11/17 The memory of Gabriel Concepcion de la Valdez the mulatto poet, is cherished as that of a saint. He was accused by the Spanish government of complicity in the slave insurrection of 1844 and condemned to be shot in his native town, Matanzas. One bright morning in May he stood by the old statue of Ferdinand VII. in the Plaza d'Armas, calmly facing a row of muskets, along whose shining barrels the sun glinted. Bleeding from several wounds, he still stood erect, and, pointing to his heart, said in a clear voice, "Aim here!" Another mulatto author, educator and profound thinker was Antonio Medina, a priest and professor of San Basilio the Greater. |