José Julián Martí Pérez at 168: The heirs of José Martí and those who repress them now

"I think they kill my child every time they deprive a person of their right to think." - José Martí

On the eve of the 168th anniversary of the birth of José Julián Martí Pérez, better known as José Martí, approximately 20 artists, journalists and intellectuals gathered to read some of his works.

January 27th marked the two month anniversary of hundreds of artists and intellectuals protest at the Ministry of Culture on November 27, 2020 for freedom of expression following the government raid on the San Isidro Movement's headquarters in Havana hours earlier. Out of that gathering, the Vice Minister of Culture agreed to meet with 32 representatives, and out of that encounter committed to an ongoing dialogue. On that night the 27N movement was formed, and this is how they described what took place next. 

"The dialogue that began that night and to which both parties committed themselves in the meeting held between the Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas and 32 representatives of those more than 300 protesters, was abruptly broken on December 4, 2020 with the publication by the MinCult of his statement "Those who asked for dialogue break the dialogue." The institution not only broke the dialogue, but absurdly blamed its counterpart. But the 27N had already been born, and it did not die there nor has it died. It continued to demand dialogue from the only space that power has left it: social networks. A dialogue that is with power, but it is also with all of Cuba." 

José Martí was born on January 28, 1853 and in addition to being a journalist, poet, and independence leader he was also a fervent defender of freedom of expression and conscience.

Cubans of all ideological stripes claim him as their own, but objectively who has maintained the spirit of his words and ideas? There is a movement in Cuba that seeks to restore human rights and liberties using nonviolent means. There are courageous men and women who risk everything standing up to dictatorship. Many have been jailed and some of them have been killed in the process and their families targeted for reprisals.

José Martí  wrote that "There is no forgiveness for acts of hatred. Daggers thrust in the name of liberty are thrust into liberty's heart." He also criticized the writings of Karl Marx, observing they were antithetical to his own values. Marx in 1849 had written, "We are ruthless and ask no quarter from you. When our turn comes we shall not disguise our terrorism." 

It is not a surprise that Martí saw the dangers inherent in Socialism and its doctrine of envy observing: "Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand." 

Following these statements to his modern day counterpart over a century later leads one to Oswaldo Paya, addressing 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.’"

It also leads to #27N and the San Isidro Movement, and the artists, journalists and intellectuals peacefully gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture to read the works of José Martí on January 27, 2020. They are is heirs. One of them Carolina Barrero, an art historian, led the group in the reading of the poem "Dos Patrias" which translates to English to "Two Homelands," and posted the video on Facebook. Other heirs, are to be found in Cuban diaspora, one of them is Patiño Vázquez, a self described "Cuban-American child of mambo and rock & roll." He created his own arrangement, a musical setting for this work of poetry.

Two Homelands

By José Martí

I've got two homelands: Cuba and the night.

Or are both the same? As soon as 

the sun withdraws its majesty, with long veils

and holding a carnation, silent,

Cuba, like a sad widow, appears in front of me

I know which bloody carnation trembles in her hand! 

My chest is empty, it is torn and empty where the heart used to be. 

It's time to start dying. The night is right to say good-bye. 

The light disturbs and the human word. 

The universe speaks better than (the) man.

Like a flag that invites you to battle, the red flame of the sail flatters. 

I open the windows, already tight inside of me. 

Muted, breaking the carnation's leaves, like a cloud that blurs the sky, 

Cuba, a widow, passes... 

In 2021 the heirs of Martí are repressed by the Castro dictatorship that systematically denies freedom of speech and assembly, but claims the poet as their own. Ideas expressed below by José Martí are in conflict with Castroism and cannot be reconciled. However they are in accord with the democratic Cuba that helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and struggled for a more just and democratic order, but was systematically destroyed by Fidel and Raul Castro beginning on January 1, 1959. 

"Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist."

"Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all."

"Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy."

"It is the duty of man to raise up man. One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity."  

These views exist today in Cuba, but not in the regime, but among the dissidents defying the communist regime and embracing freedom while rejecting hatred. How did the Castro dictatorship respond to this peaceful gathering? 

Preemptive arrests, an act of repudiation against gathered artists and intellectuals, the Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso and his Vice-Minister Fernando León Jacomino, caught on camera physically assaulting nonviolent demonstrators, and the dissidents arrested and crammed into a small bus by secret police and beaten up while already detained, reported Diario de Cuba.

 The human rights organization, Cubalex, over Facebook published and compiled a list of those dissidents detained yesterday and those still missing or jailed at the time of their report.

#Urgent #Share

#List of persons detained today in front of the Ministry of Culture in Cuba, after being assaulted by functionaries with violence.

*If you have information on others detained, you can leave them in the comments please.

 

1 Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho reporter

2 Chino Novo

3 Ulises Padrón  LGBTI activist

4 Yunier Gtiérrez, reporter La Hora de Cuba

5 Solveig Fong

6 Julio Llopiz, artist

7 Maykel Osorbo, rapper and San Isidro member

8 Nelson Julio Álvarez, reporter ADN

9 Miryorly García

10 Mijail Rodríguez

11 Camila Ramírez Lobón, artivist

12 Eliexer Márquez

13 Henry Eric Hernández

14 Víctor Alfonso

15 Carolina Barreiro

16 Celia González

17 Oscar Casanella

18 Ismario Rodríguez Pérez, photo journalist Periodismo de Barrio

19 Mauricio Mendoza, journalist Diario de Cuba

20 Sider Riverí

21 Alfredo Martínez, reporter of Tremenda Nota

 

Arrested and freed

1 Camila Acosta

2 Amaury Pacheco

3 Tania Bruguera

4 Katherine Bisquet

5 Oscar Casanella

 

Missing

1 Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara

 

With homes under surveillance

1 Michel Matos

2 Iliana Hernandez

3 Luz Escobar

4 Adrián Rubio

5 Anyell Valdés