José Martì: A Revolutionary Life

431 Pages·2014·9.26 MB·English

by  Alfred J. López

José Martí
Joe R. and TeResa Lozano Long seRies in
LaTin ameRican and La Tino aRT and cuLTu Re
José Martí
a RevoLuTionaR y Life
By Alfred J. López
University of Texas Press    Austin
Copyright © 2014 by Alfred J. López
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Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2014
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♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/niso z39.48- 1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).
LibRaRy of congRess caTaLoging- in- PubLicaTion daTa
López, Alfred J., 1962–
 José Martí: a revolutionary life / by Alfred J. López. — First edition.
  pages  cm. — (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long series in Latin
American and Latino art and culture)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 isbn 978-0-292-73906-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Martí, José, 1853–1895. 2. Revolutionaries—Cuba—Biography. 
3. Statesmen—Cuba—Biography. 4. Cuba—History—1878–1895. I. Title.
 f1783.m38L5769 2014
 972.91ʹ05092—dc23
 [b]
2014012771
doi:10.7560/739062
For Susan, wife, best friend, and honorary Cuban
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
inTRoducTion. Mariano and Leonor 1
Part One: befoRe The f aLL (1853–1870)
chaPTeR o ne. An Unlikely Prodigy 9
A Boy’s First Letter 24
chaPTeR Two. The Teacher Appears 26
chaPTeR ThRee. Trial by Fire 45
Havana Farewell 66
Part Two: exiLe (1871–1880)
chaPTeR fou R. Spain 71
chaPTeR five . A Young Man’s Travels 93
chaPTeR s ix. Discovering America (1): Mexico 101
A Secret Mission 136
chaPTeR seven . Discovering America (2): Guatemala 142
chaPTeR eighT . Homecoming, Interrupted 178
viii  José Martí
Part Three: The gReaT woRk (1881–1895)
chaPTeR nine . New York (1): A False Start 195
In the Land of Bolívar 205
chaPTeR Ten. New York (2): No Country, No Master 208
chaPTeR eLeven . New York (3): The Great Work Begins 227
chaPTeR TweLve. New York (4): The Final Push 258
chaPTeR ThiRTeen. Farewells and Rowboats 283
A Narrow Escape—and One Last Letter for His Patria 293
chaPTeR fou RTeen. “My Life for My Country” 296
ePiLogue. A Hero’s Afterlife 329
Notes 335
Works Cited 385
Index 399
Preface
I
T is indicaTive of noRTh ameRicans ’ Lack of inTeR -
est in the rest of their hemisphere that José Martí, a giant of Latin
American politics and letters, remains unknown in the United States. Martí
was the founding father of not only Cuban independence but a broader pan-
American vision of freedom and democracy. In all of modern Latin American
history, arguably only the “Great Liberator” Simón Bolívar rivals Martí in stat-
ure and legacy. Yet among Americans, most of whom could easily pick Fidel
Castro or Ricky Ricardo out of a line- up, relatively few would even recognize
Martí’s name.
Among Latin Americans and U.S. Latinos, however, Martí is a household
name. Since his death on a Cuban battlefield in 1895, his legacy has overtaken
the facts and foibles of his life, rendering the man who lived and died for the
dream of Cuban independence the outsized hero, martyr, “Apostle,” and found-
ing father that every Cuban—and Cuban American—boy and girl knows today.
In today’s Cuba, Martí is inescapable. His face appears on Cuba’s one-
peso note (figure 0.1). An enormous Martí statue originally commissioned by
Castro’s predecessor Fulgencio Batista presides over Havana’s Plaza de la Revo-
lución, the Castro regime’s favorite site for speeches and rallies (figure 0.2).
Martí’s name also adorns both Havana’s airport and Cuba’s national library.
Nor do such displays come at the expense of his written work. Cuba’s Centro
de Estudios Martianos (Center for Martí Studies), founded in 1977, is a state-
supported agency dedicated to the study and dissemination of Martí’s work.
Tens of thousands have visited such public Martí shrines as his Havana birth-
place and the former site of the Spanish prison where the adolescent Martí was
incarcerated.
Beyond these major Martí sites, even the casual observer cannot help notic-
ing the ubiquity of Martí’s face, name, and words reproduced in settings from
ix