Nueva Gerona Isla de la Juventud Cuba

José Martí’s mother has tried to free her son (still in his minority) by writing letters to the government; his father had gone to a lawyer friend for legal support, but all efforts had failed.

Eventually Martí had fallen ill; his legs had been severely lacerated by the chains that bound him.

As a result, he had been transferred to another part of Cuba known as Isla de Pinos instead of further imprisonment.

Following this, the Spanish authorities decide in January 1871 to repatriate him to Spain, where he will be allowed to continue his studies with the hopes that studying in Spain will renew his loyalty to Spain.

Instead, he will eventually become a leading Latin American intellectual and Cuba’s foremost national hero as a primary architect of the 1895-98 War of Independence.

Federico Fernández Cavada’s eldest brother, Emilio, has remained in Philadelphia, where he is an active fundraiser for the Cuban insurrection, relaying the news that he receives from his brothers to the exiled strategists and other Cuban exiles in Philadelphia and New York.

The funds he raises are funneled together with arms and munitions to the insurgent forces in the island.

Fernández Cavada has taken charge of the military division in Camagüey and, together with fellow rebel Bernabé de Varona, has planned an armed invasion on the western coast of Cuba.

The Cuban Liberation Army had approved a resolution to permit Fernández Cavada to travel to the United States, where he had intended to seek support among his military contacts for the cause of Cuban independence.

He had traveled to "Cayo Cruz" in the northern coast of Camagüey to wait for his transportation, but had been captured by the Spanish gunboat Neptuno and taken to Puerto Principe, and had then been transferred to the town of Nuevitas.

Tried by the Spanish authorities, he is sentenced to die by firing squad.

Generals George Gordon Meade, Daniel Sickles and Ulysses S. Grant, his military compatriots in the United States, attempt in vain to obtain his release.

Fernández Cavada is executed in July 1871.

His last words are "Adios Cuba, para siempre" (Goodbye Cuba, forever).