Ignacio Agramonte

Ignacio Agramonte y Loynáz (born December 23, 1841 in Puerto Príncipe (today: Camagüey ), † May 11, 1873 in Jimaguayú ) was a Cuban lawyer and freedom fighter during the struggle for independence against Spain (1868-1878).

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Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz

Monument in Camagüey : Ignacio Agramonte

Agramonte was born in Puerto Príncipe, central Cuban, and sent his family to Havana at the age of 14 to study at the El Salvador Institute of the student Félix Varelas and the philosopher José de la Luz y Caballero . De la Luz was considered the educator of a whole generation of Cuban intellectuals who laid the foundation for the emergence of Cuban national consciousness. Then Agramonte attended the University of San Jerónimo , which he left with the legal state examination.

After the call of Yara ( Grito de Yara ), the call of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in the Oriente province to fight for a free Cuba against Spanish colonial rule, Agramonte joined other freedom fighters in Puerto Príncipe (his brother Eduardo Agramonte Loynaz , Francisco Sánchez Betancourt , Salvador Cisneros Betancourt and others) for the “Assembly of Representatives of the Center”. The fighters from the large families of ranchers in the Puerto Príncipe region soon formed important cavalry units in the Mambí army.

In the gathering of Guáimaro , the Constituent Assembly of the Cuban Republic in Arms , Ignacio Agramonte and his brother were elected on 10 April 1869 Parliament Secretaries.

Under Agramonte, Puerto Príncipe became one of the three pillars of the Cuban struggle for independence (alongside Oriente and Las Villas ).

On May 11, 1873, Ignacio Agramonte was surprised by a Spanish unit near Jimaguayú and was shot in the right chest. On the orders of the Spanish governor Ampudia, his body was publicly displayed and cremated on May 12th.

His portrait is depicted on the 500 CUP banknote.