| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Antonio Rafael de la Cova. Cuban Confederate Colonel: The Life of Ambrosio José Gonzales. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. 2003. Pp. xxviii, 537. $59.95.

This volume describes thoroughly the career of a relatively minor figure in dramatic events on an extensive historical stage. Ambrosio José Gonzales (1818–1893), born in Matanzas, Cuba, received his secondary education in New York, and served as an organizer of three filibuster expeditions from the United States between 1849 and 1851 against Spanish rule in Cuba. In these preparations, Gonzales served primarily as interpreter and political intermediary for Narciso López (1797–1851), a former Spanish general who traveled extensively in the United States seeking funds, troops, and equipment. The conspiracy's goal was Cuba's independence, probably to be followed quickly by annexation to the United States as a slave state. As Antonio Rafael de la Cova notes, many affluent Cuban backers of López "favored annexation because it would guarantee their chattel property" (p. 6). Gonzales, a U.S. citizen since 1849 and styled as adjutant general to López, took part in a May 1850 landing in the town of Cárdenas on Cuba's north coast. The invading troops, largely from the U.S. South, were able to remain ashore less than twenty-four hours, as Spanish troops approached and no local recruits flocked to the invaders' banner. Following the failure of these insurgent efforts, Gonzales fruitlessly pursued federal diplomatic appointments in Latin America, and in 1856 married into an affluent South Carolina family, the Elliotts of Oak Lawn.

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