Bachiller y Morales, Antonio (1812–1889)

Antonio Bachiller y Morales (b. 7 June 1812; d. 10 January 1889), Cuban writer, historian, and archaeologist. Born in Havana, Bachiller y Morales became a lawyer and a university professor. He was persecuted and exiled by the Spanish authorities when the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) began because he favored Cuba's autonomy from Spain. He is best known for his extensive and tireless research, the basis of studies in which he brought together information that had not previously attracted attention. Perhaps the most important of these studies is his three-volume history of Cuban letters and education (Apuntes para la historia de las letras y instrucción publica de la isla de Cuba, 1859–1860), but he also made significant contributions on the period of the British domination of Havana (Cuba: Monografía histórica … desde la perdida de la Habana hasta la restauración española, 1883) and on the pre-Columbian inhabitants of Cuba (Cuba primitiva, 1880). Although Bachiller y Morales made quite a few mistakes in his haste to gather information, the efforts of modern historians would have been far less fruitful without his dedication and spadework. He died in Havana.

See alsoCuba: The Colonial Era (1492–1898) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In the absence of English materials see Max Henríquez Ureña, Panorama histórico de la literatura cubana (1963), vol. 1, pp. 361-364. See also José Martí's piece on Bachiller y Morales, Obras completas (1963), vol. 5, pp. 141-153.

                                  JosÉ M. HernÁndez