the rebels!  By October 16th. Figueredo’s “division”  had swollen to nearly two hundred men.

A final meeting was held at which Céspedes was recognized as capitán general del Ejercito Libertador de Cuba [commander in chief of the Cuban Liberation Army] and Figueredo was named general and chief of staff.  On October 18, 1868,  the revolutionaries advanced towards the town of Bayamo.  The Spaniards, resisted for three days, but on October 20, 1868, Udaeta surrendered and was placed in the city jail.  The rebels demanded of Figueredo, words to the music of La Bayamesa and, sitting on his horse, Pajarito, he wrote the first two verses which are shown below.  He couldn’t write more as the paper was snatched away and before long the whole village had learned and were singing the words.  From the jail, Udaeta could hear the sound and is said to have exclaimed: “I wasn’t mistaken - it was a war song.”

La Bayamesa quickly became the hymn of the revolutionaries and a version of it has since become the National Anthem of the Republic of Cuba.

La Bayamesa

The revolutionaries held Bayamo until January 11, 1869, when they learned that a Spanish force of two thousand men under the General Valmaseda was just a few miles away.  The defenders of Bayamo were ill equipped to withstand an attack by such a large, well armed force and resolved to burn the city to the ground rather than have it fall again into the hands of the Spanish.  Perucho placed all his papers on his two pianos and surrounded them with all his furniture.  He covered them with the family’s clothes and set them afire.  The money that he could not carry with him and the deeds to his property he hid in a well, revealing its location only to Isabel, his wife, and to a trusted slave.

This done and the city of Bayamo in flames, the families of Bayamo, men, women and children, dispersed, some into the nearby Sierra Maéstra Mountains and some, including the family of Perucho, into the forests of Jobabo near Las Tunas.  For nearly eighteen months, they remained on the property of Luis Figueredo, a first cousin of Perucho.  Meanwhile, at the Assembly of Guáimaro on April 10, 1869, Figueredo was named sub-secretario de guerra [sub secretary of war] and mayor general de Ejercito Libertador [major general of the Liberation Army].

On June 18, 1870, Spanish soldiers attacked the property but Perucho’s family managed to escape into the surrounding forest.  They sent word to Luis Figueredo and to Perucho who were elsewhere at the time.  Luis Figueredo arrived and took the family to a place called Santa Rosa de Cabaiguan which he considered safe.  Perucho didn’t receive the message for some time and had no way of knowing where the family had moved.  He finally found them on August 3rd. but when he arrived his wife, Isabel, was shocked to see his condition.  He was suffering greatly from typhus and his feet had been bleeding from ulcers for some time.  He was gaunt and unshaven and his clothes were torn and dirty.  They had no medicines, nor much food, and Isabel and Perucho’s daughters feared for his life.

For a week Perucho remained at Santa Rosa, and on August 10th, his condition worsened and Isabel asked Manuel Tamayo, described as an old soldier, who had served under the orders of Figueredo, to find help.  Instead, Tamayo was captured by a Spanish patrol and was taken to the Spanish General Canizal.  Under interrogation, he told Canizal where Figueredo was hiding and agreed to lead the Spanish to the place.

On August 14, 1870, the Spanish approached the village of Santa Rosa, led by Tamayo.  This time there was no warning and Perucho’s wife, Isabel, together with six of their children Eulalia, Blanca, Elisa, Isabel, Piedad, Pedrito, and María Esther were captured.

Perucho ordered those remaining to escape and to leave him behind.  Instead, his son, Gustavo, together with Carlos Manuel and Ricardo de Céspedes carried him to a hiding place outside the village and left him in the care of his daughter Candelaria and his servant Severino.  That evening Candelaria was separated from Perucho and the following morning the Spanish found him alone in the forest and as they surrounded him he fired wildly until his ammunition was gone.  He tried to avoid capture by throwing himself onto his sword but he was so weak he collapsed and the Spanish fell upon him and dragged him from the forest.  He was taken, on horseback, to Jobabo where Isabel and his children were being held.

The colonel Canizal allowed Eulalia to accompany Perucho, and they were taken on the gunboat Alerta to Manzanillo.  There, Perucho was put aboard the Astuto, bound for Santiago de Cuba, and Eulalia was confined in prison to await the arrival of the rest of the family.  Isabel, and the seven children captured at Santa Rosa were almost immediately deported from Cuba and set sail for New York.

In Santiago de Cuba, Perucho was charged with treason and brought before a court martial.  Once before the judges he answered the first question of the presiding officer with the words: “Colonel, let us keep this short.  I am a lawyer and as such, am acquainted with the law and know the penalty that faces me; but don’t think that you triumph, since the island is lost to Spain.  My death means nothing, since I am sure that even now my position is occupied by another person of greater capacity.  If I regret my death it is only due to not being able to enjoy with my brothers the glorious work of the liberation which has been planned and which has already begun.”

The interrogation continued but Figueredo refused to say more.  He was returned to his cell and that afternoon asked for an escribano [notary] in order to make his will and for paper and pen to write a final letter to his wife.  Later that afternoon, the announcement was made that Perucho was to be shot for the crime of treason, and that evening he received a emissary from the Count of Valmaseda offering him a pardon if he promised to never again fight against Spain.  Perucho refused the offer and added: “… I would hope not to be bothered in the last moments that I have left of life.”

The next day, he was awakened and ordered to march to the place of execution, the slaughterhouse where animals were butchered.  He protested that he was much too weak to march and asked his guards to bring him a carriage.  The guards replied that that would bring too much honor to a rebel leader and that they would provide an ass.  Perucho accepted saying:  “No es el primer redentor que cabalga sobre un asno”  [I won’t be the first redeemer that rides on an ass].

He was executed, flanked by two other patriots, Rodrigo Tamayo and his son Ignacio, in Santiago de Cuba, Oriente Province, Cuba, on August 17, 1870, his last words being: “To die for the homeland is to live!”  His body was placed in a common grave, the location of which is not known.

Isabel Vázquez and the seven children captured at Santa Rosa lived for a little more than a year in New York, sheltered by relatives and other Cuban exiles, until, on December 11, 1871, they moved to Key West, FL.  There they were joined by Candelaria, Luz and Angel María some time later.  Isabel died on May 2, 1873, and was buried in Key West Cemetery.  On her record of burial and on her head stone her name is spelled Ysabel V. de Figueredo.  Her headstone also includes the word “Mother”.  The family lot was described by Roberto Giraldo in January 2000, as being about five meters long and about four wide.  A small stone wall of about 30 cm in height and 20 wide surrounds it on all sides with a small entrance with a chain.  He added that it is in relatively good shape in spite of its age, hurricanes, etc.

In Santiage de Cuba, in the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia, is a monument to the martyrs of the Virginius, which is called, by Flora Mora, la tumba simbólica de Perucho [the symbolic tomb of Perucho].  Also in Santiago de Cuba, is el monumento a Figueredo, a marble obelisk with, on the front, a bust of Figueredo, and, on each side, a scene showing Perucho, mounted on his horse writing the words to La Bayamese, riding on the ass to his execution, and the words and music to La Bayamese.

In 1956, a monument to Figueredo was unveiled in Bayamo.  It is of white marble and resembles an open book, with a black marble pedestal supporting a bust of Perucho in the center.  Inset in each page is a panel of black marble, the one on the left containing the words and the one on the right, the music of La Bayamese.  On the reverse are engraved Perucho’s famous words: “Yo me uniré a Céspedes y con él marcharé a la gloria o al cadalso” and “No es el primer redentor que cabalga sobre un asno”.

#  Children of Perucho Figueredo and Isabel Vázquez: