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JOSÉ ELÍAS HERNÁNDEZ PÉREZ : 1855 SUPER, ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT NOTEBOOK AND DIARY HANDWRITTEN BY A NOTED CUBAN PATRIOT AND HERO OF THE CUBAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. On offer is a fascinating artifact of the Cuban independence movement, the nationalist uprising in Cuba against Spanish rule in the mid 19th century. The item is a bank book that was used mostly as a small notebook. It measured 6 inches by 4 inches and contains 54 pages. The book is 1/3 complete with 18 diary pages (in small handwriting) + two pages check-finances + final page of cost summary of a trip to New York. [This would be the trip to New York that saved him from incarceration or worse back in Cuba!] The book has a soft cover and has separated from the bound pages. Otherwise, the book is in good condition. The entries are in Spanish. The owner of this Union Bank chequebook is J.E. Hernandez. Research and handwriting comparisons lead us to believe this is handwritten by the noted Cuban patriot, an active member of the Cuban War of Independence, a member of Narciso Lopez expeditions, Jose Elias Hernandes (1805 -1878). His name is often seen near names of famous Cuban poets, journalists, and political leaders, such as poet and playwright Miguel Turbe Tolon, poet and freedom fighter Cirilo Villaverde, whose early supporter was Hernandez. According to the Brief biographic dictionary of 1000 creoles of the 19th century, he was born in Baracoa, Guantánamo Province, Cuba, studied Latin and Logic in Port Prince, then continued his studies at the San Carlos Seminary and in the University of Havana, from which he graduated with Bachelor's of Law in 1827. In 1850s he lived in the United States and actively participated in the annexationist movement, which advocated annexation of Cuba to the United States. In August 1851 he participated in Narcisco Lopez filibustering expedition on Pampero steamer, was taken a prisoner, exiled to Spain, later pardoned. In October 1852 he was elected a vice-secretary of Junta Cubana of New York, where he worked along with Caspar Betancour Cisneros, a Cuban writer, journalist and progressive businessman, Porfirio Valiente and Domingo de Goicouria. Manifesto of the Cuban Junta signed by Hernandez was published in New York Times in October 1852. As a Junta member he was one of the executives of Ramon Pinto conspiracy. During the same period he was keeping correspondence with an American political journalist and editor John L. O'Sullivan, who promoted annexation of Texas and Oregon Country, and who in 1840s became involved in a movement to win Cuban independence from Spanish rule and have Cuba annexed to the United States. In October 1854 Hernandez participated in organization of Francisco Estrampez and Felix expedition in the pailboat John G. White that were bringing weapons to start uprising in Cuba, but were arrested immediately after landing in Baracoa. The informer was probably Jose Elias Hernandez' brother - Francisco. In April 1859 he organized and participated in another filibustering expedition on African. He was one of the leaders of patriotic society "Brothers of Ave Maria" ("Hermanos del Ave María"). From November 1868 to March 1869 he was part of the Revolutionary Committee of New York (Comité Revolucionario de Nueva York). Jose Maria Heredia, one of the most important poets in Spanish language and National poet of Cuba, devotes few lines in his poem "To Emilia" to "Hernandez" - a footnote in book "Cuban bards" (Bardos Cubanos) mistakenly refers it to Jose Elias Hernandes attributing to him "Legal resistencia to despotism", but Heredia meant Dr. Juan Jose Hernandes (1777-1824), another cuban patriot. Jose Elias Hernandes was an editor and an author of the preface for the anthology of Cuban poetry El Laúd del desterrado (The Lute of the Exiled) - the first anthology of the exile literature published in the United States in 1858. In 1855, the year the diary was written, Hernandez was sentenced to death for his part in the conspiracy against Spain and organizing Estrampez and Felix' expedition, Estrampez was executed, Felix sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Hernandez escaped their fate because he was in New York at that time. The same year he took part in the Supreme Court case concerning his nephew Francisco Elias Hernandez, who had been arrested and thrown into prison in Cuba when he was 14, and who later came to his uncle in the U.S. to study. Spanish government was trying to bring him back to Cuba against his will. The diary can be of great interest to researchers that study independence movement in Cuba and life of Cuban exiles in mid-19th century.. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good

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