Fernando Freyre de Andrade


Lawyer; soldier; magistrate; administrator.

Señor Freyre de Andrade was born in the city of Havana on the tenth of September, 1863. His early studies were pursued in Havana in the Colegios of Carcasés and of Don José Alonso Delgado; where he completed the courses leading to the Bachelor's degree, going thence to the Universities of Havana and Madrid to continue his studies in the Law in which he graduated from Havana in 1885.

In 1890 he was made substitute Prosecuting Attorney of the Audiencia of Havana, in 1894 he was made substitute Magistrate, and during the same period he acted as Secretary and Counsel of the Casa de Bene.licencia y Maternidad.

When the War of Independence broke out Señor Freyre de Andrade left Cuba and went to the United States where in due course he placed himself under the direction of Tomas Estrada Palma who was guiding the Revolutionary forces in New York. He embarked on the third expedition of the Dauntless landing in Rio Hondo de San Juan on the thirteenth of October, 1896. He then served under General Máximo Gómez who placed him in command of his Cavalry. In the same year the Council of Government named him Auditor General of the Army Legal Staff attached to General Headquarters. In September, 1897, he was elected Representative of the Fifth Army Corps in the Second Legislative Assembly of the Revolution which met at Yaya, Camaguey. At the close of the Assembly the Council appointed him chief of the Military Legal Staff with the rank of Brigadier General, and at the end of the war he was elected to represent the Fifth Army Corps in the last Assembly of the Revolution which met, first in Santa Cruz del Sur and later in Cerro in Havana--of which Assembly he was elected alternate President with General Capote.

When the legal division of the Government was organized under the American Intervention, Freyre de Andrade was made Magistrate of the Audiencia of Havana. Later General Wood appointed him Prosecuting Attorney (Fiscal) of the Audiencia, and when the Republic was constituted President Palma appointed him Fiscal of the Supreme Court. This office he resigned to become Secretary of Gobernación in 1905. In the same year he was elected Representative and was also chosen President of the House of Representatives where he continued until Governor Magoon, at the second American Intervention, suspended the functions of Congress.

General Freyre de Andrade was one of the founders of the Republican party. For a period he abstained from politics on account of his duties as Magistrate, but after becoming Secretary of Gobernación he took part in the activities of the Moderate party as long as it survived, whereupon he shared in organizing the Conservative party with which he remains allied.

In 1912 he was elected Mayor (alcalde Municipal) of Havana and occupied the office until 1916 when he retired before the end of his term on account of illness.