On March 9th, 1951, the bust of the priest Pablo Gonfau Palomares was inaugurated in Cristo Park in the city of Camagüey; patriot from this land, who, from the priesthood, supported the Cuban cause during the War of Independence.

According to the historian Desiderio Borroto, Gonfau was born in Guáimaro in 1859 and at the age of 26 he was ordained a priest, taking care of the parishes of Nuevitas and San Miguel, as well as being an assistant priest in the Major Parish of Puerto Príncipe.

He was a sympathizer of the independence cause and with the outbreak of the Necessary War in 1895 he supported the insurrection through the information that he gathered about the Spanish troops.

As a curiosity, Gonfau was in charge of taking the instruments out of the city of Puerto Príncipe so that the Music Band of the Third Corps of the Liberation Army of Camagüey could be formed.

“Peín” as he was also known, refused, due to his religious vocation, the ranks of captain. These had been conferred on him for his outstanding contribution to the cause.

Borroto adds that in the Republic established in 1902, Gonfau was elected councilor of the Camagüey City Council for several years and was even the president when the Chambelona War broke out in 1917, in which he refused to hand over the City Council funds to the liberal rebels.

In his honor, on January 5th, 1945, a plaque was placed with the name of Father Gonfau Square, in Cristo Park; and five years later a bust of him was erected in that same place, carved by the artist Erasmo García Perea.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García