José Miró Argenter

José Miró Argenter was the son of José Miró Armengol (1816-1888), secretary and censor of the Sitges town hall, and Joaquina Argenter Llopis. He had three siblings: the painter Joaquim de Miró who was born on February 3, 1849 , Rosa, mother of the painter Joaquim Sunyer, and Remei Miró Argenter.

Argenter studied high school in Barcelona before entering the Faculty of Medicine of the Catalan capital in 1869.[1] He left his medical studies to join the Carlist Army, where he reached the rank of lieutenant and the position of company commander.

In 1874 he embarked for Cuba to settle in Havana and work at the firm Barahona y Domenech which had old acquaintances of his father.[2] Two years later, for health reasons, he accepted the invitation of the Catasús brothers, and worked as a foreman at the "Río Grande" mill, near Santiago de Cuba, where he met Major General Antonio Maceo at lunch. Argenter gave Maceo a farewell on May 8, 1878, just before Maceo left for Jamaica.[2] He then begins a career in journalism and his first article El Juez y el Negro led him to be arrested for three years, six months and twenty-one days of exile a hundred kilometers from his residence.[1]

He then settled at Holguín and directed the newspaper La Doctrina.[1][3] In Holguín he married Luz Cardona y Cardona on 1891 and Miró was fully involved in the ongoing Cuban independence revolution. In 1893 he founded El Liberal. In 1894 his first daughter, Remedios Miró Cardona, was born. He then collaborated with the Gómez-Maceo Plan in Oriente.

During the Cuban War of Independence, he enlisted on the first day, at the head of a contingent of patriots in Holguín with the rank of colonel as he joined the orders of his friend Maceo. On April 14, 1895, he fought in Ciego La Rioja. After Maceo's arrival on the Island, he ratified his rank and incorporated him into his General Staff. He stood out in Peralejo, and was proposed to the rank of Brigadier General before the Governing Council recognized the degree on September 29.[1] Days later he was promoted to the position of Chief of Staff of the invading column, with which he left Baraguá.

He was by Maceo's side in the Invasion and throughout the Western Campaign . He stood out in the battles of Iguará, La Lechuza, Cacarajícara, Rubí and Bejerano. He escorted Maceo to the crossing of the trail from Mariel to Majana, falling wounded three days later in San Pedro, where Maceo fell. Due to his service at the Battle of Mal Tiempo, he was proposed to Major General, but it was not until the end of the war that he was awarded the rank.

Saddened by Maceo's death at the Battle of San Pedro, he went to Camagüey to continue to Manzanillo, Cuba, where he showed little activity during the rest of the war.[2] Whether Miró got to know José Martí personally is disputed; In a letter dated May 7, 1895, addressed to General José Miró Argenter, Martí says goodbye stating:

...with great desire to see you up close sometime.

In the General Military Archive of Segovia, there are several open cases against José Miró Argenter for various reasons of assault, arson and murder. The causes are numbered as: Cause 10808 (fire); cause 1507 for triple murder; cause 416 for threats to the railway company; cause 333 for rebellion however all of these cases were dismissed

He was appointed Inspector of the Department of the East as well as Secretary of the Liquidating Board of the Cuban Liberation Army. During the first years of the Cuban Republic, he was in charge of the archives of the Liberation Army. He restarted his journalistic activities. In 1900 his second son was born in San Luis, Santiago de Cuba, who, in homage to Maceo, would be named Antonio Maceo Miró Cardona. On August 22, 1902, his third child, José Miró Cardona was born and who would be Cuba's provisional prime minister at the beginning of 1959.[1] In 1920 his wife Luz Cardona died and José died at Havana on May 2, 1925 .

From 1899 to 1909, he wrote Crónicas de la Guerra, which was a exhaustive compendium of military actions and his own personal experiences, where he offers a detailed description of the events related to the death of Antonio Maceo, among other battles and actions of war.[1][2][3] He also wrote in 1897 "Death of General Maceo" and "Notes on the life of Antonio Maceo Grajales" and the drama: "El Pacífico" in 1914 edited by Imprenta y papelería de Rambla, Bouza y Cª de La Habana with the same publishing house that in 1910 he published his novel "Salvador Roca".[3]

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José Miró Argenter

• Jordi Siracusa (2005). Nuevos escritores (ed.). Adiós, Habana, adiós. Madrid. p. 353. ISBN 978-84-96461-15-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• "Un héroe para dos mares. José Miró Argenter" de Jordi Martínez Brotons. Revista "La Xermada" de Sitges
• "José Miró Argenter, un catalán mambí" de Jorge Quintana. Publicado en La Habana en 1989.