The Apostle

Jose Marti, the Apostle of Cuban Independence lived in the U.S. from 1881 until 1895 where he became a prominent thinker, journalist and politician.

Marti wrote copiously about the land of his exile. Seventeen of his 74 volumes of written works were dedicated to the description of life in the U.S. As an international correspondent for leading South American newspapers, Marti wrote articles describing in eloquent and graphic terms that the U.S. was not an example for other countries to follow. Long before C. Wright Mills, Marti exposed the workings of an industrial-military complex active in corrupt deals between the U.S. Navy and ship builders. Marti also wrote about labor strikes, European immigrants and the Haymarket incident expressing strong sympathy for the workingman that extended to oppressed minorities in articles such as the "Negro Question" and "The American Indian". Marti also covered important events such as the Democratic and Republican national conventions and a memorial meeting of North American socialists to commemorate Karl Marx.

Marti was also an internationalist. He Believed that Cuban and Latin American sovereignty were inseparable issues. He labored for Puerto Rican independence and politically countered moves from the U.S. to dominate the newly freed Latin American countries.

To Cubans, Marti is a potent symbol of unity. He is the creator of independence, the soul of the nation, the living gospel of the homeland, the "Maestro", the "Apostle". This is why his name is so misused in the propaganda of the opponents of the Revolution. As a clear manifestation of the misinformation surrounding Cuba, the U.S. finances what it names Radio and TV Marti to encourage the overthrow of the Cuban revolutionary government. Actually, Marti warned that Cubans should not court the aid of the U.S. because that aid would endanger Cuba's sovereignty. In his last interview with the New York Herald (Bryson, Eugene, May 2, 1895), Marti voiced the conviction that those who collaborated with the U.S. government against a politically and economically free Cuba were traitors and "gusanos" (parasites) - a word used today to describe the Cuban opponents of the revolution. No one, including Fidel Castro, has ever surpassed Marti in his mistrust of the U.S. government, his criticism of life in the U.S. and his animosity toward that country's predatory foreign policy.

Marti concurred with the thesis of Karl Marx's writings, but he can not be said to have been a card-carrying socialist. Although he was an authority on U.S. imperialism, Marti did not find capitalism to be its cause. He envisioned a social, political and economic structure for Cuba in which a benevolent form of indigenous capitalism could sustain social justice and racial equality through an equitable sharing of the nation's wealth. "With all and for the good of all", said Marti to Cuban workers and entrepreneurs alike about the Cuba to be forged from the ruins of Spanish colonialism.

Source: International Bicycle Fund

JG: The Apostle greatly admired Ralph Waldo Emerson. I am sure that he would would have taken out the words 'Europe' and supplanted them with 'United States' in the passage that Emerson wrote in 1837: "We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe.... We will walk with on our own two feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak out our own minds." [Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Complete Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, (New York: Modern Library, 1950) pp.62-63 )]