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AfroCubaWeb
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Eugène
Godfried
“I
am innocent.
1809 March 18th: Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés is born in calle Bernaza, Havana, son of Diego Ferrer Matoso and the Spanish dancer Concepción Vázquez.
April 6th. Deposited by his mother at the Real Casa
de Beneficiencia. His father collects him and gave him away to his grandmother
on his father's side for further care.
1819-1821
Receives lessons from teacher and poet Pedro J. del Sol. Enters school for
poor children, which allowed ‘coloreds’ to assist at the Colegio Belén. He
studies at Colegio El Angel with Francisco Bandarián.
1821
Interrupts his studies. Starts working at a carpenter’s. Starts
working at the workshop of designer Vicente Escobar.
1823
At José
Severino Boloña’s printing shop he becomes an apprentice of typography.
1825-1826
He holds
the profession of maker of peinetas/ornamental shell - combs.
1826
He moves to Matanzas towards the end of the year and works in the
establishment of Nicolás Bota and Ponce de León. Begins to be known as a poet.
1832
Returns to Havana. Works in many gold workshops. Made friends with Ramón
Vélez Herrera, Ignacio Valdés Machuca and other poets and writers. Love
affairs with Fela
(Rafaela), free woman of African descent.
1833
Fela dies during the cholera epidemic which hits Havana.
1834
Participates in the party of Arroyo Apoo, paying homage to the Spanish
poet Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, who just became a Minister. His composition
“La siempreviva” won the poetical competition.
1836
Returns to Matanzas. He marries a woman by the name of
“Celia” in his poems. He made friends with Sebastián Alfredo de
Morales, Lince.
Is visited by José María Heredia.
1837
Collaborates with different newspapers. Continuous economic difficulties.
1838
Is jailed for seven days as a consequence of a debt.
1839
Interview with Andrés de la Flor, a Cuban who became a general in the
Mexican army. He dedicates a poem to him.
1840
Travels to Trinidad and Santa Clara. Visits Cienfuegos, Remedios, and
Sagua la Grande. Is detained for a short period. At the end of this year he
returns to Matanzas.
1841
Publishes in Matanzas "El veguero," with poems
dedicated to his friends in Villa Clara.
1842
November 27th , marries María Gila Morales y Poveda, in
Matanzas.
1843 Makes a new trip without his wife. Is detained shortly in Villa Clara. Arrested and jailed for six months in Trinidad on April 6th. Once freed, returns to Matanzas in November.
1844
January 30th: Is arrested because of the so called “Conspiración de la Escalera”, “Ladder Conspiracy”. From June 3rd thru June 5th the trial takes place.
June 12th : Sentenced to death. The poet was framed and sentenced in a trial without
evidence [2].
June 22nd : The sentence is approved by Captain General Leopoldo O’Donnell.
June 28th :
Plácido is shot and killed along with ten colleagues.
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Juan Gualberto Gómez (1852 - 1933), gave full support to the poet. In a gathering in commemoration of his death in1892, he pronounced these words:
“The
class of color in Matanzas of that epoch occupied a very interesting situation on
the island: rich, illustrated, cultured, with dignified behavior and aware, their
existence must have preoccupied the rulers then, who, thinking with a certain
cleverness, could not deny that those men had to detest the despotism and
therefore, sooner or later, would have to cooperate at all cost to ensure the
liberty of their race as well as the rights of their country. That is why the
tyranny was not only contented for having snatched away their lives, but they
also made all Machiavellian efforts
to attribute to them the despised project of assassination of whites, with the
objective of causing indignation and fear of them and to establish division
between the two large branches of the Cuban family…[3]”
If we stick to the words of [Domingo] Del Monte
himself, the British Consul was the head of the conspiracy and would become the
Provisional Governor, “in the
event of a happy ending he would have an efficient asssistant.[5]
The investigation was directed in the first instance against the blacks who
could be leaders for being the most distinguished ones. Miguel Aldama said then
that on the list appeared, “Manzano, Ble Rely, Plácido, Ceballos, Brindis and
any prominent and talented Black man”. It was also directed against whites,
who for their opposition to the trade or for the friendship with the British
Consul, could intend to help the slaves or use them. Among the most notable ones
were Luz Caballero, Del Monte, Félix Tanco, Benigno Gener, Manuel Martínez
Serrano and others. And those who sympathized with the North-Americans were
closely watched. They were considered to be enemies of Spain[6].
THE CRIMINAL PROCESS OF JANUARY 1844
In the criminal process which was initiated in January 1844, there was no search for the participants in the Sabanilla uprisings of those days. They were considered as mere slave protests as many others during the epoch of colonialism in Cuba. They were looking for those who participated in Treaties with the British or North-Americans to achieve independence or annexation. Also they were after all those who struggled or could struggle for the suppression of slave trade and the abolition of slavery, which maintaining its existence the government considered of vital importance to the benefit of the slave-traders and the conservation of the colonial regime.
The government of O’Donnell knew that in Matanzas they were not killing the head of the conspiration of Blacks against Whites, but a poet who with his shots praised liberty and condemned tyranny[7].
For the judges Cerice, Flores, Plácido and others were just individuals that the government wanted to “suppress” or “liquidate” after
forcing them to make declarations which could serve as a pretext to conduct the procedure against persons whose culpability could not be proven otherwise.
As is said, “the victims were chosen among the class of well – to – do colored people,
alleging those who were renown for their outstanding aptitudes to be guides and heads of groups”
[8]. January 30th of 1844,
thirty-eight days after having been condemned by Oviedo and his concubine; while dancing at a party with friends, Plácido was detained and jailed, for most likely being regarded as the most popular and enlightened man among the Blacks of his epoch
[9].
NO EVIDENCE!
No matter how they searched, there were no evidence at all. It was better then to produce them. There were no instruments of torture, neither was there sufficient intelligence to invent them. But, in the gloomy dwelling of Soto there was a mason’s ladder, which was inoffensive until then. In those obtuse minds unexpectedly an idea appeared. What serves to build, should serve to destroy, why not? That ladder could serve as an object to hurt, molest and
martyr presumed guilty ones. It was sufficient to tie them with feet and hands, face down, so that their back would be free to receive the whips. The beaten one could support few of the many lashes; but, how many individuals could resist the wish not to sign a declaration which could put an end to their
martyrdom? If he dies in that place, there would be no difficulty, since the assassination would be called suicide. If he died at once, then the unfortunate one will be brought to the house of Espinola; and when registering his decease, it was said that the cause of
disfunction were diarrheas. An awful amount of Blacks and mulattoes died in that manner in the fatal year of 1844. From then it was called “the lashes year.”[10].
CRIMINAL TRIAL CONSPIRACY OF PEOPLE OF COLOR AGAINST WHITES?
This was the process that the Military Commission called “Criminal Trial: Conspiration against People of Color against Whites”. They deliberately tried to make believe that all those
accused were moved by hatred against whites. The intention was to justify the massacres of the year 1844. The drive for
luxury made the tribunals be more demanding against free Blacks and mulattoes whose economic position enabled them to possess some money. Among those who were finally sentenced, let us count one thousand a hundred and
eighteen (1118) freed men and only six hundred and eighty (680) slaves. For the government, the free Black man, more intelligent, was more dangerous than the slave. Besides, the imprisonment and death of the slave would
affect the interest of the master.
Racism could not be and was not what the government truly persecuted and condemned. The Capitan General and his tribunals wanted to punish those who thought like Turnbull. Thus, in the year 1844 there was a framed up judicial process with political
purposes, it was not a “conspiracy of Blacks” as some historians still say
[11].
WAS PLACIDO GUILTY AT ALL?
Precisely
because that fantastic
Conspiración
de la Escalera
never existed, we can be convinced that Gabriel
de la Concepción Valdés [Plácido]
never took part in such an event. It was impossible.
But, did the inspired poet have any participation in the Anglo – Cuban
conspiracy of Turnbull? It is not possible to affirm that categorically; but it
is plausible and should have been the case. He was compassionate, suffered, and
for being very intelligent, he had to go through lots of hardships, more than
those whose pain he was sadly watching [12].
THE JAMAICAN GUARDIAN AND PATRIOT NEWSPAPER EXPRESSING CARIBBEAN SOLIDARITY WITH PLÁCIDO
On May 15th of the year 1845, the newspaper “The Jamaican Guardian and Patriot” in Kingston,
published the idea of Joseph Saoul to erect in that city a monument to the memory of the
Cuban poet considering him a victim of the slave-traders and slave-holders
[13].
Manuel
Sanguily, mouthpiece of the Euro-Iberian elite in Cuba, was one of the toughest critics of Plácido
and accused him of playing with words, hopping
with sounds and rhyme like a rope-dancer; but he recognizes that “he is saved
by some sonnets and rondelets, various epigrams and the verses Jicotencal, Cora,
and El pajarillo.
JOSÉ LUCIANO FRANCO EULOGIZES PLÁCIDO
In
his very timely publication “Acerca de Plácido”/On Plácido the Cuban historian José Luciano
Franco
offers us his vision on the polemic related to the poet Plácido: "In the last
decade of the XXth century, the Cuban people regarded Plácido as being part and parcel of the popular
struggle against the Spanish tyranny, together with the struggle for national liberation
carried out abroad by Martí and in Cuba by Don Juan Gualberto Gómez en Cuba. That state of the national spirit is
reflected by Juan Gualberto in his
paper
Of course, this article provoked violent responses. Newspapers in Villa Clara came out in defence of Plácido. A writer from Villa Clara, using the nickname Juan de la Cruz, made a brochure with favourable opinions on Plácido published in La Defensa de Villa Clara. The press in Havana: La Igualdad, La Nueva Era y El Criterio Conservador, adopted Juan de la Cruz’s thesis against Manuel Sanguily. The latter in a new article said: “Otra vez Plácido y Menéndez y Pelayo, (Reparo a censuras apasionadas)”, in Hojas Literarias, march 31 of 1894: “Saying that the people adores the memory of his unfortunate poet, is not a prove neither that the poet was that to his people, nor that
his people’s adoration to their poet is legitimate.”
The highest stage of the unjust criticism expressed by Sanguily came out in his last essay in which he does not even spare Enrique José Varona – “Una opinión asenderada”, Hojas Literarias, noviembre 30 de junio de 1894.
He pretended destroying the love of the cuban people for the poet with this affirmation:
"No, I am not disrespectful neither alien to the legitimate glories of any people, much less ours, which are few; but Placido is not a true glory of Cuba.
Whether or not he was hypocritical against the whites, he definitely was no more than a poor devil: a poet without dignity; a vicious artisan; a
misadventurer, an abject denouncer…" Manuel Sanguily appears again in El Figaro, Havana 21st of March 1909, and writes: “El poema perdido de Plácido”/The lost poem of Plácido”. We conclude our extract of opinions by José Luciano Franco in his article, “Plácido: una polémica que tiene cien años”, La Habana Ediciones Unión, 1964.
[14]
CONCLUSION
Plácido was an illustrious precursor and martyr of the political independence of
Cuba, just like his forerunner José Antonio Aponte y Ulbarra
(1812). He also saw as one the need for the abolition of slavery and the end of racism in his country
[15].
While approaching his execution, Plácido stood before his fellows and urged them to die courageously. He marched ahead reciting with a loud, clear and musical voice the poem “A PLEA TO GOD”, his last very sad composition.
