St. Augustine is very rich in history, but of all places in the city, few are as evocative as the monument built to commemorate the liberal Constitution, signed in Cadiz, in southern Spain on March 19, 1812. It was built because that Constitution did something quite remarkable: it promised that, in Spain and all its colonies, fundamental human rights would be protected by law —human rights that, unfortunately, are absent today in many nations of the world.

For 300 years the Spaniards had been living under an absolute monarchy, in many respects as others today live under totalitarian regimes. Then, a group of progressive minded Spaniards decided it was time to follow the example set in the United States and in France, by limiting the power of government to protect the rights of the people.

Many of the principles set out in the Constitution of Cadiz were inspired by the U.S. Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. Freedom of speech and thought and freedom of peaceful assembly were among the most inspirational of the declarations of basic rights in these models. The Constitution of Cadiz echoed its models in stating that "All Spaniards have the right to write, publish and print their political ideas without need for permission, revision or approval of any kind."

The Constitution arrived by schooner in Havana on July l3th. There, two days later, with all due solemnity, the highest colonial officials swore allegiance to it, upsetting the island's most reactionary elements. On December 4th a royal order was received which decreed that henceforth the most important plaza in each and every town and city under Spanish rule should be called “Plaza de la Constitución.” In Havana, the "Plaza Nueva" ("Vieja "after 1836) was accordingly renamed.

In St. Augustine the Constitution was proclaimed on October 17, 1812, and its adoption was celebrated as a great triumph for the people. With its proclamation came a new form of government for the city. It was a Council consisting of the governor, a mayor and five aldermen. The alderman in charge of the Church Ward was Antonio Huertas, who played an important part in the construction of the monument.

This Antonio Huertas was born in Andalucía, and he came to St. Augustine in 1778, where he married Catalina de Aguilar, a native of the Canary Islands. Antonio and Catalina had several children. Among them were three daughters: María de las Nieves, María Antonia and Águeda. María de las Nieves, who is buried in Tolomato Cemetery, next to Father Félix Varela's funerary chapel, married the Cuban Juan José Robles, and their daughter, María Monserrate, in turn wed, in Havana, Captain Pablo Antonio Toñarely. The Galician captain and María Monserrate had a son, Juan Pablo Toñarely y Robles, who was my granduncle. When María Monserrate died, Captain Toñarely married her cousin Leonarda, who was the daughter of Águeda and Francisco Reyes, from St. Augustine. Captain Toñarely and his second wife Leonarda had a daughter, Angela Toñarely y Reyes, who was my grandmother.

As had happened in Havana, St. Augustine received the order that the most important plaza in the city was to be called "Plaza de la Constitución." The order arrived at the beginning of 1813, and it went on to say that the Plaza should have a monument to commemorate the Constitution. The monument was inaugurated on February 14, 1814 with a plaque stating that the Constitutional Council had erected the monument as a memorial to the Constitution. It read:

PLAZA DE LA CONSTITUCION

Promulgada en esta Ciudad de San Agustin de la Florida Oriental en 17 de Octubre de 1812 siendo Gobernador el Brigadier Don Sebastian Kindelan, Caballero de la Orden de Santiago. Para eterna memoria, el Ayuntamiento Constitucional erigio este obelisco dirigido por Don Fernando de la Maza Arredondo, el Joven, Regidor Decano y Francisco Robira Procurador Sindico. Año de 1813.

An English translation at the base of the monument was placed by the St. Augustine Historical Society on 1953, and it reads:

PLAZA OF THE CONSTITUTION

Proclaimed in this City of St. Augustine, East Florida on the seventeenth of October, 1812 During the Governorship of Brigadier Sebastian Kindelan Knight of the order of Santiago. The Constitutional Council has raised this monument as an everlasting memorial under the supervision of Don Fernando de la Maza Arredondo, the Younger, Dean of the Council and Don Francisco Robira Attorney General. 1813.

The plaque spoke of "eterna memoria" ("an everlasting" memory"), however, it wasn't long before absolutism returned to Spain, and with its restoration, the official desire in fact was to blot out the memory of the Constitution.

King Fernando VII annulled the Constitution by decree in 1814, less than three months after the inauguration of St. Agustine's monument. Soon after, newspapers received from Havana reported that in Spain and all Spanish territories every "Plaza de la Constitución" had to be called "Plaza de Fernando VII", and all the monuments to the Constitution had to be demolished or disposed of. Of course, along with these changes came the end to government by Council in St. Augustine.

Contrary to what happened in Havana where the annulment of the liberal Constitution was received with joy by the authorities, the people in St. Augustine refused to destroy their monument to the Constitution. They just removed the original plaque. The monument continued to stand as a reminder of the progressive spirit that prevailed in the city. And in fact the Plaza continued to be called "Plaza de la Constitución," as it still is today. In Havana, however, the king’s orders were obeyed, and the “Plaza of the Constitution,” the former "Plaza Nueva", was accordingly re-named “Plaza de Fernando VII.” In 1833, following the king’s death, a statue of the Bourbon autocrat was erected in the "Plaza de Armas" in front of the Governors Palace, with a marker that read: “Presented in the name of King Fernando VII to the city of Havana, in token of its exemplary love and loyalty, that he may always be in the heart of this city as he was always in the hearts of its people.” The statue remained on its pedestal for many years after Cuba achieved its independence, when it was finally replaced, in 1954, with one of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, whom Cubans rightly consider the “Father of the Country."

Facsimile of a newspaper published in Havana after the Cadiz Constitution proclaimed Freedom of the Press. Its front page slogan read: "Festive criticism is more constructive than harsh and serious invectives." (José María de la Torre, Lo que fuimos y lo que somos; La Habana Antigua y Moderna, 1857).

In St. Augustine the order to rename the Plaza was not the end of the monument's story, however. Change came again in 1820. A revolutionary uprising in Spain forced Fernando VII to reinstate the Constitution of 1812, and with it was revived government by Council in St. Augustine. The new appointed mayor was Maza Arredondo, and the appointed officer of the Church Ward was Juan Huertas, son of Antonio, whom I mentioned earlier. He was also brother to Águeda my grandmother's grandmother. So another of my family members was involved at this new stage in the monument's history because the new Council replaced the plaque honoring the reinstated Constitution.

The official records report that this was done with "all due ceremony and majesty." The festivities lasted for three days, with great rejoicing in St. Augustine. There were salvos of artillery, decorations, lights and joyful ringing of bells. In Cuba, however, news of the reinstatement of the Constitution was received in a completely different way: When word arrived that the Constitution was once again in effect, the Governor of Cuba refused to recognize it until an official communication was received. The island's liberals, accompanied by an army battalion that had encamped in the "Plaza de Armas," stormed the Governor’s Palace and compelled him to swear allegiance to it himself and to order all colonial officials to do likewise.

As it turned out, Spain's rule over St. Augustine was nearing its end. By treaty with the United States, Spain sold its remaining lands in Florida the following year, and the Spanish flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes were raised over San Marcos castle on July 1821.

St. Augustine had fallen from Spanish control once before, in the 18th century. At that time, when Florida became English territory, almost all of St. Augustine's inhabitants moved to Cuba and Mexico. This time, in 1821, when Florida became U.S. territory, very few left. María de las Nieves Huertas stayed here but her daughter, María Monserrate, and her niece, Leonarda, left for Havana. They were the beginnings of the Cuban branch of my family.

In 1820, when the Constitution was reinstated, Father Félix  Varela was elected in Cuba as a Deputy to the Spanish parliament, the Cortes. He was Cuba's most distinguished scholar and held the Chair on Constitutional law at the most prestigious academic center on the island. And he had spent his childhood in St. Augustine where his grandfather had been Commander of a regiment of Cuban soldiers based in San Marcos Castle.

As a Deputy to the Cortes, Father Varela defended the rights of the individual against government encroachment and, many years before the Abolitionist movement in the United States began to gain strength, Father Varela proposed the abolition of slavery. However, his ability to make a difference in Spain was quickly cut short. The Constitution was once again abolished in 1823 when Spanish reactionary forces took control of the government. Father Varela was, in fact, condemned to death for his liberal ideas and his opposition to the new absolutist regime, and he had to flee for his life taking refuge in New York.

There and in Philadelphia, Father Varela worked tirelessly on the political, cultural and religious fronts, and for his achievements he is regarded as one of the greatest Cubans of all times. But he was poor, and the weather in the North was harsh, and in these conditions, he took ill. Seeking a milder climate he lived again in St. Augustine for a while, and there he died on February 25, 1853, as close as he could be to his Cuban homeland without violating his principles. He had vowed not to return until the island enjoyed total freedom. He was buried in Tolomato Cemetery, and there his remains stayed until Cuba achieved its independence.

In my mind's eye, I can see Father Varela walking through the streets of St. Augustine, first as a child and then in his final years, living in the church that today is the cathedral. I see him standing before the monument to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, which was erected to honor the principles for which he fought, and for which he suffered. In a journal he began to publish in New York and Philadelphia shortly after his arrival from Spain, Father Varela wrote the following, which summarizes his political philosophy, and the essence of the Constitution: "No government has rights. The people have rights, rights to change their government when it becomes the engine for their ruin, instead of their prosperity."

When Father Varela died, one of his countrymen wrote in a newspaper published in St. Augustine: "Varela has died. He has not died; his memory is not dead./It will begin to live in the centuries to come." These verses come from the anonymous sonnet published in The Ancient City, in the issue of March 5, 1853, which I uncovered at the St. Augustine Historical Society. As far as I know, this poem, signed by "Un Habanero", has not been published since. I am inclined to believe it was written by Jose María Casal, a student of Father Varela. Casal was an attorney from Havana, who came to help the ailing priest and who did much after Father Varela's death to preserve his memory. Since it was no doubt the first poem published to honor Father Varela, its text is worth transcribing here in the original misspelled Spanish, followed by its translation.