ESPADA, Juan J. Diaz y Landa (espa.h'dah), Cuban bishop, born in Alava, Spain, 20 April 1756; died in Havana, 13 August 1832. He studied at the University of Salamanca, where he received sacred orders. He was appointed bishop of Havana in January 1800, but did not assume his office till 26 February 1802. During thirty years Bishop Espada contributed actively toward the progress and welfare of the island. In 1804 he caused a vast public cemetery to be laid out in Havana, the first one ever established in the island, and it was subsequently named after him.

In 1804'6 other cities and towns of Cuba were also provided with cemeteries, abolishing forever the old and unhealthy custom of burying in the Churches or near them. During the first decade of the century Bishop Espada encouraged vaccination, which had been introduced in the Island in 1801, endowed many public schools out of his own revenues, founded in 1827 an asylum for the insane, and paid much attention to the improvement of the morals of the clergy. He was indefatigable in his efforts to promote public instruction, and introduced many useful reforms in the Theological seminary of San Carlos, and in the University of Havana, where he created several new cathedras. In 1833 a memorial of Bishop Espada was published, to which the best writers of Cuba contributed. In 1880 his remains were transferred, with great pomp and solemnity, from their old resting place to the new cemetery near Havana, where a fine monument has been erected to his memory. A Street in Havana bears his name.