Manuel Rojas (revolutionary)

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Drawing by Manuel Rojas

Manuel Rojas (* 1820 in Caracas , Venezuela ; † unknown) was one of the leaders in the Grito de Lares against the Spanish colonial government in Puerto Rico in 1868.

In the early 1800s, Venezuela's economy was in turmoil due to international wars. Rojas moved with his Puerto Rican father and Venezuelan mother to Puerto Rico, where they settled near Lares . Together with his brother Miguel, Manuel Rojas managed a 1.2 km² coffee plantation, which they called "El Triunfo" and which helped them to prosper. After Miguel met his future wife Mariana Bracetti on a trip to Añasco , the couple also moved to the plantation where Manuel already lived with his family.

Manuel Rojas admired Ramón Emeterio Betances and joined his independence movement with his brother. The Revolutionary Committee that Betances and Segundo Ruiz Belvis founded and led from the Dominican Republic , together with revolutionary cells in the western cities of the island, planned an armed invasion of Puerto Rico. Rojas headed the cell located on his plantation and known by the code name “Centro Bravo”, which was one of the most important alongside the “Capa Prieto” in Mayagüez , headed by Mathias Brugman . Betances referred to Rojas as "Commander of the Liberation Army", while Rojas' sister-in-law Mariana Bracetti acted as "Leader of the Lares Revolutionary Council". By order of Betances, she also sewed the revolutionary flag "La Bandera de Lares".

The Spanish authorities were able to confiscate an armed ship from Betances before arriving in Puerto Rico, but the mayor of Camuy , who was involved in the revolution , Manuel Gonzalez, escaped after his preliminary arrest and warned Manuel Rojas. In view of these events, the rebels decided to start the revolution as soon as possible, namely on September 28, 1868. Manuel Rojas marched with Mathias Brugman and around 800 men and women to Lares and took the city at the Grito de Lares .

With his men armed only with club machetes, Rojas moved on to San Sebastian . The previously warned Spanish army was already waiting for them with firearms. Upon their arrival, the revolutionaries were met with fatal shots.

The revolution failed. Many revolutionaries died and at least 475 of them, including Manuel Rojas and Mariana Bracetii, were imprisoned in Arecibo and sentenced to death. However, some prisoners managed to escape. Mathias Brugman hid in a farm, but was betrayed by an employee named Francisco Quiñones and executed on the spot by the Spanish.

On September 20, 1869, the new governor of Puerto Rico, Jose Sanz, granted all prisoners a general amnesty by order of the Spanish government. What happened to Manuel Rojas after his release from prison is not known. But he is still considered to be one of the greatest representatives of Puerto Rico's independence.