Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938), was a Puerto Rican historian, writer, freemason and activist of African and German descent who was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He moved to the United States in 1891, at the age of 17, settling in New York City, where he researched and raised awareness of the contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and African Americans have made to society. Over the years, he collected literature, art, slave narratives, and other materials of African history, which were purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library (NYPL) branch in Harlem.
In 1909 he wrote Plácido, a Cuban Martyr, a pamphlet about the Afro-Cuban poet and independence fighter Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, known by his pen name Plácido, one of the best extemporaneous poets that has tuned the Spanish lyre.