Cirilo Villaverde

Journalist, novelist, teacher, translator and writer, author of the classic Cuban novel "Cecilia Valdés" or "La Loma del ángel", considered the masterpiece of Cuban letters of the 19th century, which has been made into a film and assigned as a base to the zarzuela of the same name, by Gonzalo Roig. Arrested in 1848 and sentenced to prison for his separatist ideas regarding the Spanish crown. In New Orleans he published "The Independent." Under the protection of an amnesty granted by the Spanish government, he returns to Havana, where he held other positions related to the publishing world, and collaborated with various publications. At the outbreak of the Cuban war of independence against Spanish colonialism (1868) he joined the Revolutionary Junta established in New York.