Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. Foto: Internet
The initiator of the wars for national liberation was the lawyer Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a Cuban with patriotic ideas, who marked the course of the Homeland.
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Lopez del Castillo was a Cuban independence leader, who started the Ten Years' War, to take up arms against the government of Spain on October 10, 1868, announcing his plan to struggle with the Manifesto Revolutionary Junta, granting freedom to their slaves and inviting them to join the anticolonial struggle.
The sugar mill La Demajagua marked the place where the uprising began, and with the cry of ¡Viva Cuba Libre !, called Grito de Yara, proclaimed the independence of Cuba. In this way the Ten Years' War began. One of the first important actions was the taking of the City of Bayamo, an event that also marked the birth of our National Anthem on October 20, 1868. Céspedes was Major General of the Liberation Army and First President of the Republic of Cuba in arms.
An event that marked the spirit of sacrifice of this man was the loss of his son Oscar and his historical words: '' ... Oscar is not my only son: I am the father of all Cubans who have died for the Revolution '' . For this reason Cespedes bears the nickname of the Father of the Nation.