Colonel Juan Manuel Macias Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Juan Manuel Macias was a revolutionary Colonel who contributed to the independence of Cuba. He is well known for having participated in 1849 in the "Junta Promovedora de los Intereses Politicos de Cuba" (Promoting Assembly of the Political Interests of Cuba), which also included in its leadership General Narciso Lopez and abolitionist novelist Cirilo Villaverde. The Assembly began to work in Washington, New Orleans and New York, but the plan was to land in Cuba, ignite a revolt and then make the petition for annexation.  Juan Manuel, as a veteran of the Narciso Lopez conspiracies, led the "Republican Society of Cuba and Puerto Rico", which published the newspaper "La Voz de America" (The Voice of America), which called for armed revolt, but the paper was constantly smuggled into the island, where it was outlawed. These New York revolutionaries made an alliance with Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna, a representative of the Chilean Government, then at war fighting a Spanish attempt to regain its one time colony. In 1866, Chilean leaders, hoping to open a second front in the Caribbean, authorize Mackenna to tell Macias that Chile would aid a revolution if Cubans took the first step. So, the old dream of getting help from Latin America seemed to come true but Macia's  followers couldn't raise more than a few hundred dollars and Chile lost interest after Spanish troops withdrew from its ports on the Pacific.