The profoundness of Juan Gualberto Gómez

When he died in Havana on March 5, 1933, the great patriot Juan Gualberto Gomez, born on July 12, 1854 from a slave womb, left a deep mark on his compatriots, not only as a pro-independence leader, but also for his moral integrity and professional brilliance as a champion of the rights of black people in a slave society and before minds eaten away by racial prejudice and who was never a sectarian.

He opposed segregation because he was every inch a follower of Marti who understood, and proved both in deed and in word as a journalist, that the unity of all Cubans was paramount to the sacred cause of freedom and justice.

Right before the outbreak of the Necessary War organized by José Martí, he earned the right to prepare the country for the struggle, a task into which he put his heart and soul for a long time in the midst of many difficulties.

Juan Gualberto had been born free because his parents bought his freedom since he was in his mother's womb and made his first cry be heard in the Vellocino sugar mill—in today’s Matanzas province—whose owner happened to be a humanitarian woman who felt great affection for him and his family, paid for the child’s primary studies, and helped them settle in Havana, where she made sure that the little boy continued his education in schools accessible to blacks.

In 1869, concerned about the westbound pro-independence fighters that started the war the year before, their benefactor decided to take the family to Paris, where Juan Gualberto could continue his education and make the most of his academic formation to forge a sound, principled culture that drew sustenance from the best and highest universal sources.

Back in his homeland in 1878, he met the future Apostle of Cuban independence, José Martí—who had traveled to the island incognito, since he was living abroad as an exile. Thus was the beginning of a friendship between them that lasted until the death of Martí, whose ideals Juan Gualberto cherished.

By the time they had met, the Ten Years' War had ended with the ignoble Zanjón Pact, opposed by patriots of the stature of Antonio Maceo and his many followers with the Baraguá Protest.

In 1879, Juan Gualberto was deported to Spain when his links with the conspirators of the Small War were discovered, and it was not until 1890 that he could return to his captive homeland and strengthen his bond with Martí, who was organizing in exile the last liberation campaign.

Juan Gualberto’s involvement in the uprising of February 24, 1895, which failed in his province despite his efforts, earned him imprisonment and banishment.

Once the Spanish rule in Cuba ended in 1898, forced by the Yankee military intervention that thwarted Cuban independence, he traveled to the United States, where he cooperated with the Cuban Revolutionary Party and, later in the year, he returned to Cuba and was elected delegate to the Assembly of Representatives of the Cuban Revolution, held on October 24, 1898 and then, on September 15, 1900, he was elected delegate from the East to the Constituent Assembly, from where he fought against the Platt Amendment.

Juan Gualberto fought for independence and human equality and joined hands with the first anti-imperialists who opposed the Amendment and U.S. plans to get hold of Cuba.

As a follower of Marti, he identified himself with the ideal of building a sovereign republic "with all and for the good of all".