Martí José - José Martí Reader

Table of Contents

JOS MART

Not only was Mart one of the most brilliant literary figures in the history of Latin American letters, but also as the relevance of his observations more than a century later shows he was one of the most underrated political thinkers of modern times.

John Kirk, Jos Mart: Mentor of the Cuban Nation

[Mart] added a social agenda to the historic program of national liberation and instantly converted a movement devoted to the establishment of a new nation into a force dedicated to shaping a new society. Mart transformed rebellion into revolution Like a master weaver, Mart pulled together all the separate threads of Cuban discontent social, economic, political, racial, historical and wove them into a radical movement of enormous force.

Louis A. Prez, Jr.,

Jos Mart in the United States: The Florida Experience

Oh Cuba! The blood of Mart was not yours alone; it belonged to an entire race, to an entire continent; it belonged to the powerful youth who have lost probably the best of teachers; he belonged to the future!

Rubn Daro

From 1898 to the present day the validity of the admonitory words of Mart has retained its force. The main problems confronting Nuestra Amrica since the 1880s are those foreseen by Mart.

Roberto Fernndez Retamar

Copyright 2007 Editorial Jos Mart and Centro de Estudios Martianos

Copyright 2007 Ocean Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-925317-40-4 e-book

Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 2006939244

Second edition printed 2007

First edition printed 1999, 2001, 2004

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CONTENTS

Why publish a new collection of the writings, letters and verse of Jos Mart more than 100 years after his death in the Cuban War of Independence?

Mart was the guide of his time but also stands as the anticipator of ours, wrote Cuban revolutionary leader Carlos Rafael Rodrguez. Mart was an outstanding teacher, journalist, poet and revolutionary of his time, able to interweave the threads of Latin American culture and history. In his brilliant writings and impassioned speeches, he was able to capture and ignite the spirit of the Americas.

Committed to the task of completing the poem of 1810 the independence of Latin America from Spanish rule Mart also saw a specter haunting the continent: the North American monster. He feared that the growing economic dominance of the United States would soon lead to political domination. He insisted that Cuba must be free of the United States, as well as Spain.

I have lived inside the monster and I know its entrails, Mart wrote to his old friend Manuel Mercado, the day before his death fighting for Cubas independence in 1895.

A fierce Cuban patriot, Mart also felt himself to be a citizen of all nations, as expressed in the first poem in Simple Verses which has become known as the words of Cubas most popular song: Guantnamera,

I am a traveler to all parts,

And a newcomer to none.

It could be said that this sense of Cubas place in the world and its spirit of international solidarity, evident in Mart, has also been a feature of revolutionary Cuba in the 20th century.

The 1959 Cuban revolution took place in a very different world from Marts, yet Fidel Castro always insisted on the continuity of the Cuban struggle for sovereignty from the first declaration of independence at Yara, October 10, 1868. A reading of Mart sheds much light on the roots and ideology of the Cuban revolution of 1959, as well as the political and moral inspiration guiding Fidel Castro and the other young Cubans who, calling themselves the Centennial Youth, launched the bold attack on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, the year of the 100th anniversary of Marts birth. This was no whim or artifice.

In particular, Marts writings make clear that the tumultuous US-Cuba relationship cannot be explained simply as a Cold War construct, but has a much longer and more complex history.

Marts vision went beyond simply an independent Cuban republic to encompass a fundamental transformation of Cuban society, which meant a radical restructuring of the economic, social and political spheres, based not on ideology but on a moral transformation of what can be termed the human dimension of patria [homeland]. Mart himself observed: It is a case of changing a nations soul, their entire way of thinking and acting, and not just their external clothes.

It has been said that the complexity of Marts thought can mean many things to many people. Yet there are obvious, constant ideas running through all his writings: his egalitarian spirit, his profound belief in the human dignity of all peoples, his sincere rejection of racism, his absolute humility and denial of self, and his deep commitment to the poor of the earth with whom he wished to throw [his] luck.

Above all, Marts pleas on behalf of the peoples of Latin America, in this age of globalization and new forms of colonization, give his voice a remarkably modern resonance and an obvious relevance to the political and philosophical debates of the 21st century.

On the 100th anniversary of Marts death, Fidel Castro summed up the man who has often been referred to as the Apostle: Mart was a universal man with extraordinary ideas.

Marts complex literary style is difficult to translate satisfactorily into English. As one biographer remarked, the romantic exuberance of his prose seems rather heady to readers brought up in a more sober tradition. The publishers wish to acknowledge the valiant efforts of the team of translators who worked on this project.

The collaboration of both the Centro de Estudios Martianos and Editorial Jos Mart in Havana was essential to the initiation and completion of this new selection of Marts writings. Our thanks also to Ivn Prez Carrin, Jos Amieva Dalboys, Jorge Fernndez Paz and Jim Shnookal; to Elinor Randall, Mary Todd, Manuel Tellechea and Carmen Gonzlez Daz de Villegas for their translations; and Ivan Schulman for his introduction.

Finally, my coeditor Mirta Muiz must be acknowledged for the considerable amount of work she did in order to bring this project to fruition.

Deborah Shnookal

1853

January 28: Jos Julin Mart y Prez is born in Havana. His parents, Mariano Mart and Leonor Prez, were Spaniards; his father came from Valencia, and his mother, from the Canary Islands.