To the followers of Clío, the “principeño” Juan de Jesús Ciriaco Torres Lasqueti is one of the referents of reading to delve into the regional history of Camagüey, indeed, because until that moment no one tried to summarize throroughly the main historical events of Camagüey until it exceeded half of the nineteenth century, without a doubt, an effort that would far surpass his fellow countryman who preceded him in the task of a chronicler Lic. Tomás Pio Betancourt Sánchez-Pereira.
His interest and dedication in the so-called “deep history” of Camagüey were not foisted on him by anyone, but rather his work was the result of a spontaneous process of self-taught and empirical knowledge that he developed while gathering handwritten papers and other documents that the public employee of the Accounting Office and the City Council had to deal with on a daily basis, certainly, a good part of these papers rested on his desk in the offices in which he had to practice. And without a doubt, some nick was done to his spirit by the calls of the archaic cultural molds of the rich cattle region labeled as conservative, among others, the way of life of its people, the peculiar pride of its women, its traditions and customs that shaped the New Town away from Nuevitas, the Old Town…
Lasqueti was born in the city of Puerto Príncipe, on June 18, 1816. His father was the Lusitanian emigrant Joseph Patricio Torres who married María Lasqueti, a native of the town of Galicia, of who there isn´t any more information. After finishing the elementary studies in one of the schools of first letters for men, -well in the El Siglo School in the Cuban School in La Santísima Trinidad, where his tutors played a valuable role teaching Philosophy, Political Economy and Civil Law -, his father registered him in the Royal and Pontifical University of San Geronimo where he obtained the degree of Bachelor in Laws, on March 21, 1836. Not satisfied with his degree, he decided to undertake higher studies, but due to certain family difficulties to overcome, Lasqueti chose not to continue.
Despite the unprofitable economic situation of his parents, Lasqueti did not miss the opportunity to work in the capital of the country when the Commander General of the Apostadero de La Habana promoted him to sub-delegate of Navy in Puerto Príncipe, on June 9, 1844, according to some, assuming that the city of Camagüey was still in the Nuevitas roadstead; responsibility that he fulfilled until June 22, 1844 when he occupied a position in the Army Accounting and Real Property of the Department of the Center.
Three years later, on March 24, 1847, the Political-Military Governor of the Department named him second clerk of the income administration of Nuevitas, until he was appointed by Mayor Lorenzo Hernández de Alba the secretary of said entity, on November 6, of that year.
Among other administrative responsibilities, Lasqueti assumed were supernumerary officer of the Accounting Office, since May 9, 1849; commissioner of Fortifications, from February 9; Commissioner of the National Prison or Prison of Puerto Príncipe (provisional construction of four dungeons in the courtyard of the Town Hall next to the Cimarrones Depot), from March 24; commissioner of the Subaltern Treasuries, which he assumed in April; 4th officer of the Revenue Administration of Puerto Príncipe, since January 1, 1854; 3rd officer, from January 12, 1854; appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Puerto Príncipe Rafael Primo de Rivera, as secretary of the Jurisdictional Board of the Population Census, from November 7, 1860; on January 1, 1862, instructor of the new accounting system established on the Isle; auditor of the convent of Ursuline nuns in Puerto Príncipe, from April 1, 1864; and Accountant appointed by the Captain General of the Island. [1]
Later, after his retirement and by economic imperatives, Lasqueti ventured with little success in the poetics seeing published his quatrains in local newspapers. It could be said that up to this point he gathered valid experience and knowledge to make him take the pen and undertake the historical review of the third Cuban city founded by the Spanish colonizers, in the sixteenth century.
However, his inclination for the regional history of the province motivated him to look for the acts of the original council kept between the cedar and mahogany shelves in the building occupied by the City Council in Mayor street. Among those numerous and priceless documents he found some that were mistaken with the notarial protocols belonging to Silvestre de Balboa Troya-Quesada, written by the Canarian poet in the seventeenth century; there was also some manuscripts of Don Diego de Varona; others of Matías Boza y Vergara, these from the XVIII century; as well as the documentary archive of the late regidor Tomás Pio Betancourt, corresponding to the 19th century. All these documents had a great significance to him.
Science aside, perhaps the least known fact is that Torres Lasqueti was part of the extended network of agents and communicators – created at the request of the Marquis of Santa Lucia Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, the professor Gregorio (Goyo) López García and other patriots of silence – in the days before of the armed declaration in Paso de las Clavellinas in the Saramaguacán River, on November 4, 1868.
Secret work that he played while moving through civil and military authorities, putting his own life at risk, obtaining and transmitting to the insurgent camp confidential information, obtained from the commanding general of Puerto Príncipe Ramón Fajardo e Izquierdo while the officer made visits to the home of the sisters Pichardo Mola, in San Juan street; or when he was apprehended along with other comrades under the threat of execution, in April 1870.
Other missions remained in the biggest silence. His political integrity, courage, intelligence and absolute compartmentalization in the performance of risky tasks, made impossible for him to be discovered by the Spanish espionage, surveillance and extreme intolerance of the Volunteer Corps stationed in the hospital San Juan de Dios close to his house, and for the civilian check on behalf of the staff of the Military Department of the Center, who occupied the building leased to the captain of Volunteers Bernabé Sánchez Adán. [2]
Less known is that the historian and patriot from Camagüey spent his last days in his office, which was in the house marked with the numbers 57-59 in Independencia street, where his friends visited to share memories of past struggles. Nowadays the house faces a house marked with the no. 62 where resided the historian of the city and Illustrious son of Camagüey Gustavo Adolfo Sed Nieves, a curiosity present in the historical urban landscape of our city, declared by the UNESCO a World Heritage Site.
Our historian died at the age of 86 years, on April 5, 1900, in the house marked with the no. 46 in the street Candelaria. From there left his coffin accompanied by Veterans of the emancipatory wars, and people in general heading to the City Hall, to afterwards march to the General Cemetery of Puerto Príncipe where he would be in his final rest in a modest tomb located at the entrance of the enclosure, on the first section.
No funerary monument marked that place where lies the memory of the patriot of modest life and exemplary dedication to the wars for the independence that refused to accept the Yankee presence in Cuba.
Photo: City Historian´s Office photo file
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[1] National Archive of Cuba: Superior Civil Government. File 1130. File no. 42972. It must have been during these years that Lasqueti began to organize his handwritten notes with the aim of writing and publishing his text Collection of historical-geographical and statistical data of Puerto Príncipe and its jurisdiction published by El Retiro Press, in Havana, in 1888. By the way, the Camaguey Historian´s Office in its Esencias Collection, of Ediciones El Lugareño, in 2016, published with a foreword by MSc. Elda E. Cento Gómez, the Second Edition of the valuable text of one of our most notorious historians. Elda Cento did well to affirm that Torres Lasqueti’s book is a critical reaffirmation of the young Cuban.
[2] Building that made up two housing units with upper and lower floor and central patio, with one of two stairs developed in the hall to facilitate access to the second floor, located in the main street no. 12, facing the building of the Royal Audience of Puerto Príncipe. Currently in the former General Headquarters totally rehabilitated is the House of Culture “Ignacio Agramonte”.
Translated into English by Ashley Rodríguez Pérez
