José Miguel Gómez

Soldier; man of affairs; statesman; ax-President of the Republic of Cuba.

José Miguel Gómez was born in the year 1858 in the ancient town of Sancti Spiritus and here, in a Colegio maintained by the Society of Jesus, he obtained his early education. After some years he proceeded to Havana and entered the Institute there. Meantime the Ten Years' War which disturbed the country from 1868 to 1818 was raging and at last the call to arms became too urgent for young Gómez to resist and, in 1876, only a short time before his graduation from the Institute, he joined the forces in the field and fought to the end of the war in Sancti Spiritus.

From this time on he has taken part in nearly every political movement in Cuba. He had a prominent and not inglorious share in the War of Independence, joining the forces of General Serafin Sánchez in the early conflict and continuing in arms until the close. He was made Lieutenant Colonel in command of the " Máximo Gómez" regiment and rose from rank to rank by valor in the field, becoming Colonel by reason of the battle of Palo Prieto --one of the most important battles of the war! becoming Brigadier General by the battle of Santa Teresa--where he was wounded--and finally winning the rank of Major General by valor in the field at Gíbaro and Arroyo Blanco.

General Gómez enjoyed the special confidence and regard of the Commander-in Chief Máximo Gómez, to such a degree that when Maceo was killed, he was selected to take Maceo's place in command of the forces in the West. For this duty Gómez began to organize a force of volunteers, but so numerous were these that the mandate was recalled, the Commander-in Chief fearing that his army would be weakened and he himself be deprived of an indispensable associate. During these strenuous times Gómez lived a life of incessant toil and combat--at one period, during General Weyler's campaign in the Sancti Spiritus region, fighting no fewer than seventeen minor engagements in one day.

It was General Gómez' good fortune in all these combats, great and small, never to have been defeated, though often engaged with much superior forces of the enemy and on one occasion, when the force at his command amounted only to seventy men, taking captive no fewer than two hundred Spanish cavalry, men, horses, and equipment.

At the close of the war, General Gómez was elected Representative to the famous Last Assembly of the Revolution which met first in Santa Cruz del Sur and later in the Cerro at Havana. He was also a member of the commission which was sent to Washington to obtain a settlement of the soldiers' claims for back pay, his associates being Generals Calixto García, González Lanuza, Villaldn and Sanguily. In 1898 he was appointed Governor of Las Villas, under the American Intervention, and was continued in the same office by the votes of his fellow-citizens at the election of I90I. In 1905 he was the candidate of the Liberal party for the Presidency of the Republic but failed of election. Whereupon, after a visit to the United States, he devoted himself for a time to business interests, acting as head of the Silveira Sugar Co.

When the Revolution of 1906 occurred Gómez was arrested and placed under indictment, but was released at the order of the American Commissioners, Taft and Bacon. General Gómez now devoted himself to politics; he was again nominate for the Presidency by the Liberal-Historical party which fused with the old Liberal party and elected its candidate in 1908.

The administration of General Gómez (I909-I9I3) was marked by many achievements, among which was the reorganization of the army, the increase of the national marine, the improvement of the ports roads, and bridges, the construction of railways, the improvement of the condition of the workingmen, and the enlargement of the public schools.

Following the election in I9I2 of General Menocal, candidate of the Conservative party, General Gómez made an extended visit to Europe, and on his return abstained from politics until the Presidential election of I9I6 when he gave his utmost efforts to secure the election of Alfredo Zayas. On the defeat of Zayas in a disputed election, there were various disorders which grew to the proportions of a revolution in which General Gómez became involved and in February, I9I7, he was seized and imprisoned for a brief period after which he retired to

the United States.