# Félix Varela Flees into Exile (1823)

URL: https://allhistories.com/cuba/timeline/1823-felix-varela-flees-into-exile
Location: New York City, United States
Themes: Independence, Education, Exile

In 1821 the Havana priest and philosophy professor Félix Varela was chosen to represent Cuba in the Spanish Cortes, where he urged self-government for the colonies and the abolition of slavery. When absolutist rule was restored in 1823 he was sentenced to death. He escaped via Gibraltar to the United States, and from 1824 published the newspaper El Habanero in New York. Varela had taught a generation of Cuban thinkers at the San Carlos Seminary, introducing modern philosophy and science, and his students included Domingo del Monte, José Antonio Saco and José de la Luz y Caballero. His exile came as Spanish America was winning independence, and he began to argue openly that Cuba should follow, a position he maintained from abroad. In New York he served the growing Catholic population and in 1837 was named vicar general of the diocese. He retired to St. Augustine, Florida, where he died in 1853. Cubans revere him as the man who taught them to think, and the Church declared him Venerable in 2012; his remains are now in Havana. At this point in the timeline (1823), Cuba was part of the Spanish Empire under King Ferdinand VII (19 March 1808 – 29 September 1833); the island was governed by Governor and Captain General Francisco Dionisio Vives (2 May 1823 – 15 May 1832).

## Why it matters
Varela gave Cuban nationalism its intellectual foundation and its first newspaper of independence, published from exile.

Ruler at the Time: [Ferdinand VII of Spain](https://allhistories.com/cuba/rulers/ferdinand-vii-of-spain)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Félix Varela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Varela)
- [Wikipedia — José Antonio Saco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Antonio_Saco)