CHAPTER 7
- clearly ensued from his leanings towards patriotism, nationalism, and reformism. Whereas his early writing quite adequately reveals an unswerving patriotic/nationalistic stance, his poem XXXIX from Simple Verses is a clear expression of his early reformist beliefs:
I have a white rose to tend In July as in January;
I give it to the true friend Who offers his frank hand to me.
And to the cruel one whose blows Break the heart by which I live, Thistle nor thorn do I give:
For him too, I have a white rose (Shnookal and Muniz 1999, 267).
By the late 1880s Marti came to understand that the popular vote, as it existed under 'democracy' in the US, was a 'fraud' (Ibarra 1986, 87). Notwithstanding his possible lack of knowledge or be it conscious disregard, or even premeditated dismissal of Marxist theory, these years marked his transition from liberal thought, characterized by a reformist dogma, to the 'most advanced democratic- revolutionary thought of his era' (ibid) on the Latin American continent.
Marti's identification with the victims of his time imposed on him concrete tasks to be fulfilled for the good of all. Far from obstructing him, that realization compelled him to formulate the 'most radical and modem criteria' to resist colonialism on the continent (Retamar 1989, 20).
MartI's literary and overall cultural expression had far-reaching social impact - since the basic function of literature for him was to 'come close to life, to take
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inspiration from it and to reform it after proper knowledge of it' (Kirk 1986, 114).
In his painful circumstances Marti felt the desire for intellectual endeavors and the utilization of talents for educational goals. His model of the intellectual's rightful task entails being both an educator and a searcher for truth who contributes to the creation of consciousness. His anguish and deep moral concern caused him to denounce unfairness and solicit the assistance of all to fundamentally amend society - for the common good of all. Thus a significant mission of the intellectual, as revealed in his own example, is to use literary articulation as a means of reproaching wrongs, of pointing out the necessity for social transformation, of elevating consciousness, and of organizing citizens to engage in battle for social fairness. The concluding passage of 'Our Ideas' likens his literature to a 'bugle ... sounding in the assemblies of Cubans abroad and on the island' (JM 1892/1999j, 153). The objective behind this was to 'watch over freedom, to be an invincible force for unity, and to prevent the enemy from again defeating us' (ibid.). On a further occasion he noted that 'politics and literature flourish only when they are direct' (cited in Retamar 1989, 20). But he equally saw the arts as a measure for exposing life's treasures.
Though he applauded the work of thought, he preferred the union of thought and action (Kirk 1986, 120-21) as shown by his own undertakings in life and as clearly expressed here:
What is . . . thinking without acting, saying without doing, desiring without loving ... what is the value of abhorring the tyrant, while living in his shadow and eating at his table? What is the value of preaching revolution, loudly or softly, without preparing the ill-ruled country for the revolution that is preached? (cited in Kirk 1986, 122).
Marti's political foresight went beyond a purely independent, sovereign, and free Cuban territory. He himself observed, 'It is a case of changing a nation's soul, their entire way of thinking and acting, and not just their external clothes ' (cited in Shnookal and Muniz 1999, xii). This in itself would have a critical bearing on
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the cultural dimension of Cuban society. Though his thought was concerned with the 'fundamental transformation of Cuban society' and as such the thorough reorganization of the economic, social and political spheres (Shnookal and Muniz 1999, xii), it did not ensue from a specific ideological, political, or theoretical standpoint, but from moral and human considerations. His stature as a bourgeois nationalist implies that his composite thought denotes diverse objectives to people set poles apart. Yet there are clear, relentless ideas emanating from his writings:
his conf1 ict with racial distinction and prejudice and his commitment to the equality and dignity of all. As he argued, 'Is it not evident that America itselfwas paralyzed by the same blow that paralyzed the Indian? And until the Indian is caused to walk, America itself will not begin to walk well' (cited in Retamar 1989, 20). On the lOOth commemoration of Marti's death, the Cuban regime distinguished him as 'a universal man with extraordinary ideas' (Shnookal and Muniz 1999, 9).
Marti did not draw attention to the link between racial discrimination and class structures enforced by capitalism. His doctrine on human equality however, can be regarded as hugely progressive and scientifically sound as it not only condemned racial discrimination - a fairly universal reaction to racism - but also the notion of racial distinction. More than a century after his death the declaration of the United Nations Conference Against Racism held in South Africa in 200 I indisputable asserted that 'Race/racism is scientifically false and morally condemnable'. In her piece 'Identity on the borderline' Rajasingham-Senanayake (2002) decodes this as meaning the following:
Human differences are made cultural sense of: whether in terms of 'caste', 'class', 'culture', 'ethnicity', 'language', 'race', 'religion', 'region', 'gender', 'sex', or a myriad other possible labels. It is not so much the facts of difference among groups or individuals per se, but rather how those differences were and are culturally coded, rendered politically significant and meaningful or reduced, erased or made insignificant, that are of interest to the student of history and politics (Rajasingham-Senanayake 2002, 44).
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Retamar considers Marti's humanistic contribution to Cuban culture as flowing from the acquiescent convention advanced by his forerunner, Simon Bolivar. In his message to the congress of Angostura in 1819, Bolivar proclaimed,
Let us bear in mind that our people is [sic] neither European nor North American, but a composite of Africa and America rather than an emanation of Europe; for even Spain fails as a European people because of her African blood, her institutions, and her character. It is impossible to assign us with any exactitude to a specific human family. The greater part of the native people has been annihilated;
the European has mingled with the American and with the African, and the African has mingled with the Indian and with the European.
Born from the womb of a common mother, our fathers, different in origin and blood, are foreigners; all differ visibly in the epidermis, and this dissimilarity leaves marks of the greatest transcendence (cited in Retamar 1989,5).
Continuing in this tradition, MartI saw the ethos of the Cuban people and in effect, the people of the continent as follows:
we are descended from Valencian fathers and Canary Island mothers and feel the inflamed blood of Tamanaco and Paramaconi Ii coursing through our veins; we see the blood that fell amid the brambles of Mount Calvary as our own, along with that shed by the naked and heroic Caracas as they struggled breast to breast with the gonzalos in their iron-plated armour (cited in Retamar 1989, 19).
Conjuring up the memories of the continent's original inhabitants, Marti proclaimed, 'We must stand with Guaicaipuro, Paramaconi, and not with the flames that burned them, not with the ropes that bound them, nor with the steel that beheaded them, not with the dogs that devoured them' (ibid.). In this sense Marti's rejection of colonialist oppression and tyranny, and his solidarity with the people of the Latin American continent, is complete.
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1 According to Retamar (1989, 19) these are natives of what is today called Venezuela.