VANDALIZED MARTI MONUMENT BROKEN UP, TO BE MOVED; WILL SAME BE DONE TO CONFEDERATE JEFF DAVIS STONE?

By Juan Montoya

After suffering vandalism, having some of its parts stolen, and some damaged, the monument to Cuban martyr and revolutionary Jose Marti will be broken apart, parts salvaged, and moved to the Brownsville Country Club.

The monument was originally erected by members of the local Cuban community group known as El Circulo Cubano and was a tribute to Marti, featuring quotes from the writer who led a revolutionary movement to throw off the yoke of the Spanish Crown's colonial control of the island.

Over the years vandals have attacked it, first stealing the bronze bust of Marti, then taking off the bronze plaques and breaking parts of it.

City of Brownsville Parks and Recreation Director Damaris McGlone said the city had been approached by members of El Circulo Cubano and asked that the city try to disassemble the monument as best it could and that it be reassembled and erected by th golf course in the Brownsville Country Club.

"We are going to try to salvage as much of it as we can and reassemble it out there," she said.

Marti's bust was stolen soon after the monument was erected, allegedly under the direction of local conservatives who didn't think that a monument to a Cuban revolutionary deserved a place in Washington Park.

Since then, two bronze plaques that were on the edges of the monument have also disappeared. And just recently a corner of the white marble coated section was broken that was part of the outline of the island.

The Brownsville Country Club was developed by a wealthy Cuban businessman, Marcelo Hernandez, who named the main street San Marcelo Boulevard. All of the other streets attached to San Marcelo are of Mexican and Cuban states and cities, such as Habana, Saltillo, Tamaulipas, and Oaxaca. Many of those families still live at the BCC.

The white circular construction caught the eye of many park visitors and the poetry quotes in Spanish lining the sides spoke of the author's literary prowess.

Some wags have said that as soon as the parks Youth Build crews finish dismantling and removing the Marti monument, they should move to the southern edge of the park and so the same thing with the Jefferson Davis Highway Memorial, a monument that was also been vandalized with red spray paint recently. The city commission plans to hold Town-Hall type meetings to determine what to do with the stone.