Planes de los Disidentes de Santiago de Cuba Disfrazados en la Publicacion del Codigo de 1812 o Sea Verdadera Sublevacion del Jeneral D. Manuel Lorenzo
Newa-Orleans: En la Imprenta de Bayon, 1837. 28pp. Original printed wrappers. Moderate foxing, light soiling and creasing to wrappers. Light foxing to first couple of leaves, otherwise clean internally. Untrimmed. Very good. Item #3961
A screamingly-rare U.S. Spanish-language imprint concerning the liberal former governor of Santiago, Cuba, produced in New Orleans in 1837. Manuel Lorenzo Oterino (1785-1847) was a Lieutenant General and decorated war hero in the Spanish army. From 1835 through 1836, he served as Governor of the Province of Santiago, Cuba. A man of liberal political convictions, he took the side of dissident Cubans when the new Spanish Constitution revoked the status of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines (the remaining parts of the Spanish overseas empire) as provinces, relegating them to colonies with no right to representation in the Spanish Cortes and suppression of their democratically-elected local councils. Allied with wealthy landowners and other Cubans, Lorenzo led an armed rebellion that was ultimately defeated by the Governor of Cuba, Miguel Tacón Rosique. Lorenzo finally escaped Cuba and eventually returned to Spain.
The present work is critical of Lorenzo's rebellious activities against Spain's colonialist machinations in Cuba. An excerpt from the text provides a flavor of the work: "...it is with the greatest pain in our souls, although without surprise, that we have read in public papers of Spain that General Manuel Lorenzo, after having instigated the uprising in Santiago de Cuba, after having repeatedly disobeyed royal orders and the instructions of the Captain General of that island, after having associated with dissidents from that country, and after having armed even Blacks in favor of his cause...he has just been promoted to Captain General of Valencia Cartagena and Murcia, and is in line to take command of the Northern army and any number of other promotions and rewards that should be given only for loyalty...."
In the early 19th century, New Orleans had a thriving Spanish-language press that produced the first Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, El Misisipí, in 1808, published by pro-Royalist Spanish exiles in response to the French invasion of their country. Given the city’s multicultural population at the time, and its historical ties with the Spanish-speaking world, it is not surprising that events of this kind would be closely followed or that this imprint, which is highly critical of Governor Lorenzo’s pro-Liberal administration in Cuba, would have been published there at the time.
Spanish-language imprints from this period are exceedingly rare in the present-day market, and just as hard to find in institutions. Plus, they usually emanate from Philadelphia or New York. This is the first Spanish-language imprint from Louisiana that we have handled, and benefits from being entirely untrimmed and unsophisticated. Not in Jumonville, though numerous Bayon imprints are included by her. OCLC records just two copies in the United States, at Florida and the University of New Orleans, and only a couple more in Spain.
Palau 228418.
Price: $7,500.00