...At least some blacks in Cuba were able to read about these important events because they had been educated. Free black parents like the Whittens and the Barbas understood the importance of education and litercy as a critical marker of status and a route to upward mobility in Spanish America. Free black children with ability and connections were admitted to the Jesuit Colegio de San Jose de la Habana, where they received excellent classical educations. Ignacio Flores, for instance, a free black child, at the age of nine AN472 had already been examined successfully in ten subjects and ranked first in his class. With his teachers, encouragement, Ignacio applied to the Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Geronimo de la Habana. Following a medieval model, entrance exams were a public event which drew crowds of observers. Ignacio's father was Commandant Antonio Flores, who had served in the pardo battalion since 1708 and was a veteran of the British invasion of Havana and of the Pensacola campaign in the American Revolution. Flores proudly issued invitations to his son Ignacios examination, but at the last moment, two professors of Spanish descent launched a protest campaign. Fearful of the disorder and backlash, the university canceled Ignacio's exams. The senior Flores asked the Council of the Indies in Spain to overrule this decision, arguing that other pardo children had been examined "repeatedly in the [Jesuit] convent and other schools of Havana" and that educating pardos in the sciences and preparing them as physicians would only redound to the credit of the empire. Flores cited examples where pardos had received higher education in Peru and Mexico and quoteda legal treatise and Royal Edict which stated that the children of pardos should be regarded as Spaniards. He added that the incident had embarrassed him and his son, as it surely would have in such an honor-conscious environment. Although Flore's articulate challenge failed and the local decision was upheld, his suit demonstrated that a segment of free blacks in Havanan were receiving good educations that could benefit their families and communities. (Landers: Atlantic Creoles)