By Yasel Toledo Garnache on February 24, 2021
Painting: Roberto Fabelo
Honoring the leadership of Jose Marti on the 126th anniversary of the re-launching of Cuba’s war of independence on February 24, 1895 – Editorial
The most common image of José Martí, Cuba’s National Hero, is that of a poet, an intellectual, accustomed to speeches and writing, especially at night. Some have even tried to portray him as a man incapable of withstanding the demands of a battle in the Manigua. But the Apostle of Independence was a true warrior. Let no one doubt it! Throughout his life, he fought wars, constant struggles in which he never gave in.
Many were the challenges he faced during his 42 years of age, too many criticisms and hardships, pains of various kinds, wounds in the soul, but he remained faithful to his principles. Only someone with enormous mental and physical strength could face so many wind storms, and maintain his poetic soul, the purity of his ideas and actions, his confidence in the truth and the dream of his homeland.
We seem to see him imprisoned at the age of 16 in the Quarries of San Lázaro. From the early hours of the morning, he worked, dragging chains and shackles along a stony path, digging and chipping stones with a pickaxe. This caused injuries to his ankles and waist from the rubbing of the shackles. This affected his walking and caused him lifelong pain. From a very young age, he suffered from skin lesions and a sarcocele (cystic testicular tumor) as a result of the constant rubbing of the chain in the Presidio, for which he underwent at least four operations.
He suffered from sarcoidosis, which led to other digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. He also suffered from acute laryngitis and on more than one occasion the doctors recommended absolute voice rest, but his will was stronger, and he replied: “Cuba cannot wait”. There is also the sadness of exile, the remoteness, the misunderstandings of his family, the storms with his wife Carmen Zayas Bazán, the separation from his beloved son, the verbal attacks of many…
Despite all this and other injuries to his soul, he continued to work tirelessly for a fully independent Cuba. In preparing for the War of 1895, he overcame, with intelligence and character, differences with great military leaders such as Antonio Maceo.
His contribution as the main organizer of the War of 1895 is unquestionable, with an integrating vision in terms of strategy and the union of the participating generations. Each of his previous speeches is a source of civic-mindedness and political clarity. The creation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and the newspaper Patria also favored the chances of success.
In these preparations and in the conception of the struggle, he also showed that his military thinking was the fruit of analysis of other experiences, such as the aboriginal resistance to the Spanish conquest, the wars of independence in Spanish America, the Ten Years’ War, the War of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies, the War of Secession in the United States (1861-65), the Chiquita War, the Gómez-Maceo plan, the Spanish war of independence against the Napoleonic invasion and the Franco-Prussian war. He was also nourished by conversations with patriots from previous conflicts, such as Máximo Gómez, Antonio Maceo and Flor Crombet. Marti was a constant scholar.
In his heart throbbed the desire to fight with guns and bullets, to feel the volcano of the battlefield. He went out on his horse, the shots ring out…, but he continues impetuously. He still seems to ride today, with that indefinable courage.
Even now, 126 years after his physical disappearance, Martí remains a very modern warrior. Some repeat phrases of his, mention his name, even dare to say how he would act today in the face of certain events, but the truth is that our National Hero would never betray his true love for Cuba, his dignity and anti-imperialism. We must keep him very much alive with us, pulsating, as an essential part of the heart of this nation and its people.
Source: Association of Hermanos Saiz, Translation Resumen Latino Americano, North America bureau