He was born on February 18, 1818 in Bayamo, Oriente, present-day province of Granma, Cuba, in an illustrious and wealthy family, son of Ángel Figueredo Pavón and Eulalia Cisneros. He was baptized on March 12, 1818 in the Church of San Salvador, Bayamo. He began his studies in Bayamo, in the Convent of Santo Domingo, where he also studied piano and violin. In 1835 he entered the Royal and Pontifical University of San Geronimo in Havana, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1838, having the Cuban revolutionary José Antonio Saco as his teacher, among others, but he continued studying law. While studying, he tuned pianos to help pay for his studies.
In 1940 he graduated from law school, and in 1941 he traveled to Spain to continue his law studies at the University of Barcelona, and then to the Central University of Madrid, where he graduated as a lawyer on January 5, 1844. After graduation, he spent several months touring several European countries, and returned to Cuba.
On December 17, 1844, the Cuban Bar Association granted him permission to practice law, and he returned to Bayamo, helping his father to administer his property, who was alderman, mayor and provincial mayor. The father gave him general power to represent him in all lawsuits. In 1845 Perucho marries Isabel Vazquez and Moreno, and goes to live with her to the farm of Father Santa María del Rosario.
In 1848 he was appointed ordinary second mayor of Bayamo. Managing his father’s properties, he could not practice as a lawyer, but he stood out for alleviating the living conditions of the slaves, several of whom he freed, including Severino, who had been given to Pedro and Isabel as a wedding present, but who stayed with them voluntarily.
In August 1851, the invasion of Cuba by General Narciso López, who was executed by the Spaniards on September 1, 1851, failed. Perucho is invited to a banquet of the Spanish governor to celebrate the victory. The Spaniards laughed at the fate of Narciso López, when a young man stood up and furiously condemned the comments angrily. The young man was the future father of the homeland, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, with whom Perucho began his friendship.
In 1851 Perucho and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes founded the cultural society “La Filarmónica” in Bayamo, which brought together intellectuals from the region such as Juan Clemente Zenea, José Fornaris, José Joaquín Palma and José María Izaguirre.
In 1852 Perucho was appointed delegate of Marina and councillor of the city council. But he began to be suspected of infidelity to the Spanish government, and in 1853 was called to testify by the stabbing of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Although he had no problems with this occasion, he was forced to move to Havana in 1854, in order to avoid being deported. There he began to work as a lawyer in Galiano Street. At this stage he also wrote music and collaborated with the literary magazine La Piragua.
In 1857, together with his friends José Quintín Suzarte and Domingo Guillermo de Arozarena, he opened the newspaper El Correo de la Tarde, but it was closed by the authorities because it was too critical of the Spanish government and advocated Cuba’s independence.
In November 1856 Perucho’s father died, and he and his brother Miguel inherited his property. In 1858 Perucho sells his house in Havana, and moves with his family to Bayamo again.
Independence trajectory
At that time, a new mayor had been appointed in the city, Geronimo Suarez Ronte, and Perucho did not agree, writes a letter to the island’s superior governor, expressing Suarez’s incompetence. The government’s response was to arrest Perucho and sentence him to 14 months of house arrest, a sentence that was cut for good behavior. Perucho took advantage of this time writing music, playing piano with his daughters, writing articles about Cuban culture and studying military art. He kept secret correspondence with Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who already appeared as the leader of the independence movement.
In 1867, the Spanish government introduced a new 10% tax on all agricultural production. The Bayamo area stood out for the production of sugar, coffee, tobacco, but cotton, cocoa, corn were also produced; all subject to the new 10% tax. For Bayamo landowners like Céspedes or Perucho, this was the end point, and they decided that it was time to rise up against Spain.