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Imagining a Free Cuba: Carlos Manuel De Cespedes and Jose Marti

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Imagining a Free Cuba: Carlos Manuel De Cespedes and Jose Marti Occasional Paper #24 IMAGINING A FREE CUBA: CARLOS MANUEL DE CÉSPEDES AND JOSÉ MARTÍ Cathy L. Jrade, George Monteiro, Nelson R. Orringer, Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Ivan A. Schulman, Thomas E. Skidmore, and Wayne S. Smith Edited by José Amor y Vázquez i Occasional Papers is a series published by The Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies Brown University, Box 1970 2 Stimson Avenue Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: (401) 863-2809 Fax: (401) 863-1270 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Watson_Institute/ Thomas J. Biersteker, Ph.D., Director Thomas G. Weiss, Ph.D., Associate Director Frederick F. Fullerton, Editor/Writer Nancy Hamlin Soukup, Editor/Writer Amy M. Langlais, Assistant Computer Coordinator Statements of fact or opinion are solely those of the authors; their publication does not imply endorsement by the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies. Copyright © 1996 by the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for Interna- tional Studies. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Convention. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic or me- chanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information stor- age and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Occasional Papers, Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................... v Cubans by Choice: Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and José Martí ........................... 1 Thomas E. Skidmore Approaching Martí: Text and Context ................................... 13 Louis A. Pérez, Jr. Stephen Crane’s Cuban War ................................................... 25 George Monteiro The Relevance of Martí’s Thought Today ............................. 53 Wayne S. Smith Martí Confronts Modernity ..................................................... 59 Cathy Jrade Revisioning Martí’s Modernism ............................................. 77 Ivan A. Schulman Unamuno and St. José Martí, the Good ................................. 93 Nelson R. Orringer About the Authors .................................................................. 113 About the Organization ......................................................... 115 iii iv PREFACE José Martí died on May 19, 1895 in an engagement with Spanish troops in Eastern Cuba. The centenary of his death was the occasion for commemorations in Cuba and elsewhere. In China, for instance, it was observed with the publication of an anthology in translation of his prose and poems. At an International Congress of Hispanists, in India, four scholarly papers dealt with Martí’s works; followed, among other obser- vances, by an act in his memory at the University of South Africa, two symposia in Spain, and a session dedicated to Martí at the XII Congress of the International Association of Hispanists in Birmingham (England). Fondo de Cultura Económica of Mexico, probably the largest publishing enter- prise in the Hispanic world, in conjunction with UNESCO, distributed a multinational edition of four million copies of two of Martí’s books of poetry, Ismaelillo and Versos sencillos, through twenty-one newspapers in Latin America, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Portugal; three in the United States; one weekly in Canada and one in Israel; and forty-two morning dailies in Mexico. Moreover, Mexico and Spain issued postage stamps featuring Martí’s image, the Spanish one from a por- trait done just two months before his death. Surprising as it may seem, one can find in Rhode Island, a minuscule state, some connections to the epic pursuit of politi- cal freedom in Spanish America. The earliest one was the presence of the Venezuelan patriot Francisco de Miranda, who in 1784 came to the United States to seek the support of Washington and Jefferson for his cause. During his trip he stopped by the college that eventually became Brown Univer- sity, and visited its first president, the Reverend James Man- ning, leaving in his diary a detailed and uninhibited account of his sojourn. But there is more. The Cuban Pedro J. Guiteras found shelter from the re- pression of the colonial authorities in his country in the quiet town of Bristol, Rhode Island. There he wrote his History of the Island of Cuba, to be published first in New York in 1866, followed by a second edition in Baltimore in 1882-1883, and also started his biographic work of Cuban poets. A direct descendant of the Guiteras family, Antonio, revered in Cuba v for his integrity and staunch nationalism, was gunned down near Havana in a stand against Batista forces in 1935. Even Martí’s well-known, delicate poem “Los zapaticos de rosa” [“The little rose-colored shoes”], published in La Edad de Oro (New York, 1889), seems to have been written on one of his visits to Newport, R.I.,1 during his long exile in the United States. There is also John Hay, a graduate of Brown University in 1858, who became secretary of state in 1898, at the start of the war between Spain and the United States that brought about the independence of Cuba. In addition, Brown University is proud of an endowed chair in modern and contemporary Latin American history, presently occupied by Professor Tho- mas E. Skidmore, and bearing the name of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the first president of a rebellious Cuba (1868-1873). Brown University could not ignore the opportunity to honor the memory of one of Latin America’s most outstanding political and literary figures. To this effect, our Center for Latin American Studies organized a two-day conference that took place on October 19 and 20, 1995. Its title, “Imagining a Free Cuba: Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and José Martí,” brings together two names united by the one ideal, the same that today is an inspiration for so many. If the first verses by Martí were probably those of a poem entitled “To my mother,” one of his sonnets, published in a student newspaper early in 1869, was dedicated to the “¡10 de octubre!” [“October 10!], known as “El grito de Yara” for the revolutionary proclamation issued by Céspedes on that date in 1868. The enthusiasm of young Martí for the insurrectional attitude of Céspedes, which was to inspire his future political action, shows clearly in these lines by the still adolescent poet: Gracias a Dios que ¡al fin con entereza Rompe Cuba el dogal que la oprimía Y activa y libre yergue su cabeza! [Thanks be to God that, at last with integrity Cuba breaks the noose that oppressed her And active and free lifts its head!] vi The event at Brown University was structured in two parts. The first one was an opening session dedicated to Céspedes and Martí. The second part, which took place the following day, consisted of two sessions: “Martí: the political activist” and “Martí: the writer,” chaired respectively by the renowned British historian Hugh Thomas, and the outstand- ing Hispanist Professor Geoffrey W. Ribbans of our Depart- ment of Hispanic Studies. A total of seven papers were read, resulting in an integrated whole characterized by a multidisciplinary approach, and an overall complementari- ness. In organizing this publication, we thought it best to arrange them in order of presentation. Professor Thomas E. Skidmore’s opening lecture, “Cu- bans by Choice: Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and José Martí,” set the stage by highlighting the ideological connection be- tween the two nineteenth-century protagonists of the Cuban struggle for freedom. The following day, at the start of the morning session, Professor Louis A. Pérez, Jr., explored Martí’s works and actions searching for the meaning of his notions of patria and Cuba Libre, as well as their present-day relevance. Next, Profes- sor George Monteiro contributed an analysis of the journalistic accounts of three American writers who witnessed the inter- vention of the United States in the Cuban war in 1898; a compelling subject, since Martí himself was a journalist and recorded vividly in his diary of 1895, De Cabo Haitiano a Dos Ríos (1940), his own experiences in the early stages of the conflict. Dr. Wayne S. Smith closed the session with a sum- mary of the opposing interpretations of Martí’s ideology, while demonstrating the present validity of the latter’s thought. The afternoon session opened with Professor Cathy L. Jrade carrying forward the debate about Martí and Modern- ism, and establishing how in his writings poetics and politics “come together more assertively than in those of other mod- ernists, bearing on the shaping of national identity.” Professor Ivan A. Schulman, for his part, theoretically re-examined Martí’s notions of Modernism, which go beyond the strictly aesthetical to reflect “the challenges presented by a new set of social and historical circumstances.” In closing, Professor Nelson R. Orringer established a significant intertextual vii relationship between Martí’s writings and Unamuno’s fa- mous novel, San Manuel Bueno, mártir (1931). We welcomed the presence at the conference of a direct descendant of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes representing the family, Marcantonio M. Antamoro, Brown ’90. Preceding the conference, and to contextualize it, the Center for Modern Culture and Media offered a film show, organized by Mr. E. Robert Arellano, on aspects of the struggle for Cuban independence. There was also an exhibit of books and graphic materials at the Annmary Brown Memorial Li- brary, “José Martí: From New York to Dos Ríos,” researched and mounted by Ms. Rosemary Cullen, Curator of the Harris Collection, John Hay Library. One of the items, from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, was a striking chromolitho- graph of about 1873, featuring prominently a waving Cuban flag and the motto “Cuba será libre.” (See illustration on page iv.) This event was co-sponsored by the President’s Office, The Herbert H. Goldberger Lectureship in Social Science, The Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, and The Francis Wayland Collegium for Liberal Learning, Brown University. Our thanks to all for their crucial support.
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