URBAN MYTH: WHO STOLE JOSE MARTI'S BUST FROM WASHINGTON PARK?

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 Sombrero Fest 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 – almost 159 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.

For his troubles, Marti was exiled from Cuba and traveled to Spain, then later to Mexico seeking to build a revloutionary movement to oust the colonial Spanish empire. Martí became a spokesman for the independence movement throughout Latin America. His plans to invade Cuba failed and in 1895, he died in battle fighting for Cuban independence.

Cubans everywhere remember Marti for his struggle against Spanish rule and honor him everywhere. The Circulo Cubano in the Rio Grande Valley built the monument to his memory pictured above and donated it to the City of Brownsville to be erected at Washington Park. The monument included a bust of the Cuban martyr atop the white marble column.

But soon after the monument was built, the bust mysteriously disappeared and vile rumors circulate that conservative elements in the city (most notably a well-known right-wing Republican) sent someone to have the bust removed because he considered him a communist. He is said to have had the bust tossed into a local resaca where it lies buried in the silt.

Those who have related this anecdote to us swear by its veracity. They say the man's wife was a principal in the inclusion of the monument into the park and was very active in restoring the fountain there. Can any of our readers add anything to this tale?