"The Socrates of Cuban youth," as he has often been called, JoséCipriano de la Luz y Caballero was born in Havana on July 11, 1799, andwas educated at the Convent of San Francisco, the University of Havana,and the San Carlos Seminary where he was a pupil of his uncle, JoséAgustin Caballero, and of Felix Varela. Later he travelled and studiedin the United States and Europe. In Germany he became intimatelyassociated with Baron Humboldt. Returning to Cuba in 1831, he gavehimself to the task of improving and promoting the educational interestsof his country. In 1843 he revisited Europe, but was recalled thefollowing year to answer an absurdly false charge of being implicated inthe Negro Conspiracy. He then founded and until his death conducted hisfamous school of El Salvador, in which for a generation many of theforemost Cubans were educated, and in which manhood and patriotism wereever the foremost items of the curriculum. He was the author of a numberof standard educational works. He died on June 22, 1862.