Municipal Parks and Plazas on Waymarking.com
By Juan Montoya
Few -- if any -- Brownsville schoolchildren could tell you where the memorial for the man Cuban-Americans consider the Apostle of that island’s liberation is at in their city.
And probably, most have seen the white marble memorial when they
visit Washington Park for the Christmas light show or the SombreroFest during Charro Days.But the man who fought for Cuban independence from Spain and who coined the unforgettable verses inscribed in black lettering on the marble siding of the memorial is remembered in this border city.
"Men are divided into two bands," reads one. "Those who love and build; and those who hate and destroy."
José Julián Martí y Pérez was born in Havana, Cuba in January 28, 1853 -- 147 years ago. At the time, he was the son of a peninsular official. Peninsulares were Cubans born in Spain, and as such, afforded the privileges of the colonial power. The young Martí, however, did not share his father’s loyalty to a system that enslaved the black population which labored in the lucrative sugar plantations and who bore the brunt of the empire’s repression.
He soon rebelled against his father -- a military official -- and schemed to make the island independent from Spain.
Ha witnessed the whipping of black slaves in Hanábana and the cruelty of the imperial authorities revolted him.
"I saw it when I was a child, and I can still feel the shame burning on my cheeks," he wrote as a man.
His adherence to independence soon led him to rail and publish against the crown, much to his father’s displeasure. Soon, after his teacher was arrested without cause for having encouraged his students to express their pro-independence stances against the government -- Martí, at 16, was sentenced to six years at hard labor in the stone quarries.
Only after his father’s influential friends intervened was he freed -- nearly blind, permanently scarred from the chains he wore and suffering from a hernia.
His imprisonment forged in him even more determination to end Spain’s reign over the agonized island. The authorities, in turn, exiled him to Spain.
While in Spain, Martí published a pro-Cuban independence newspaper. The turmoil in the colonies eventually forced the crown to abdicate and the Spanish republic encouraged him to advocate his cause even more strongly. But soon he finds that the republic is no better than the crown was on the Cuban question and he leaves to find refuge in México.
"Never are the shores of exile as beautiful as when one bids them farewell," he would write later. His stay in México would only serve to disillusion the young revolutionary. During his stay, the constitutional president, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, was deposed by Porfirio Díaz, who would remain in power for the next 30 years.
Martí decided his place was in Cuba and arrived in the island under a false identity from México. But under pressure from Cuban authorities, he left and married Carmen Zayas Bazan in México.
Upon his return to Cuba, he is again arrested and deported to Spain which he leaves and travels to France and then the United States.
By now it is 1880, and Martí foments revolution in New York and writes some of his most memorable verses in exile. Although he is recognized as a erudite spokesman for Cuban liberation, his Versos Libres gain him recognition as a first-rate poet and writer.
But the revolutionary movement in Cuba is best by division and obstacles that make it impossible for a native-born leadership to ascertain power. Martí becomes a spokesman for the independence movement throughout Latin America. His plans to invade Cuba fail and in 1895, he dies in battle fighting for Cuban independence.
Soon after, in 1898, the United States entered the war and established a military government. Cuba, again, is under foreign domination.
In 1902, a puppet Cuban government signed the Platt Amendment which places the island under U.S. control.
Fifty seven years later, Fidel Castro overthrew the Fulgencio Batista regime and placed the island under a communist government.
From beyond, Martí’s voice still calls out like his verse, "There are some things that are glorious; The sun in the sky and freedom on earth."
Cuba awaits.
5 comments:
Unfortunately school children can't tell you anything about any monument in town. BISD doesn't take them on historical trips....just to pizza places, the mall and the zoo; places that can contain the brats. Maybe they go to the Palo Alto Battlefield, but probably can't tell you anything except it was hot and dusty.
Unfortunately, most of our teachers don't know these facts about our history either...they don't care. So our kids don't care. What a shame with so much history around us.
What is your point? People here do not remember the American Heros, what makes you think they will remember the cuban heros? By the way, I did not realize you were cuban.
I do NOT ignore it ...and often ponder revolutions, independence, democracy, dictatorships, and, more ....
Do we live in Cuba? Errrhmmm no. Why would you give a fuck if no one gives a fuck? are you Cuban?
There is no time for American History nor field trips, so why should we worry about Cuban History? The teachers would love to take part in more field trips and excursions with the children but if it does not relate to TAKS, it is out of the question and there is no money!
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