Jose Marti and Social Revolution in Cuba

Abstract

To understand the social revolution in Cuba today one must be at once anthropologist, historian, sociologist, political scientist, scientist, economist, writer, philosopher, and something of a rebel oneself. In other words, one must be a Universal Man. Who of us today, however, would pretend to such all-encompassing knowledge? The Cuban Revolution in the nineteenth century, however, did produce such a man, José Martí. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that such a man produced the Revolution, at least in the sense that Marti was the main publicist for the revolutionary Cuban exiles, co-ordinator of the emigrant groups, money collector, and author of its major political documents.Although Marti ranks with Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín as a liberator, he is relatively unknown in the United States. Yet his collected works fill seventy-four volumes. One bibliography lists over 10,000 items, including more than a hundred books and more than 200 monographs written about him. Marti was first and last a revolutionist, but he was also a poet, one of the best, and highly praised by such authorities as Gabriela Mistral, Rubén Darío, Miguel de Unamuno, Fernando de los Ríos, Rufino Blanco Fombona, and Amado Nervo.