The Amigos of the Cuban Heritage Collection
of the University of Miami Library

invite you to a presentation of

Cuban Confederate Colonel:
The Life of Ambrosio José Gonzales

by Antonio Rafael de la Cova, PhD

Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies,

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana

Thursday, January 22, 2004

6:00 p.m.

Roberto C. Goizueta Pavilion

Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami

1300 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, Florida

RSVP to 305-284-4008 or ggblanco@miami.edu

Cuban Confederate Colonel: The Life of Ambrosio José Gonzales tells the story of a revolutionary who figured prominently in both his native country's struggle against Spain and the Confederacy's fight for secession. Immortalized as the first Cuban to shed blood in the effort to oust the Spanish, Gonzales (1818–1893) managed to place himself in the center of hostilities in both his homeland and in the United States. In this biography, Antonio Rafael de la Cova examines the Cuban filibuster movement of the 1840s and 1850s, the American Civil War, and Southern Reconstruction from Gonzales's unusual perspective as both a Cuban and Confederate rebel. In doing so, de la Cova sheds new light on the connections between Southern and Cuban society, the workings of coastal defenses during the Civil War and the vicissitudes of Reconstruction for a Cuban expatriate.

Antonio Rafael de la Cova is an assistant professor of Latin American studies at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. The author of the forthcoming book The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution, de la Cova holds a Ph.D. from West Virginia University. He lives in Terre Haute.