JOSE DOLORES POYO Y ESTENOZ - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/13/1896 - HFSID 218118

JOSE DOLORES POYO Y ESTENOZ

The writer and activist writes an interesting letter to friend Francisco Yberm informing him that he had received his letter and check and referring to his newspaper "El Yara"

Autograph Letter Signed: "J.D. Poyo" in iron gall ink. 10x8. Fully Translated in English: "June 13, 1896. Sr. Francisco Yberm W. Tampa. Dear Poncho: Last night I received letter along with a check for $22, 10 will be for Mrs. Roloff and the rest for 'El Yara'. I am now aware of the discount of two copies to Maximiliano. A thousand thanks, dear friend, for your kindness, affection, memories, salutes to the family, you receive the sincere affection from your friend J.D. Payo. I write to you in a hurry because I am very busy today."  Jose Dolores Poyo y Estenoz (1837-1911) was a journalist, writer, poet and tobacconist. He was one of the founders of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and a prominent figure in the preparations for the War of Independence (1895-1898). Jose Dolores not only presided the "Cuerpo de Consejo de Cayo Hueso", annually elected (1892-1898) and the revolutionary club "Luz de Yara" but also joined the "Club Cayo Hueso" and "Club Serafin Sanchez" and was vice-president of a commission led by General Emilio Nunez. In spite of his forever struggling with money, he found the way to obtain education and culture, which deserved praises from various intellectuals of his time. Harassed and under constant threats from the colonial Spanish authorities due to his inclination and contact with the cause for the independence, he decided to emigrate with his wife Clara Camuz de la Hoz and daughters to Cayo Hueso. Since his arrival, he shined as a promoter and activist of the Cuban emancipation movement. He started as a tobacconist reader in a factory property of Vicente Martinez Ibor and by that same time he founded the "Club Patriotico Cubano de Cayo Hueso" with tobacco workers, the first of its class. There, Jose Dolores created the newspapers "El Republicano", "La Igualdad", "El Patriota" and "El Yara" which he published for twenty years, and the secret societies "Orden del Sol" and "Felix Varela", and also the "Club San Carlos", where the Cuban Revolutionary Party was founded in January 6, 1892, resulting elected rector of war by Jose Marti. Poyo was also president of the "Club Revolucionario Cubano No. 25" and in 1884 he was part of the Cuban Convention. Marti wrote a letter from New York to Poyo on December 5, 1891 in which the famous phrase "It is the hour of the furnaces, when nothing but the light can be seen"appears. When Jose Dolores came back to La Habana in 1898, he did not have the resources to make his dream come true, the publication of "El Yara" in a freed Cuba. He looked for a job but was only offered a night watchman position in the Customs of La Habana. In 1900 he got a job as an assistant of Vidal Morales, chief of the archives of Cuba, and after his death Jose Dolores took his place without having the adequate resources. He later participated in a heartwarming event from his almost anonymous presence in the raising neocolonial society: the fundraising for the monument to Marti at Cuban Central Park inaugurated on February 24, 1905. Edges frayed. Multiple mailing folds. Tears at right and left blank margins. Toned and soiled. 1½-inch and 1-inch separations at mailing folds. Otherwise, fine condition.