José
Julián Martí y Pérez
Martí was ignored in Cuba until Radio
Martí started broadcasting in 1983 under Reagan. Then some in the
government decided to co-opt this phenomenon, forgetting that Martí was
strongly anti-socialist. The ill-read folks in Miami apparently don't know
this either, or they would have used it to their advantage as Cuba is
awash in the glorification of Martí.
José Martí is considered the father of his country,
except that he never really lived much in Cuba and when he did come into
Cuba for the 2nd War of Liberation in 1895, he refused to listen to what
the black commander of the Liberation Army, Antonio Maceo, was telling him and went and got himself
needlessly killed. Maceo told him he was better off coordinating
international aid for the rebels out of New York as he did not have the
skills needed for a soldier.
Martí's son: José Francisco
Martí y Zayas-Bazán
Martí had one legitimate son, José Francisco
Martí y Zayas-Bazán, who was a captain in the Army of Liberation, and
later in 1912 turned
on his former comrades in the Independents of Color and led a band of vigilante "volunteers" to
exterminate them. After the massacre, the government and big business
held a celebratory
banquet in Central Park, Havana, which was presided over by Francisco Martí
right under his father's statue and
attended by many of the troops involved. Francisco lived until 1947
and his house in Havana has been turned into the seat of the Centro
de Estudios Jose Marti under Armando Hart, a former Minister of Culture
who was sacked in the wake of his conflict with Pablo
Milanes in which he is said to have displayed open racism.
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