José Martí’s Great Work is Always Present

The image of José Martí – the revolutionary who spoke and acted for yesterday and today – is like those giant trees that the more time passes over them, the more they strengthen their roots and grow. Once, without any personal prophetic intentions, he wrote: «My verse will grow. I too will grow under the grass…»

The poetic phrase would become a historical reality. Martí is taking root and growing without rest – not under the grass, but on the earth – and will grow with ever greater determination in the hearts, unity, and efforts of all Cubans.

On the occasion of the 170th anniversary of his birth on January 28, there is nothing better than approaching the Anecdotario Martiano by Gonzalo de Quesada y Miranda, which offers a close, rather intimate portrait of the unforgettable personality of José Martí.

It is a valuable text because of its appreciation and novel aspects for many, even though it was published in 1948, because it is enthralling to read from beginning to end, and because, as its author points out, «its fundamental purpose was to offer young Cubans an accurate and well-defined picture of the extraordinary personality of the great Cuban revolutionary.»

First of all, it is emphasized that Martí was a tireless worker. He wrote ten or more letters, several revolutionary manifestos, articles for the newspaper Patria, correspondence for South American newspapers, and verses, all in a single day. And he still had time to make several personal or curious notes in his notebooks.

He was aware that he had much to do. He slept little and restlessly. In the anxious days while he was preparing for the last war of independence, he had few hours of rest.

Martí had a fragile body, a precarious health with a painful groin wound caused by the prison chain when he was only 17 years old, a wound he carried with stoicism from adolescence until his death.

Those who knew him testified that he was always restless and nervous, with a rapid gait. He ran up and down stairs «as if he had no lungs» because he wanted to walk as fast as his thoughts.

He was very respectful of the opinions of others, but he was convinced of his doctrines and ideals, which he defended with warmth and passion. He knew how to respond to any direct or veiled insult, though he never boasted of his personal worth.

His speech was rather soft and persuasive. However, in his revolutionary speeches, his words broke the air «like a machete cut».

As the years passed, his high, clear forehead showed how his black hair had become lighter at the temples. His straight nose reflected strength.

170 years after his birth, there is no higher monument to his memory or more vibrant flower than the homage that Cubans pay every day with the strengthening of their victorious Revolution, which has fulfilled their deepest aspirations, inspired by his patriotic and Latin American heritage, and with his unwavering firmness in the face of the same powerful enemy.

Through the years, Martí has grown and with him all of us have grown, because his love for his homeland and his people, his fight for freedom, his ideas and his actions, and his inexhaustible example remain a constant incentive with no foreseeable end.