Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1899-10-28
COLOR LINE In CUBA
There is no fear of a negro
Party There.
The Leaders who Have Held The
Great COIOred Population in
CheCk-Their Various PeCuIiari-
tie s. What They Will Do Now.


Washington, Oct. 27.-Washington
officials are Watching with keen in
terest the development of Cuban polit-
icaI parties. They are not much afraid
of the growth of d distinctive party
of the blacks in the island. Some of
the army officers stationed there have
at various times limited at this fear.
The civilian officials who have been in
Cuba, and who in this respect are
thought to be better observers than
the army commanders have not been
worried They have recognized that
the coIored race will play an impor
tant part in the future, but they have
not thought that it would be organized
into a solid element as opposed to the
whites.
Recent advices from Cuba tend to
confirm this view. The two men who
are filling the public mind most just
now are Juan Gualberto Gomez and
Quintin Banderas. They are in
sense rival leaders of the colored Gu
I bans, and they are not going in the
same direction. Both have an inter-
esting personality and both are infiu-
entail with a certain section of the
blacks Gualberto Gomez represents
the intellectual element of the colored
race He is a mulatto. Quintin Ban
deras is a, pure black. He represents
the fighting blacks, who were with the
insurgents from the beginning to the
end. 1t also happens that he is more
conservative than most of the would
be leaders of the blacks.
Gualberto Gomez has a romantic his
tory. He is the son of well-tO-do ma
tive Cubans of color, and was given
the advantages of a university educa-
ton He was something of a leader
even before the emancipation or the
blacks had been completed He lived
for while in Madrid, and was vO-
luminous writer on politics and SINH
lar subjects. He also gained some
reputation as an orator. He identified
himself with the autonomist party to
some degree. but was never one of
it's influential members, because he
would not take a back seat. The old
autonomist leaders were all men of
great respectability, of education and
usually of property, They did not
care to share their honors with this
pushing young n1ulatto.
On his part, Juan GuaIberto Gomez
was champion of what he called the
universal democracy. He wanted to
found a political party based on those
principles, for one reason, because he
thought that by this means race dis
tinctions would be Ievelled. However,
there was no room for such an organi-
cation, and he confined his activities
to other movements. He secured the
formal recognition by the Spanish
captain general of the civil rights of
the negroes under Spanish law. He
acted on behalf of a number of coiored
societies, taking the case of a negro,
which a cafe proprietor had sought TO
discriminate against because of color.
GuaIberto Gomez secured a sweeping
civil rights decision from the council
of administration, which the captain
siderable prestige.
Like most of those who are active in
politics Gualberto Gomez idrifted with
the revolutionary elements. He was
suppos ID to belong to enc Of the juntas
which was deep in political conspiracy.
1t was not his good fortune to have
share in the insurrection. At the first
uprising which was attempted in the
western part of the island, Gomez
was arrested by the Spanish authori-
ties along with several other prospec-
tive chiefs This was at Ibarra in
Matanzas province in February, 1895.
He had long been under suspicion, and
the authorities succeeded in thwarting
him and the revolutionists in their first
Gualberto Gomez was
taken to Havana, given a mock trial
and deported to the penal settlement
IF Ceuta At the time 1t was thought
ne was to be executed. One of the
episodes of the early stage of
he insurrection was Gualberta Gomez
writing a letter to his wife with his
,wn blood to serve as ink. Along with
many other political prisoners he was
Kept at Ceuta through the whole
period of the insurrection, and it was
wen supposed that he was dead. How
,ver, he was one of the first to be re-
eased and to appear in Cuba after the
d States and Spain.