José Antonio Saco

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José Antonio Saco

José Antonio Saco y López Cisneros (born May 7, 1797 in Bayamo , † September 26, 1879 in Barcelona ) was a Cuban journalist, historian and social critic. He is considered one of the leading intellectual champions of the Cuban independence movement and fighter for the liberation of slaves.

Life

José Antonio Saco studied philosophy and law at the Seminario San Basilio Magno , Cuba's oldest higher education institution in Santiago de Cuba , and at the Seminario San Carlos y San Ambrosio in Havana . He also acquired a good knowledge of medieval European history as well as the history of Latin America and became a teacher at the Colegio in the Buenavista district of Havana. He valued the importance of a functioning public education system for the development of the economy and society.

After the Haitian Revolution (1791-1803) was not of this world at that time the most important sugar producing country sugar more on the world market sold. Many French sugar growers emigrated to Cuba. From 1800 they started the labor-intensive cultivation of sugar cane; after a short time it was grown on all high-yielding soils. As a result, Cuba experienced a boom in slavery . An opponent of this slave society was Padre Félix Varela y Morales who emigrated to New York . As his student, José Antonio Saco founded the reforming weekly magazine Mensajero Semanal (33 issues 1828–1831) in the USA. However, he was opposed to the annexation of Cuba by the USA, which at the time had many supporters in Cuba.

In 1829 the Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País Sacos honored the work Memorias sobre los Caminos de la Isla de Cuba by José Antonio Saco with a gold medal, 200 pesos and an honorary membership. In this work he suggested applying the economic policy experience of England and the USA to Cuba. In 1830 he published Memorias sobre la Vagancia en la Isla de Cuba , in which he dealt with the effects of slavery on vagabondism.

In 1834 the Spanish governor Miguel Tacón y Rosique had him deported. In 1837 and 1845 he toured Europe.

In exile he married María Dolores Frías, the widow of Narciso López and sister of Francisco de Frías y Jacott (1809–1877), Conde de Pozos Dulces. In 1860 he returned to Cuba and joined the last unsuccessful reformist attempts to gain autonomy. After a short time he went into exile again in Barcelona, ​​where he continued to hope for political reforms, and became a member of parliament there. His most important work is his comprehensive Historia de la esclavitud . After an old age spent in poverty, he died in 1879, when the first Cuban war of freedom had just ended unsuccessfully; his remains were transferred to Cuba on August 17, 1880 and buried on August 20, 1880 in the Necrópolis de Colón .

Publications

Saco published or translated works on physics, chemistry and agriculture as well as Thomas Jefferson's Handbook of Parliamentarism .

Major works
  • Memorias sobre los Caminos de la Isla de Cuba , New York 1830, new editions: Paris 1858/59, Barcelona 1877 (History of Cuba)
  • Ideas sobre la incorporacion de Cuba en los Estados Unidos , 1848 (essay)
  • Historia de la esclavitud , 1877 (source-rich three-volume work on the history of slavery)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ José Antonio Saco, cubano extraordinario. In: www.cubanet.org , September 26, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Saco, José Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban journalist
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Bayamo , Cuba
DATE OF DEATH September 26, 1879
Place of death Barcelona