User:Racelaser/trelles

Carlos Manuel Trelles y Govín, also known as Carlos M. Trelles, born in Matanzas, Cuba, on February 15th, 1886, was a historian, scholar, the most notable and influential Cuban bibliographer, and author of the most complete and accurate bibligraphy published in the first half of the 20th century in the Americas.

Life
He received early education under Dr. Carlos de la Torre at La Unión school. In 1880, Trelles graduated with a bachelor degree and soon after attended the Institute of Havana. He was a member of both the Academy of Arts and Academy of History, an honorary member of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, and was elected as the Corresponding Member of the Hispanic Society of America.

Career
In 1880 he began the study of medicine. In 1884 he withdrew from school to pursue his own business. Devoted nonetheless to literature, in 1887 he began his career as a journalist, and was early recognized in the field as one of the most influential writers from the city of Matanzas.

In 1892 he wrote for the Revista Cubana, which was a weekly magazine edited by the renowned Enrique José Varona.

In 1895 Trelles authored a pamphlet entitled Cuba and America, in which he stated his separatist tendencies. By the time the War of Independence had erupted, Trelles had contributed in such a way to the development and operations of the publication, that Estrada Palma, the current President of Cuba at the time, appointed him, along with journalists and writers, to create a Revolutionary Committee in Matanzas, in which its members, mostly criollos (Creoles) or native Cubans, would protest and organize activities against the Spanish colonial authorities.

In 1896 he traveled to Tampa, Florida, escaping from authorities in Cuba, where he was persecuted for his anti-colonial stance. Once in Tampa, he began writing for the newspaper Patria, a known publication which was printed in New York. Meanwhile, he had not ceased his contributions to Cuba and America which was mostly overseen by his longtime friend Raimundo Cabrera. In 1898, after the end of the war, Trelles had returned to the Atenas de Cuba, and upon his arrival he organized the Public Library of Matanzas, of which he was the first elected librarian in the city.

Ten months later, when Trelles was succeeded as director of the institution, the number of volumes in the facility had increased considerably. When Trelles was appointed for the job, the estimated catalogue of books was at around two thousand volumes. When Trelles stepped down from his position to pursue other interests, the number of available volumes rose to thirteen thousand publications. Around 1900, Trelles organized the Paris exposition, an exhibition that would be held in the capital of France. He was designated as the main spokesperson for the presentation in which the country of Cuba had to be represented. Soon after, he was appointed to write the official report at the exposition, titled Sugar and tobacco at the Paris Exposition, which would later appear in 1901. Also in 1900, Trelles began the research for his manuscript Bibliografía Cubana (Cuban bibliography), in which he immersed himself for almost sixteen years. In 1907, the first publicized tome appeared, and years later, in 1917, the twelfth and last volume that completed the collection was finally printed.

The masterpiece Bibliografía Cubana is comprised by a total of thirty-three thousand sources and referenced materials, in which nine thousand authors are included herein. Needless to say, Bibliografía Cubana is the most comprehensive and thorough non-fiction work of literature by a single author that has been successfully completed in the Americas ever since. A year later, in 1918, he began the scientific material Biblioteca científica cubana which was a revised edition of the prior collection. The publications aimed for a specialized approach in different areas of study, such as geography, mathematics, history, and literature, among others.

In 1922, Trelles authored a bibliography of the Monroe Doctrine, that was partially translated by the American Historical Review, before being published later that  year. The book was highly sought after by recognized journals and scientific reviews in Cuba and abroad. James Alexander Robertson, editor to The Hispanic American historical review volume 5, stated that:

In the number of this review, Dr. Carlos M. Trelles, of Matanzas, Cuba, the authority on Cuban bibliography, writes an introduction to a Cuban bibliography of the Monroe Doctrine.