We Cubans know, almost by heart, the first two paragraphs of Martí’s unfinished letter to Manuel Mercado, dated May 18, 1895; However, what other issues did the Master address in that letter? What immediate projects did he have? Was this the last letter he wrote? The questions can be multiple, and we will see some answers here.
May 18 is the date of the letter to Mercado, but on the 19th there is a very brief one addressed to Máximo Gómez, in which he spoke to him immediately: that they had left “around four o’clock” to reach Vuelta, where they camped. the strength of Bartolomé Masó, and told him: “I will not be calm until I see you arrive. I will take good care of your jolongo.”[1]
The letter to Mercado, begun the day before, has a greater scope regarding what Martí projected within the development of events. Regarding the steps to follow, the Apostle told Manuel: “I do my duty here,” which links to the initial expressions of preventing the United States from spreading, starting from Cuba, through our towns in time. This war came “at its time” to prevent the annexation of Cuba to the United States, to which he asked whether Mexico “will not find a clever, effective and immediate way to help in time those who defend it?” In his considerations regarding this question, Martí raised the need to know what authority he or another would have to decide. According to that, he could define or advise.
The question of who could make the decisions is fundamental for the perspectives that the great Cuban had at that time. He knew that he was in a dilemma: there were those who thought that he should go out and maintain his activity from abroad, while he felt that his duty was in Cuba. In a letter to the Dominican Federico Henríquez y Carvajal, dated March 25, he had spoken of the shame he felt at the risk of Máximo Gómez coming alone, without his company; that a people allowed itself to be served, without disdain, “by someone who preached the need to die and did not begin by putting his life at risk.” He told his friend that he would fulfill his duty where it would be most useful, and he thought that perhaps it would be both places: inside and outside.
Martí told the Dominican: “I evoked the war: my responsibility begins with it, instead of ending”; but he also already outlined an idea that would be more explained in the letter to Mercado: «The free Antilles will save the independence of our America, and the already doubtful and damaged honor of English America, and perhaps they will accelerate and fix the balance of the world. Look what we do, you with your youthful gray hair, and I, crawling, with my broken heart.[2] These concerns were central to his unfinished letter, in which he explained that it could still take two months to form the government in the pro-independence camp, which would be “useful and simple,” although in his opinion it would be “a work of relationship, timing and accommodations.” ».
The already appointed Major General explained that he did not want to do anything that seemed like a capricious extension of the representation he had, that is why “we continued on our way, to the center of the Island, to depose, before the revolution that I have raised, the authority that the emigration He gave me, and it was accepted within, and must renew according to its new state, an assembly of delegates of the visible Cuban people, of the revolutionaries in arms. That was the immediate plan.
Martí presented his idea of what that government should be like, but he was aware that there could be different forms, so he was not certain about what position he would occupy once the organizational process had developed, hence he stated: «He knows me. In me, I will only defend what I have as a guarantee or service of the Revolution. I know how to disappear. But my thoughts would not disappear, nor would my darkness sour me. And as soon as we have form, we will act, fulfill this to me, or to others.
ACT “ON TIME”
What has been collected so far from the famous letter shows the immediate plan to reach the center of the Island to hold the assembly that the representatives of the territories at war were to attend. This was the most immediate thing, but it also raised the question about what would be approved there and, in the case of Martí, what responsibility he would or would not have from those agreements. However, the letter has other contents of great importance for Martí’s project.
In that sense, it is essential to attend to his account of the conversation with Eugenio Bryson, a correspondent for the Herald, who gave him important information. Bryson spoke to him about the annexation activity from within and from Yankee institutions, and even more, “he told me about his conversation with Martínez Campos, at the end of which he gave him to understand that, without a doubt, when the time came, Spain would prefer to come to terms with the United States to surrender the Island to the Cubans. This reinforced his conviction about American interests regarding Cuba, which was linked to American purposes.
The letter begins with its presentation of what was the major objective of the war that began months ago: “To prevent, in time with the independence of Cuba, the United States from extending through the Antilles and falling, with that force, on our lands in America.” ». It is important to stop and meditate on the expression “in time”, since Martí had a great sense of historical time; Therefore, for him the urgency was to act “on time”, to take advantage of the margin that still remained to achieve that objective. He had raised this before, when the Washington International Conference was being held. On November 16, 1889, he wrote in a letter to Gonzalo de Quesada: “It is still possible, Gonzalo,” and explained the reasons that made it “still” possible to obtain Cuban independence:
«The interest of what remains of honor in Latin America, the respect that a decent people commands, the obligation that this land is under not to declare itself a conquering nation before the world, the little that remains here of healthy republicanism and the possibility to obtain our independence before this people are allowed by our people to spread over their surroundings, and govern them all: these are our allies, and with them I undertake the fight.[3]
As can be seen, the expansionist danger was an early concern for Martí and, just when the first Pan-American conference was held, he understood the importance of acting immediately, since US policy was already active in its continental ambitions. Therefore, it was necessary to work quickly to organize the new war, which was the means to reach the greatest objective: the revolution.
Its sense of historical time would be put in function of the immediate organization: creating awareness, organizing the Cuban Revolutionary Party and deploying all the organizational work outside and inside Cuba for the conflict.
Once the war broke out, in the so-called Montecristi Manifesto, signed by the general in chief, Máximo Gómez, and Martí as delegate of the PRC, the programmatic purpose was proclaimed, from the affirmation that the independence revolution that had begun in Yara was entering a new period of war. For Martí, it was essential to create the foundations and develop the process to achieve victory in a short time, the little available for that achievement. His letter of May 18 shows the immediate task to be carried out to guide the achievement of the greater objective.
Martí’s death, on May 19, was a very hard blow for the revolutionary project, and Máximo Gómez himself appreciated it. In his Campaign Diary, the Generalissimo wrote: «What a war this is! I thought at night; that, next to a moment of slight pleasure, another of extremely bitter pain appears. We are already missing the best of companions and the soul we can say about the uprising.[4]
The marking of the place of the fall began with the cross that Enrique Loynaz del Castillo placed on the site, when he went to specify it at the direction of President Cisneros Betancourt, and the first monument was erected with stones from the Contramaestre River by Máximo Gómez and his troops. “The soul of the uprising” had fallen, according to Gómez.
Death prevented Martí from developing the entire plan he had conceived, and whose immediate steps he captured in his unfinished letter. Nor could the danger from the United States be averted “in time”; But his legacy remained forever in the heart of the Cuban people, in his deep core.
Sources:
[1] Jose Marti. Complete works, Center for Martian Studies, Havana, 2001, Vol. 4, p. 170.
[2] Idem, pp. 110-112.
[3] Idem, Vol. 6, p. 122.
[4] Máximo Gómez: Campaign Diary. Máximo Gómez Foundation, Dominican Republic, 2017, p. 373.
