Serafín Sánchez

Serafín Gualberto Sánchez Valdivia was a Cuban patriot, abolitionist and a participant of all three Cuban wars of independence. Additionally he participated in the Gómez-Maceo Plan. He reached the rank of major general. He participated in more than 120 fights. He was also a surveyor and teacher. Brother of Colonel Sabás Raimundo Sánchez Valdivia and Brigadier José Joaquín Sánchez Valdivia . He maintained a solid friendship with Máximo Gómez and José Martí, who considered him a brother.

Early years Sánchez was born on 2 July 1846, in the city of Sancti Spiritus, Cuba . He was one of the 22 children of Don Joaquín Sánchez Marín and Doña Isabel María de Valdivia y Salas, who came from colonial Sancti Spiritus families with well-off economic positions.

He experienced his youth between the rural town of Arroyo Blanco, where his family came from, and the larger city of Sancti Spiritus, where he was born. He completed primary studies at a Jesuit college in his hometown.

He managed to graduate as a surveyor, but he always longed to be a teacher, a job he would do in the heat of war.

Ten Years' War

He rose in arms on 6 February 1869 in the north of the present province of Sancti Spiritus with only 45 men. Four days after the first part in combat Mayajigua and then others such as Chambas, Palo Seco,

At the end of 1896 he returned to his native province, where he carried out several combats causing new defeats to the enemy.

On 18 November 1896, in the Battle of Paso de las Damas in the province of Las Villas against Spanish forces in large numbers exceeding the Mambisas.

After the objective of the battle was accomplished, he ordered the retreat. At that moment, a Mauser bullet passed through him from his right shoulder to his left and he fell into the arms of José Inés Fernández. Some who came to his aid heard his last words: "They have killed me! It does not matter, the march continues!". He died at 5:15 pm. He is buried at the Cementerio Municipal de Sancti Spiritus next to his mother Isabel Maria de Valdivia and his brothers.

Legacy He is considered alongside other figures like Gómez and Maceo, one of the main leaders of the Cuban War of Independence. His advanced ideology made him not only lash out against Spanish colonial rule, but also criticized the racism and homophobia within the independence movement hoping to create a fairer Cuba. He also warned about the intentions of the United States and its involvement in the Spanish-Cuban conflict. He stood out as a man of thought and action, with an elevated ideological stance and political vision.

Currently, the square of the revolution in the city of Sancti Spíritus bears his name and a statue was erected in his honor. His book Heroes Humildes y Poetas de la Guerra was published posthumously in 1911.