"There is no forgiveness for acts of hatred. Daggers thrust in the name of liberty are thrust into liberty's heart." - José Martí
#JoséMartí130
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José Julián Martí Pérez: 28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895 |
José Julián Martí Pérez was killed 130 years ago today in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto, on May 19, 1895. He is buried in the Santa Efigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. Cubans the world over honor his memory and Cuban independence follows a day later. Seven years and one day after Martí's death Cuba formally obtained its independence on May 20, 1902. Cuban historian Dr. Jaime Suchlicki in his essay "The Death of a Hero" describes him as Cuba’s greatest hero and most influential writer.
Yesterday, a modern José Martí, marked four years in prison. Maykel Castillo Pérez "Osorbo" is an artist, husband, father, and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience who has spent 48 months separated from his family for "the crime" of exercising his fundamental rights. He is a rap artist, like Martí a poet, a defender of human rights, and imprisoned for his defense of Cuban sovereignty residing among the Cuban people.
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| Cuban prisoner of conscience: Maykel Castillo Pérez "Osorbo" |
The Cuban dictatorship jails minors for expressing themselves, in an action reminiscent of the Spanish colonial government's targeting of the future Cuban independence leader when he was a child. On October 21, 1869, José Martí, then 16, was jailed and accused of sedition for a letter he wrote to a friend criticizing his decision to join the Spanish colonial army.
Cubans across the ideological divide claim José Martí as their own. The claims of the dictatorship, led by the Castro family, that Martí is the intellectual author of their political project is ironic considering that the life and writings of this Cuban journalist, poet, and independence leader are the antithesis of the Castro dictatorship. The late Cuban scholar Carlos Ripoll is required reading to understand the thought of José Martí.
The Institutional Repository of Florida International University’s Digital commons offered the following description of two videos examining the work of Carlos Ripoll on May 10, 2017.
Carlos Ripoll (1922-2011) was a Cuban scholar who lived in the U.S. for close to half a century, during which he carried out outstanding research on several Cuban historical, literary, and political topics. Chief among them was Ripoll’s life-long interest in the life and work of Jose Marti. Based on personal acquaintance with Ripoll, reading of his works, and a survey of Martiana donated by Ripoll himself to the FIU library upon his death, Dr. Santi will explore Ripoll’s reading of Marti, is legacy and, in particular, what Ripoll called repeatedly “the falsification of Jose Marti in present-day Cuba.”
Dr. Enrico Mario Santí in this 2017 presentation hosted by the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University discussed his relationship with Carlos Ripoll’s and his view of Martí, describing a Martí who “was not a Marxist, but he was a radical revolutionary. On the one hand Martí was not a socialist, but Martí was very interested in pursuing a revolution after the War of Independence. In other words there were no easy political solutions that Ripoll was advocating, but on the contrary was asking us to think through these issues and to be very careful about the facts of Cuban history, and the way Cuban history was being manipulated.”
For Spanish language readers, Professor Santí recommends reading Ripoll’s essay “La noble intransigencia de José Martí” which is available online, among other works.
Both José Martí’s writings and actions taken by him in life point to a man who prized liberty, independence based in popular sovereignty, and freedom of speech, thought and association as fundamental to his sense of being. He was a prisoner of conscience, before Amnesty International coined the term, jailed for writing a disapproving letter to a classmate for joining the Spanish colonial army.
Under the Castro regime freedom of expression can end in prison for engaging in “enemy propaganda,” and freedom of thought can also lead you to prison for the crime of “dangerousness.” This is an affront to José Marti’s belief that “liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy, under the Castro regime, is a currency for survival.
The Castro regime's celebration of José Martí is doubly ironic because both Francisco Franco's father and Fidel and Raul Castro's father had been soldiers who fought in Cuba to preserve its colonial status within the Spanish empire. Castro's father, Angel, according to the 2016 documentary, "Franco and Fidel: A Strange Friendship",
had a photo of Franco on his nightstand. This historical link
translated into a "special relationship" between the two dictators and
is available online.
Cuba under the Castros is not the vision advanced by Cuba’s greatest hero. This tradition of freedom and respect for freedom of thought and speech exists among Cuban dissidents, and on more than one occasion cost the lives of other heroes to defend. One of Martí's modern day counterparts is Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who addressed the European Parliament on December 17, 2002:
“The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together.’”
Oswaldo was extra-judicially executed by the secret police on July 22, 2012. International human rights body's have recognized that this murder was a political assassination.
Other counterparts of Martí are found among the Cuban artists, journalists and intellectuals that nonviolently gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture to read his works on January 27, 2021, and were beaten up by the Castro dictatorship’s Minister of Culture, and arrested by the regime’s political police.
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| José Martí with shirt of stars by Camila Ramírez Lobón |
Today we remember and honor José Martí and his modern day counterparts risking all for Cuba to be free, and hope that their authentic history will reach a wider audience to counter the disinformation spread by the Cuban dictatorship, and others.
"I think they kill my child every time they deprive a person of their right to think." - José Martí
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