It is said that on the night of March 21, 1881, the fiery words of a young Cuban orator moved the illustrious Caracas families at the Club de Comercio in the land of Bolivar after speaking eloquently and profoundly on Latin American unity. "He was not a man; he was the living genius of inspiration," one of the young men who heard José Martí speak there wrote in amazement.
The Apostle was only 28 years old at the time and his patriotic legacy was already indispensable for Cuba and America. In less than three decades of life, the first-born son of Leonor and Mariano had endured political imprisonment and two banishments for his independence ideals; he had helped organize Cuban emigration abroad in pursuit of a new libertarian struggle; and he had written with heartbreaking sensitivity about the love for the homeland and the Latin Americanist conception. But Martí would do more.
So much so, that when reviewing his life it seems that he never found a moment for rest, nor a minute for leisure; and at the same time he reveals himself to us as the superior human being who not only founded a party, created a newspaper and conceived a necessary war, but also loved with passion, had a son and "drew" his essences in simple verses.
However, the pain of an oppressed Cuba under the Spanish yoke was his own pain, that which always accompanied him along with other no less pressing sorrows, such as the traces of a shackle attached to his ankle, the illnesses of his body or the premature death of three of his seven sisters.
A Cuban woman who was his friend and listened to him frequently at the rostrum, pointed out that his voice was well timbred and with infinite inflections. "He spoke slowly, he would convince you with his words... but when he touched on the subject of the oppressed Homeland and the need to fight for it, the flow of words grew, accelerating the tempo: his voice took on bronze accents and a torrent flowed from his lips. The slender man, of medium height, was giant in the tribune and the audience was captivated under his spell."
Although Marti faced grievances, misunderstandings, shortages, irreparable losses and deep anguish in that tireless struggle for the freedom of Cuba, he never gave up his purpose of loving and founding, of uniting men, and of dreaming of a sovereign nation with all and for the good of all.
Precisely because he cast his lot with the poor of the earth, he suffered with them grotesque hardships, and yet he was never heard of any claim for personal benefit, or complaint that would sully his enormous simplicity.
Enrique Loynaz del Castillo wrote about that giant of humility, who cared more about what is in the inside than in the outside: "In his suit, irreproachable for its neatness, poverty could be seen," while lawyer Horacio S. Rubens pointed out: "...but no one ever saw a stain on them (his clothes), because he was a man of scrupulous cleanliness."
His only jewelry was an iron ring that he wore as a badge of mourning for the beloved homeland, because for the hero of Dos Ríos -the "purest of our race," as Gabriela Mistral said- was enough to wear normally, a modest jacket without labels and patched shoes, as long as every penny collected by him in his intense pilgrimage through several countries of the world, could be used in favor of the emancipating cause.
It has also been said that he was a gentleman with a clean pupil, broad forehead, thick mustache and loquacious verb, lived a wandering life, ate little and where the food was cheaper.
This is how the man who wrote the Golden Age, who professed his love for children with the same strength with which he defended the right to full dignity of men and women regardless of race, earned respect and admiration.
That is why it is not possible to honor the National Hero without first revering the Martí of flesh and blood, of deep sacrifices and numerous personal renunciations, who "jumped" above his era to become that "moral sun" that - 170 years after his birth - still guides us.
LOVING THE MASTER
Beyond that bastion that portrays him as a symbol of unity, anti-imperialism and Latin Americanism, the Apostle, as he is also called, stands up with Cuba every day.
There are many reasons to affirm it, although it would be enough to remember that the greatest strength of the Revolution dwells in its Martian roots and in that inexhaustible example of the most universal of Cubans, who "is and will be the eternal guide of our people," as Fidel said.
That is why it is necessary to get closer to his life and work as Che Guevara told us: " (...) without sorrow, without thinking that they are approaching a god, but a man greater than other men, wiser and more sacrificed than other men, and to think that they revive him a little every time they think of him and they revive him a lot every time they act as he wanted them to act."
"Martí was an authentic man with a virtuous attitude, a purity, a way of seeing life so generous and so noble that is moving... And I think we have to avoid by all means that Martí be the bust, be the monument, be the one who is perched on a pedestal," Abel Prieto would add years later.
Therefore, there is no better way to love him than to keep him alive in our classrooms, in our work, in our cultural, sports and historical institutions... in the essence of the nation and in our daily activities.
Because the Apostle must always be reborn in the noble and heroic act; in the unity and the solidarity; in the smile of a happy child, or in the greatness of a country that does not give up.
This is simply how our José “Pepe” Martí must walk among Cubans: facing the sun, with his eyes on the future, converted into a living memory and an eternal torch of freedom.
(Taken from Granma)