Esteban Montejo

Esteban Mesa Montejo (c. 1868 – February 10, 1973) was a Cuban slave who escaped to freedom before slavery was abolished on the island in 1886. He lived as a maroon (runaway slave) in the mountains until that time. He also served in the war of independence in Cuba. He is known for having his biography published in 1966, in both Spanish and English, several years before his death and when he was already at least in his 90s. He seems to have lived to be about 104. In 1997 Michael Zeuske, a German historian and field researcher of Cuban slavery and life histories, found evidence of Esteban Montejo's real date of birth in the baptismal registers (in Sagua la Grande) - not 1860, but 1868 (December 26)

After being featured in a newspaper article, Montejo had been contacted in 1963 by Cuban ethnologist Miguel Barnet, who conducted a series of taped interviews with him. From these, he published a book about Montejo's life. The book in Spanish was published as a biography of Montejo by Barnet, and in English as an autobiography by Montejo. Provided by Wikipedia