José Julián Martí y Pérez "Cubano es más que blanco, más que mulato, más que negro."  Martí was somewhat ignored in Cuba until Radio Martí started broadcasting in 1983 under Reagan. Then some in the Cuban government decided to co-opt this phenomenon, forgetting that Martí was strongly anti-socialist. The ill-read folks in Miami apparently don't know this either, or they would use it to their advantage as Cuba is awash in the glorification of Martí. José Martí is considered the father of his country, except that he never really lived much in Cuba and when he did come into Cuba for the 2nd War of Liberation in 1895, he refused to listen to what the black commander of the Liberation Army, Antonio Maceo, was telling him and went and got himself needlessly killed. Maceo told him he was better off coordinating international aid for the rebels out of New York as he did not have the skills needed to be a soldier. Curiously enough, given Cuba's veneration of Martí, he was actually anti-socialist, as revealed in his writings. Some AfroCubans, such as Leida Oquendo, have presented Martí as an antiracist, which is true, though perhaps not by today's standards, as can be seen in his description of his visit to Curaçao (see José Martí and Racism: His Visit to Curaçao by Eugene Godfried). Martí was patriarchal, he conceived of the feminine as irrational and instinctive. His principal philosophical descendant in the 20th century, Enrique José Varona, was frankly racist and thought men superior in intellect. In response to all this mysoginist fervor, we can only point to Mariana Grajales Coello, mother of Antonio Maceo and “Mother of the Cuban Nation.” However, as Ivan Cesar Martinez argues in his book, The Open Wound, Martí was well ahead of the contemporary White Cuban leadership, whose main thrust was to keep AfroCubans down at any price, including bringing in the US as a replacement hegemon for Spain in order to defend their position in society. Martí genuinely wanted to end the racial divisions in Cuban society. Perhaps Martí's worse legacy is that of his son. Martí's son: José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán Martí had one legitimate son, José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán, who was a captain in the Army of Liberation, and later in 1912 turned on his former comrades in the Independents of Color and led a band of vigilante "volunteers" (Batallón de Voluntarios) to exterminate them. After the massacre, the government and big business held a celebratory banquet in Central Park, Havana, which was presided over by Francisco Martí right under his father's statue and attended by many of the troops involved. According to Eugene Godfried, a member of the Cuban Buro Ideologico, Francisco lived until 1947 and his house in Havana has been turned into the seat of the Centro de Estudios Jose Marti under Armando Hart, a former Minister of Culture who was sacked in the wake of his conflict with Pablo Milanes, in which he is said to have displayed open racism. Revered on both sides of the Florida Straights by the Ibero-Spanish Cubans, Martí is discussed to the exclusion of the man who really lead the Mambi Army to victory, Antonio Maceo, thereby perpetuating white supremacy in Cuban culture. |
Martí and Socialism
De Hubert Jerez Mariño, El cantar de Martí, Plantation, Jerez Publishing Inc., 1999, pp.284-285.
“La soluciones socialistas, nacidas de los males europeos, no tienen nada que curar en la selva del Amazonas.”
“El funcionarismo autocrático abusará de la plebe cansada y trabajadora. Lamentable será y general, la servidumbre.”
“Asociaciones socialistas envían sus azuzadores profesionales.”
“Un pensador, Herbert Spencer, señala el riesgo que ciertos pueblos modernos corren de caer en un degradante socialismo.”
“Los crímenes no aprovechan a la libertad, ni cuadran a estatuas blancas, manos rojas.”
“De ser siervo de sí mismo, pasaría el hombre a ser siervo del Estado. De ser esclavo de los capitalistas, como se les llama ahora, iría a ser esclavo de los funcionarios. Esclavo es el que trabaja para otro que tiene dominio sobre él.”
"That future slavery",said Marti, "is socialism"
"All the power which would be gradually acquired by the caste of public officials, bound by their need to remain in a priviledged and lucrative position , would be gradually lost by the people, who lack the same reasons for complicity in hopes and profits to confront the public officials fettered together by their common interests. As all public needs would eventually be fullfilled by the State, the officials would then acquire the enormous influence which by nature falls upon those who distribute any right or benefit.The man who now wants the State to take care of him so as not to have to take care of himself would have to work in the proportion, for the time and in the occupation that te State would see fit to assign to him, as the State, on whom all the duties would befall, would be endowed with all the necessary powers to implement the means to fullfill the work involved. From being its own servant , man would then become a slave of the State. From being a slave of capitalists, as they are now called, he would become a slave of the public officials. A slave is a man wo works for another who holds control of him, and in that socialist system the community would dominate man, who would then render all his work to the community. And as public officials are human beings and, therefore, abusive, proud and ambitious, and would wield great power in that organization, abetted by all those who would take advantage or would hope to take advantage of the abuses, and by those vile forces that always prowl among the oppressed, the terror, prestige or cunning of those who rule, this system of official distribution of common labor would in a short time suffer from the grief, violence, thefts and distortions that the spirit of individuality , the austerity and the daring of genius and the williness of vice soon and fatally create in any human organization ... Autocracy will abuse the common people, exhausted and hard working. Regrettably, generalized slavery will be the result."
Martí Sobre el Socialismo
"Todo el poder que iría adquiriendo la casta de funcionarios, ligados por la necesidad de mantenerse en una ocupación privilegiada y pingue,lo iría perdiendo el pueblo que no tiene las mismas razones de complicidad en esperanza y provechos, para hacer frente a los funcionarios enlazados por intereses comunes. Como todas las necesidades públicas vendrían a ser satisfechas por el estado, adquirirían los funcionarios entonces la influencia enorme que naturalmente viene a los que distribuyen algun derecho o beneficio. El hombre que quiere ahora que el estado cuide de el para no tener que cuidar el de si, tendría que trabajar entonces en la medida, por el tiempo y en la labor que puduiese el estado asignarle, puesto que a éste, sobre quien caerían todos los deberes, se darían naturalmente todas las facilidades necesarias para recabar los medios de cumplir aquellas.
De ser siervo de si mismo, pasaría el hombre a ser siervo del estado. De ser esclavo de los capitalistas, como se llama ahora, iría a ser esclavo de los funcionarios. Esclavo es todo aquel que trabaja para otro que tiene dominio sobre el, y en ese sistema socialista dominaria la comunidad del hombre, que a la comunidad entregaría todo su trabajo. Y como los funcionarios son seres humanos y por tanto abusadores, soberbios y ambiciosos, y en esa organización tendrían gran poder, apoyadas por todos los que aprovechan o esperaron aprovechar de los abusos, y por aquellas fuerzas viles que siempre compra entre los oprimidos, el terror, prestigio o habilidad de los que mandan, este sistema de distribución oficial del trabajo comun llegaría a sufrir en poco tiempo de los quebrantos, violencias, hurtos y tergiversaciones que el espíritu de individualidad, la autoridad y osadía del genio y las astucias del vicio originan pronta y fatalmente en toda organización humana...El funcionario autocrático, abusará de la plebe, cansada y trabajadora. Lamentablemente será, y generá la servidumbre."
"All the power which would be gradually acquired by the caste of public officials, bound by their need to remain in a priviledged and lucrative position , would be gradually lost by the people, who lack the same reasons for complicity in hopes and profits to confront the public officials fettered together by their common interests. As all public needs would eventually be fullfilled by the State, the officials would then acquire the enormous influence which by nature falls upon those who distribute any right or benefit.The man who now wants the State to take care of him so as not to have to take care of himself would have to work in the proportion, for the time and in the occupation that te State would see fit to assign to him, as the State, on whom all the duties would befall, would be endowed with all the necessary powers to implement the means to fullfill the work involved. From being its own servant , man would then become a slave of the State. From being a slave of capitalists, as they are now called, he would become a slave of the public officials. A slave is a man wo works for another who holds control of him, and in that socialist system the community would dominate man, who would then render all his work to the community. And as public officials are human beings and, therefore, abusive, proud and ambitious, and would wield great power in that organization, abetted by all those who would take advantage or would hope to take advantage of the abuses, and by those vile forces that always prowl among the oppressed, the terror, prestige or cunning of those who rule, this system of official distribution of common labor would in a short time suffer from the grief, violence, thefts and distortions that the spirit of individuality , the austerity and the daring of genius and the williness of vice soon and fatally create in any human organization ... Autocracy will abuse the common people, exhausted and hard working. Regrettably, generalized slavery will be the result."
Martí Sobre el Socialismo
"Todo el poder que iría adquiriendo la casta de funcionarios, ligados por la necesidad de mantenerse en una ocupación privilegiada y pingue,lo iría perdiendo el pueblo que no tiene las mismas razones de complicidad en esperanza y provechos, para hacer frente a los funcionarios enlazados por intereses comunes. Como todas las necesidades públicas vendrían a ser satisfechas por el estado, adquirirían los funcionarios entonces la influencia enorme que naturalmente viene a los que distribuyen algun derecho o beneficio. El hombre que quiere ahora que el estado cuide de el para no tener que cuidar el de si, tendría que trabajar entonces en la medida, por el tiempo y en la labor que puduiese el estado asignarle, puesto que a éste, sobre quien caerían todos los deberes, se darían naturalmente todas las facilidades necesarias para recabar los medios de cumplir aquellas.
De ser siervo de si mismo, pasaría el hombre a ser siervo del estado. De ser esclavo de los capitalistas, como se llama ahora, iría a ser esclavo de los funcionarios. Esclavo es todo aquel que trabaja para otro que tiene dominio sobre el, y en ese sistema socialista dominaria la comunidad del hombre, que a la comunidad entregaría todo su trabajo. Y como los funcionarios son seres humanos y por tanto abusadores, soberbios y ambiciosos, y en esa organización tendrían gran poder, apoyadas por todos los que aprovechan o esperaron aprovechar de los abusos, y por aquellas fuerzas viles que siempre compra entre los oprimidos, el terror, prestigio o habilidad de los que mandan, este sistema de distribución oficial del trabajo comun llegaría a sufrir en poco tiempo de los quebrantos, violencias, hurtos y tergiversaciones que el espíritu de individualidad, la autoridad y osadía del genio y las astucias del vicio originan pronta y fatalmente en toda organización humana...El funcionario autocrático, abusará de la plebe, cansada y trabajadora. Lamentablemente será, y generá la servidumbre."
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