Eulalia Figueredo y Vazquez and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y Cespedes

[her parents]                                                                         [his parents]

Eulalia (Yayita ¹) Figueredo y Vazquez was born in 1840 or 1841, in Bayamo, (or in 1846, according to Antonio Cacua Prada ¹) and, in either 1858 or 1859, married Carlos Manuel (Carlitos) de Cespedes y Cespedes ¹ in Bayamo.  Carlitos was the oldest son of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo and María del Carmen de Céspedes y del Castillo, and was born in Bayamo on January 3, 1840.  Eulalia and Carlitos had five children, Isabel, Eulalia, Carmen, Carlos Manuel, and Oscar.

On October 16, 1868, Perucho Figueredo told his wife and children about the plan to attack Bayamo.  He drew for Eulalia a picture of the flag that Carlos Manuel de Céspedes had had made and asked her to make one like it.  He sent Severino, his slave, into the city to buy cloth of the correct colors and when he returned, Eulalia began to sew the flag.  She made it less square than Céspedes’ flag, and sewed the star not quite vertical and the flag, when finished, was “admired by all.”  Then, after her sister, Candelaria had agreed to carry the flag into battle, it was Eulalia who sewed the dress that she would wear.

The attack on Bayamo began with Candelaria carrying the flag, flanked by her brother Gustavo on one side and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Céspedes on the other.  Carlitos was so impressed by the bravery of the16 year old Candelaria that he conferred on her the rank of coronel.  On October 20, 1868, Bayamo was taken but, nearly three months later, faced with a large Spanish force, the defenders decided to burn the city rather than allow the Spanish to re-occupy it.

This done, in December 1868, the families of Figueredo and Céspedes, along with the families of the other revolutionaries took to the mountainous areas of Oriente where they lived in hiding for nearly two years.  In August 1870,  Spanish soldiers, under a Colonel Cañizal, approached the village of Santa Rosa and Eulalia, along with her mother, her brother, Pedro, and several of her sisters were captured.  José Maceo Verdecia, in his book Bayamo, wrote that Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Céspedes “was opened by being put to the machete.”  Flora Mora, in her Biographia de Perucho Figueredo wrote that Carlos Manuel “… fought … as much as was possible but could not avoid being captured.”  Yet another source, says that Carlos Manuel, his brother Ricardo de Céspedes, and Perucho’s son, Gustavo Figueredo, carried Perucho, who was extremely sick, to a hidden place, leaving him in the care of his daughter, Candelaria and his servant, Severino.

Carlos Manuel may have been captured at Santa Rosa, but no mention of this appears in El Diario Perdido by Eusebio Leal Spengler.  Instead, he tells that Carlitos, on February 27, 1874, was with his father at San Lorenzo, in Oriente, the day he, the father, was ambushed and killed.  Carlitos heard the shots from a distance and rushed to the scene, but, by the time he arrived, the Spanish had left, taking the body of his father with them.  Carlitos gathered up several of his possessions which lay around and buried them in the place where he had died.  Days later the place was marked with a cross.

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Céspedes was described as coronel del Ejército Cubano durante la Guerra de los Diez Años [colonel of the Cuban Army during the Ten Years’ War], jefe de despacho [chief of the office] de Figueredo, jefe de la División de Bayamo [chief of the Division of Bayamo], preboste general [provost general] en 1870, jefe de estado mayor y de los ayudantes [chief of the staff and aides] del Presidente de la República en Armas, secretario del gabinete [secretary of the cabinet] del Presidente Céspedes in 1873, etc.

Eulalia was captured, with her mother and several of her siblings at Santa Rosa, and was taken to Jobabo where, the next day, Perucho arrived, under heavy guard.  He was put aboard the gunboat Alerta for transfer to Manzanillo.  Eulalia begged to be allowed to accompany her father who was critically ill and the colonel Canizal agreed.  She stayed with Perucho as far as Manzanillo but when he was transferred to the Astuto for passage to Santiago de Cuba she wasn’t allowed to go any further and was held in the prison of Manzanillo, to await the arrival of her mother and sisters.

Eulalia was deported shortly afterwards, and, with her mother and sisters, sailed to New York where they lived until December 11, 1871, when they moved to Key West.  On October 28, 1873, Carlos Manuel Céspedes del Castillo, Eulalia’s father in law, mentioned in his diary the “grievous news of the illness of Eulalia” and Eulalia died in Key West, on August 25, 1876, and was buried in Key West Cemetery.

Sometime after February 1874, Carlitos left Cuba for Jamaica, and then came to Key West, where, we assume, he was reunited with Eulalia.  He was presidente del Club Revolucionario de Key West and was elected mayor of Key West in 1876.  On May 12, 1877, in Monroe, FL he married Francisca Andre y Guerrero with whom he had a daughter, María Francisca de Céspedes y Andre.²  On March 25, 1882, also in Monroe, FL he married Luisa Campuzano y La Madrid and they returned to Cuba where they had three children, Rosalia Natalia, Luisa del Pilar, and, in 1884, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Campuzano.  Later, even, he married Victoria Sariol y Cruz.  Carlitos died in Manzanillo in 1915.

#  Children of Eulalia Figueredo and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes:

i               Isabel de Cespedes y Figueredo

ii              Eulalia de Cespedes y Figueredo

iii             Carmen de Cespedes y Figueredo

iv             Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y Figueredo

v              Oscar de Cespedes y Figueredo

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¹  Source: Historia de Familias Cubanas, Vol. VIII, page 92 (Figueredo)

²  Footnote: María Francisca de Céspedes y Andre married Manuel Hilario de Céspedes y Antunez.