José Martí and his Farewell to a People Sowed with Torches

By Xiomara Pedroso Gomez on May 19, 2025

Today marks the 130^th anniversary of the death in battle of Cuba’s apostle, father of the homeland and revolutionary hero Jose Marti. When we wonder how the Cuban people can remain so determined and resolute, despite the relentless pressure from the empire of the North, the forever influence and teachings of Marti is a big part of it.

“To pay tribute, no voice is weak; to praise the homeland among strong and loyal men, every moment is opportune.”[1] To pay tribute to Martí, always, even in the smallest way, is a duty. In his immeasurable humility, he never imagined that the light he shed on others would be the same light that would illuminate his figure in these lines.

On May 19, 1895, with his death in combat, Martí ascended to immortality. Since then, the most fertile seed of the sacred tree, the strongest and most leafy multiplier of ideas, love, vision, and homeland, has been sown in Cuba. “Death is not true when the work of life has been well done; the thinking skull may turn to dust, but the thoughts that were formed in it live on and bear fruit,”[2] seemed to anticipate for himself the greatest of all Cubans.

How can we summarize the Apostle by his talents? Orator, poet, journalist, diplomat, teacher, translator, politician, art critic, editor, cartoonist, brother, friend, son, father, patriot, strategist, leader… There is no school of life or academy for such greatness in one person. He is an inspiration and guide for all. Cuba has the national privilege of this offspring.

“He was an orator superior to himself. He saw the love of the future: he defended human dignity with the strength of a lion: his heart was embraced by freedom.”[3]

His pride in being Cuban overflowed: /…/ “there is no word that more closely resembles the light of dawn, nor any consolation that enters our hearts with greater joy than this ineffable and ardent word: Cuban!”[4]

He saw the constant danger and warned our land: “And beware, Cubans, for there are gloves so well imitated that they cannot be distinguished from the natural hand! To anyone who comes asking for power, Cubans, you must say in the light, where the hand can be seen clearly: ‘Is that a hand or a glove?’”[5]

For those who have the task of guiding the nation’s destiny, there is a whole university of Martí: “A man is nothing in himself, and what he is, his people put in him. Nature grants some of its children privileged qualities in vain, for they will be dust and scourge if they do not become the flesh of their people, whereas if they go with them and serve as their arm and voice, they will be exalted by them, like the flowers that a mountain carries on its summit.“[6] ”Let man be the carpet of his people!”[7]

We suffer from a shortage of bread and goods. When the human way is sometimes lost, Martí, as he illustrates, gives wings: “Times are nothing more than this: the transition from man-beast to man-man. Are there not beastly hours in human beings, when their teeth need to bite, their throats feel a fatal thirst, their eyes blaze, and their clenched fists seek bodies to fall upon? To restrain that beast and seat an angel upon it is the victory of humanity.“[8] Then, ”we will know how to climb to the heights with the filth of life.”[9]

Martí’s marvel is as great as the urgency for every true Cuban to immerse themselves in his legacy, overcoming white roses and leopards. We cannot be satisfied with a Martí of two poems and a book. We cannot spend our lives with a few of his sketches and lose the other half, ignoring his great and difficult work. At the very least, let’s try! Especially in such turbulent times when desperate will is not enough to act and transform: “the impulse needs to be sustained by knowledge.” It is worth doing. Martí is a sure guide to growth and virtue. “This is not a man now: when a serious thought, a firm intention, a noble and legitimate aspiration is embodied in men, the contours of the man vanish into the boundless spaces of the idea. He is a symbol, a recognition, a guarantee.”[11]

The hours of anguish, challenges, complexities, inland and outland, are long. Yet there is a mystery that magnetizes the children of the homeland, a faith that does not allow them to surrender in stillness. In pain, which, although it may not seem so, is always common, there are those who suffer, there are those who laugh at those who suffer, and there are those who find joy in provoking and increasing suffering, but “when the homeland, in spite of its prophets of doom, feels its heart, whatever the wounds of the body and the cut of the dress, the heart is healthy!”

Martí’s life crystallized in May. “He was invincible because he wore his homeland as armor.”[12] When he touched the ground that day and “ennobled by that greatness, he turned his eyes to say goodbye… he saw… a people, strewn with torches, behind the single flag of the homeland.”[13] Without even imagining it, the prophetic sentence would seal his fate: “There are men willing to lead without interest, to suffer for others, to consume themselves, illuminating.”[14]

Bibliographical references

Martí, J. (1991). Toast at the banquet held in honor of Adolfo Márquez Sterling, in the heights of El Louvre, Havana, April 21, 1879. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Vol. 4 (p. 177). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). Toast at the banquet held in honor of Adolfo Márquez Sterling, in the heights of the Louvre, Havana. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Volume 4 (pp. 175-179). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). Letter from New York. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Volume 9 (pp. 253-259). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). Speech at Hardman Hall, New York, February 17, 1892. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Volume 4 (pp. 291-306). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). Speech given at the Cuban Lyceum, Tampa, November 26, 1891. In J. Martí, Complete Works, vol. 4 (p. 271). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). The Schism of Catholics in New York. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Volume 11 (pp. 137-150). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). General Grant. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Volume 13 (pp. 83-115). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). The Third Year of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. The Soul of the Revolution and Cuba’s Duty in America. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Volume 3 (pp. 138-143). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). Henry Ward Beecher. His life and oratory. In J. Martí, Complete Works. Volume 13 (pp. 31-43). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Martí, J. (1991). Pilar Belaval. In J. Martí, Complete Works (pp. 420-423). Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

Footnote:

[1] (Martí J., Toast at the banquet held in honor of Adolfo Márquez Sterling, at the Louvre, Havana, April 21, 1879, 1991: 177).

[2] (Martí J., Pilar Belaval, 1991: 420)

[3] (Martí J., Henry Ward Beecher. His Life and Oratory, 1991: 35)

[4] (Martí J., Speech delivered at the Cuban Lyceum, Tampa, November 26, 1891, 1991: 271)

[5] Ibid.: 275)

[6] (Martí J., Henry Ward Beecher. His Life and Oratory, 1991: 34)

[7] (Martí J., Speech at Hardman Hall, New York, February 17, 1892, 1991: 295)

[8] (Martí J., Letter from New York, 1991: 255)

[9] (Martí J., The Third Year of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. The Soul of the Revolution and Cuba’s Duty in America, 1991: 143)

[10] (Martí J., General Grant, 1991: 86)

[11] (Martí J., Toast at the banquet held in honor of Adolfo Márquez Sterling, in the heights of El Louvre, Havana, 1991: 177)

[12] (Martí J., Henry Ward Beecher. His Life and Oratory, 1991: 42)

[13] (Martí J., Speech at Hardman Hall, New York, February 17, 1892, 1991: 298)

[14] (Martí J., The Schism of the Catholics in New York, 1

Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English