The Pan of Matanzas rises 380 meters above sea level.
It had been Lopez’ plan when he invaded Cardenas in 1850, to seize the railroad to Matanzas in the dead of night and then to take the city itself by surprise; there, Lopez fully expected that thousands would join him in the revolution. Instead, the accidental grounding of his ship resulted in delay, the alarm was sounded in Matanzas, and Spanish forces drove Lopez out of Cuba and chased him all the way to Florida. Ambrosio Jose Gonzales, “Manifesto on Cuban Affairs Addressed to the People of the United States,” September 1, 1852 (New Orleans: Printed at The Daily Delta, 1853) http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/gonzalesdoc6.htm ; Chaffin, Fatal Glory, 137.
Ambrosio Jose Gonzales (1818-1893), born in Matanzas and educated in the United States and Europe, belonged to a secret organization that wanted Cuba annexed by the United States. He accompanied Lopez on the failed 1850 filibustering expedition in Cardenas. After Lopez’ execution in 1851 Gonzales returned to the U.S., married into a prominent South Carolina family, and became a colonel in the Confederate army.
