The Two Legacies of José Martí

The BLAA library in La Candelaria has an exhibit about Cuban revolutionary and martyr José Martí, a man who deserves honor and admiration and who holds the historical honor of having been caricatured and worshipped by two diametrically opposed groups.

Martí was a Cuban, born in Havana in 1842, who dedicated his life to freeing the island from Spanish colonial tyranny. He failed miserably, and Cuba's independence soon after only saw Spain replaced by a nearer and more powerful imperial power, the United States. 

The exhibition, which is scheduled to continue until Feb. 22, unfortunately does not delve deeply into Martí's role in history and his legacy. However, it does provide glimpses of Martí's life and accomplishments. Probably few people who died so young and have confronted so much adversity and accomplished so much. Born in 1853, Martí's biographers say that he was horrified by the atrocities committed by imperial Spain, which was struggling to hold onto the last pieces of its empire: Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Phillippines. Those outrages included imprisoning, torturing and deporting Cuban nationalists. By the time Marti was a teenager, Cuba was also one of the last holdouts in the Americas of slavery, which had been abolished in the English and French colonies, as well as by the young nations such as Colombia which had freed themselves from Spanish rule. 

Martí's last letter, written to his son
before the invasion of Cuba. 

(I attribute Martí's values not because I have any reason to doubt them, but because of history's way of whitewashing these 'Great Men.' After all, has history remembered Thomas Jefferson's unprincipled attitude toward slavery or that Andrew Jackson was a slave trader? Or that both men committed near-genocide against American Indians?)

When he was only 16 Martí was imprisoned and tortured for letters he'd written criticizing friend for joining the Spanish Army. After two years in prison, he was deported to Spain, whose government hoped that living in the mother country would make him loyal to Madrid. Of course, it didn't dent his ideals. 

Martí spent the rest of his life in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala and Venezuela writing and organizing for the Cuban revolution. Despite health problems and harrasment by the Spanish government, Martí was incredibly productive, doing journalism, translating books, writing his own books (including a children's book) and even poetry. 

Altho Marti used the United States as a base for his revolutionary work, his attitude towards the U.S. was mixed. In 1879, upon arriving in New York, Martí wrote that he was "content to live in a nation where each person seems to be master of himself. One can breathe freely, since her liberty is the shield, the essence of life." But, not long after, Martí wrote that the U.S.'s vice was that "life has no greater object than amassing a fortune." Martí also harshly criticized U.S. ambitions to control all of the Americas, including Cuba, and quoted a U.S. politician as saying "This continent is ours, and sooner or later (the rest of the Americas) will have to buy what we have to sell." 

Finally, in 1895, Martí and a small group of revolutionaries landed on a Cuban beach and tried to spark a revolution. More talented as a writer than a guerrilla, Martí died in a futile attack. But the revolution fought on, altho the Spanish only gave up Cuba, as well as Puerto Rico and the Phillippines, after being defeated in war by the United States.

'José Martí's Anti-Imperialist Texts'

Always a hero, after the Cuban revolution, Cubans both on and off of the island made Martí a standard bearer and have used his name for propaganda. The truth is, of course, more complex. Martí harshly criticized the United States' materialism and lust for money, but I haven't read anything by him advocating socialism. He also clearly loved liberty and hated authoritarianism. So it's unimaginable that he would have supported the Castro dictatorship, which imprisons journalists and represses dissent. 

Martí's birthplace. 

Still, nobody hesitates to evoke his name. The U.S. government finances the anti-Castro Radio Martí in Miami, and the Cuban government awards a Jose Martí journalism award.

The beach where Martí and his companions
invaded Cuba disastrously in 1895.

After defeating Spain in the Spanish-American war, the U.S. proceeded to occupy Cuba militarily and then dominated the island's economy until the Castro brothers and Che carried out their revolution in 1959.
One can only wonder how Cuba's - and America's - history might have been different if Martí had survived and become an independent Cuba's first president.

On the other hand, as courageous and idealist as he was, Martí might just have been saved by his early death. After all, power corrupts. So who can tell whether, if Martí had achieved power in Cuba, he might have become a tyrant, too? 

The spot in Cuba where Martí was killed in 1895.

'The Girl from Guatemala,' who fell madly in love with Martí.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours