On the cross-cultural
experiences, ideas, and meanings of the legendary activist.
As best I can
tell, José Martí
(1853-1895) could be accurately described as the George Washington, Tom Paine,
and Phillis
Wheatley of Cuba: equal parts revolutionary
activist and leader, political journalist and
philosopher, and poetic and
artistic genius. Although he died far too young, fighting in the revolution
against Spain that he had so fully helped bring about, he had already achieved
more in his forty-two years, in all those different arenas and many others as
well, than most of us can dream of a lifetime twice that long. And just as one
of yesterday’s principal subjects, Toussaint L’Ouverture, belongs centrally to
his native Haiti for which he lived and died so inspiringly, so too do Martí’s
inspiring life and work clearly belong to his beloved Cuba, and I would never
try to argue for an identity other than that for him.
Yet one of the
more striking facts about that life is that almost exactly a third of it—most of
the years between 1880 and 1894—was spent living in the United States;
principally New York City, but with extensive time and travel in Florida as
well. That Martí was less a voluntary immigrant than a political exile from his
homeland interestingly connects him both to many 20th
and 21st century Cuban Americans and to the long history of immigrant Americans
who fled for political reasons and found a new home in (often) communities like
New York. But while those are the some of the main reasons behind Martí’s move
to the United States, they can’t possibly capture all that he experienced in
that decade and a half here, what (for example) the society and world
of Gilded Age New York meant to this still young man from Havana. Not at
all coincidentally, Martí did much of his writing and literary work during
these years, including (to cite only one telling example) translating Helen
Hunt Jackson’s activist
novel Ramona (1884) into Spanish.
Toward the end of
his time in the U.S., Martí published his seminal
essay “Our America” (1892), a breathtakingly original and vital work that
manages both to capture his specifically Cuban patriotism and goals and a sweepingly
trans-hemispheric vision of American identity and community. The essay is all Martí,
reflective of all the different individual roles and talents, ideas and
visions, that I tried to highlight in my opening paragraph and that define a
truly singular person. But I can’t help but see it as well as profoundly
influenced by his cross-cultural experiences, his time in New York and Florida
(among many other places), his trans-Caribbean and –Atlantic travels, a life and
perspective that had stretched beyond any borders or limiting categorizations. As
such, I believe that there’s great value in thinking of Martí as Our Martí—not,
again, removing him from his Cuban heritage and impacts, legacies and meanings,
but instead in extending his meanings (just as he extended his life and work)
into our U.S. histories and narratives as well.
Next connection
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other connections you’d share?
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