Major General Pedro Agustín Pérez House Museum: the memories of the General did not emigrate

Following the death of Major General Pedro Agustin Perez on April 13, 1914, his fellow citizen, the exquisite poet from the province of Guantanamo Regino Boti (1878-1958), suggested a work to perpetuate the memory of the patriot.

This audacious renovator of the early Hispanic-American lyric wrote then: "The Museum (...) would not be badly placed (...) in the house where he lived his last years in this city, and where (...) his wake was held. Thus we will prevent many of his memories, essential to institute a local historical fund, from emigrating.”

Such fund of furniture and personal objects are now kept in the House Museum Major General Pedro Agustin Perez, inaugurated on July 16, 2013, by Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, then First Vice President of the Councils of State and Ministers.

Needless to say, the bard’s project was delayed for almost a century, during which the passage of time and the neglect of successive dwellers took a toll such that by the late 1980s the house of the province’s first rebel of the War of 1895 was in a very poor condition that required extensive restoration.

Alejandro Jardines Almarales, holder of a Master of Science Degree in History and director of this memorial center, says that the museum “recreates the typical colonial house of the late 19th century, not great in architectural terms but an excellent reference to the exceptional man who lived in it since 1904".

Four exhibition halls displays original objects related to the saga of the local pro-independence mambi fighters led by "Periquito", as the Major General was affectionately nicknamed, who had important responsibilities as military chief in the region of today’s Guantánamo province, which he turned into the rearguard of the Revolution.

Many local museumgoers are young people interested in learning about the only man in the province to reach the rank of Major General—the highest in the Cuban Liberation Army—and who was a colonel on February 24, 1895 when he spearheaded the “Cry of La Confianza” 127 years ago.

In his historical essay El 24 de febrero de 1895, Boti highlighted the role of regional residents in the uprisings that took place that day across Cuba, which marked the beginning of the war for the definitive independence of the Island, contrary to the conventional belief that the appeal for liberation from Spain was mostly the result of the actions undertaken in the eastern town of Baire.

Seven armed rebellions took place in the region of Guantánamo alone which were all the more valuable in that they facilitated the landing of José Martí—organizer of the war—Máximo Gómez, Antonio Maceo, Flor Crombet and other top leaders along the eastern coasts.
That is why Pedro Agustín Pérez is honored today with this facility that holds plenty of evidence of his revolutionary work, jealously preserved so that, as Boti wanted, the indispensable memories of our patriotic history, and that of the province of Guantánamo, do not emigrate.