The monument depicts a relief bust of the poet and martyr Diego Gabriel of the Conception Valdés also known as Plácido and a relief of a naked woman and a naked man. The monument inscriptions read:
"Placido"
and
"1809-1844 Extendidas mis manos he jurado s er enemigo eterno del tirano y morir a las manos de un verdugo i es necesario por romper el yugo De su poema El Juramento" - Translation: "1809-1844 I have stretched out my hands, I have sworn to be the eternal enemy of the tyrant and die in the hands of an executioner whose yoke must be broken." - From his poem The oath"
and
"El Club Atenas - A la Ciudad de La Habana - 1978" - Translation: "The Club Atenas - To the City of Havana - 1978"
Diego Gabriel of the Conception Valdés (Havana, 18 of March of 1809 - ibídem, 28 of June of 1844), better known by his pseudonym Plácido, was an Afro-Cuban poet.
As poet he is known as one of the most important representatives of Romanticism in Cuba. He has collaborated in La Aurora de Matanzas, El Pasatiempo, and El Eco de Villaclara (Villa Clara). Many of his poems are popular and intended for family parties. His works express the everyday life of the Island in those moments. His poetry does not have the depth, quality and culture of professors like José María Heredia, who recognized him as a great Creole poetry, but was noted for the inspiration and naturalness of his verse. "Plácido", pseudonym with which he signed his works, was the poet of greater acceptance and popularization in Cuba, in addition to being considered one of the initiators of the criollismo and siboneyismo in the Cuban lyric movement. Among his most famous works are The Flower of Cane, A Gesler, The Flower of Pineapple, Jicotencal, The Flower of Coffee, To an ungrateful, and the poem in which he says goodbye to life before being shot.
Gabriel Valdés suffered persecution in the 1840s, and was imprisoned on at least one occasion. Accused of being a member of the false conspiracy of the ladder, he was shot down on 28 June 1844, at the age of 35, in Matanzas.
On May 15th of the year 1845, the newspaper “The Jamaican Guardian and Patriot” in Kingston, published the idea of Joseph Saoul to erect in that city a monument to the memory of the Cuban poet considering him a victim of the slave-traders and slave-holders
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