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La Masacre de 1912 Martí's son, "Ismaelillo", congratulates the Cuban Army on the 1912 Massacre, 1/2018 Cubadebate: los comentarios sobre José Francisco Martí desaparecen? 11/24/13 Andanzas y pasajes del hijo de Martí en Camagüey 11/22/2013 Cubadebate: No se para la glorificación de José Francisco Martí? Eusebio Leal Spengler and Armando Hart unveil a plaque commemorating 1912 Massacre Leader José Francisco Martí on the centenary of the massacre, 12/10/12   Articulos/Articles Links/Enklaces   José Julián Martí y Pérez

José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán Martí's son: José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán - "Ismaelillo" Chief of Staff, Cuban Army, la Masacre de 1912 Martí had one legitimate son, José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán, "Ismaelillo," who was a captain in the Army of Liberation. Serafin Portuondo Linares was the first to correctly state in his 1950 book, Los Independientes de Color, that Colonel José Francisco Martí was chief of staff for General Monteagudo, who led the Cuban Army in the field during the 1912 Massacre: "El Estado Mayor que salió rumbo a Oriente estaba integrado por: el Mayor General Jesús Monteagudo; Coronel José Martí y Zayas Bazán, Jefe de Estado Mayor."   "The Staff which left for Oriente consisted of: Major General Jesus Monteagudo, Coronel José Martí y Zayas Bazán, Chief of Staff." The Cuban Army deployed to numerous locations throughout the country, but especially in Oriente, where they engaged in a series of massacres against what were essentially unarmed civilians who had a few guns for show only. The army even used heavy machine guns against against them on at least one well documened occasion. After the massacre, the government and big business held a celebratory banquet in Central Park, Havana, which was presided over by José Francisco Martí right under his father's statue and attended by many of the troops involved (see photo, below right). It is telling that it was not a Cuban but a Swiss historian, Aline Helg, who was was the first to document this banquet in her 1995 book Our Rightful Share. Thanks to Jesus Guanche, we have a copy of Ismaelillo's letter to the army, congratulating them on their victory in 1912.  Gloria Rolando's film, 1912, Breaking the Silence, Chapter 2, has never been shown on Cuban television and there are those who say that this is because it shows Ismaelillo as Chief of Staff of the army that committed the 1912 Massacre. José Martí y Zayas-Bazán y su rol en la Masacre de los Independientes de Color  1/7/2018 Negra Cubana: "Es un secreto a voces, que el segundo capítulo de 1912: Voces para un silencio, documental de la reconocida cineasta cubana Gloria Rolando, no ha sido televisado en Cuba, pues muestra irrefutablemente la participación activa de José Martí y Zayas-Bazán, el Ismaelillo, por entonces Brigadier del ejército republicano, en la masacre de los Independientes de Color." "It is an open secret that the second chapter of 1912: Voices for a Silence, a documentary by the renowned Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando, has not been televised in Cuba, since it irrefutably shows the active participation of José Martí and Zayas-Bazán, "Ismaelillo," then Brigadier of the Republican Army, in the massacre of the Independents of Color. " When Cuban historian and former diplomat Silvio Castro wanted to publish this inconvenient piece of history in his 2002 book, La Masacre De Los Independientes De Color En 1912, he was encountering rejection from the comrades who venerate Martí, so he mentioned this to his boss at the Assemblea Nacional, who happened to be Ricardo Alarcon. The latter replied "What is the problem?" and the book was published. José Francisco Martí was later Minister of War under Menocal, an affirmation of his military career. According to Eugene Godfried, a reporter at Radio Havana, Francisco lived until 1945 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. What is publicly known is that Milanes was openly critizing Hart for his racism from Spain and Mexico, then Hart dissolved his foundation, after which Hart was sacked.  El banquete monstruoso, 1912: Martí, Monteagudo Hart's racism has also come out in other ways, as Gayle McGarrity put it in the Jamaica Observer, 1/31/10: "Some assert that Armando Hart Dávalos, who was minister of culture for far too long, is not racist and Eurocentric because he allowed black musicians to travel and even live abroad and to return when they liked, in contrast with earlier policies that made it impossible for those who left to come back. First of all, the main reason that he allowed musicians, not only black ones, to go in and out is that the government has been very embarrassed by the number of 'cultural workers' who have defected while away on foreign trips. Secondly, his cultural policies have always been very Eurocentric. There is no comparison between the way that the Conjunto Folkorico, which is largely but not exclusively Afro-Cuban in orientation, has historically been treated, and the way that the Ballet Nacional has been nurtured. The Director of the National Ballet, Alicia Alonso, was criticised some years ago for not having any dark- skinned dancers in her group. She apparently reluctantly relented." -- www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/McGarrity-Part-2#ixzz2YMeKVsRE In the centennial year of 2012, we had the little noticed spectacle of Armando Hart and Eusebio Leal putting up a plaque to honor José Francisco at his former house, now Hart's Centro de Estudios Jose Marti. The Disidencia and José Francisco Martí The largely Miami based disidencia is as divided as the comrades in their evaluation of José Francisco Martí. For example, Mackandale in Constant Shame, 6/19/2012, writes about statue of President Gomez, who ordered the massacre, and the honors bestowed by Eusebio Leal on José Francisco Martí, though he mistakes the plaque Leal put up for a statue. However, Emiliio Ichikawa wrote a long article defending José Francisco Martí against the accusation that he participated in the genocide: El hijo de Martí: justicia y memoria histórica 9/24/2012 Emiioichikawa: "Sin precisar acciones concretas, por ejemplo: que Estenoz y su jefe militar, Pedro Ivonet, fueron acorralados por el teniente negro Sariol o que el primer teniente mulato Ortiz asesinó a Ivonet (junio 17, 1912) y el teniente blanco De La Torre, a Estenoz (junio 27, 1912), la tacha de despreciable que se endilga al coronel Martí por estar en el bando contrario al PIC tendría que extenderse a todo el Ejército Permanente, la Guardia Rural e incluso a los veteranos mambises ya retirados que asistieron al «banquete monstruo». Y así se disuelve en toda la república poscolonial, porque nadie se alza para regar flores." Basically, José Francisco Martí was OK, because everyone else was doing the same thing, including some Black Cubans. Ichikawa is correct that it was not José Francisco Martí photographed at the autopsy of Evaristo Estenoz, where the Cuban military is captured in a trophy shot with their victim. But he chooses to ignore the fact that he was the Chief of Staff of an army that hunted down black people, not just members of the Partido Independiente de Color, across Oriente and paraded the bodies and ears of their victims through many small town to impress the survivors, much like the KKK did in the US,  where the victims of a lynching were left strung up for days to impress the survivors. What would the descendants of the many victims of Hitler say if someone whitewashed the participation of an Eichman or a Himmler in the Final Solution? -- Claude Betancourt Note: According to Eugene Godfried, Colonel José Francisco Martí also led a band of paramilitary vigilante "volunteers" (Batallón de Voluntarios) to exterminate Black Cubans, hunting them down all across Oriente alongside the Cuban Army. There were several such "Batallónes" and he may have meant the one out of Guantanamo, this matter needs further investigation. However, what is certain is that José Francisco was Chief of Staff of the Cuban Army deployed to exterminate the Independents of Color. Any volunteers would have been under his authority as Chief of Staff.

Cubadebate: los comentarios sobre José Francisco Martí desaparecen? 11/24/13

Andanzas y pasajes del hijo de Martí en Camagüey 11/22/2013 Cubadebate: de Enrique Atiénzar Rivero. No se para la glorificación de José Francisco Martí? Incluido por parte de Eusebio Leal Spencer, el historiador de la Habana?

De los 71 comentarios reportados en Cubadebate, muchos, presumibles contrarios a la imagen parcial que este articulo pretende construir de Ismaelillo, fueron suprimidos, perpetuando una historia falsa de Cuba, edulcorada y lesiva a la conciencia nacional.

Ya en 1950, Serafin Portuondo Linares habia declarado en su libro Los Independientes de Color, que tenemos en PDF:

 "El Estado Mayor que salió rumbo a Oriente estaba integrado por: el Mayor General Jesús Monteagudo; Coronel José Martí y Zayas Bazán, Jefe de Estado Mayor."   

Refieranse tambien a:

Guerra de razas, Rafael Conte and José M. Campany (con foto de Monteagudo, quien se ve en la foto del banquete monstruoso, arriba a la derecha)
Dependencia y Revolucion, Julio Le Riverand
Cincuentenario de un gran Crimen, Sergio Aguirre
Lo que nos corresponde, Aline Helg
1900-1928 Republica dividida contra si misma, Joel James Figarola
Desigualdad y Politica de Cuba 1900-2000  Dr.Alejandro de la Fuente
Los Independientes de Color, Serafin Portuondo Morales
1912, Voces para un Silencio, Gloria Rolando
Silvio Castro, Eduardo Torres Cuevas, Tomas Fernandez Robaina, Fernando Martinez Heredia et al.

Veanse tambien el articulo sobre José Francisco Martí en Ecured, que evita todo discussion de 1912.

En su articulo en Cubadebate, Enrique Atiénzar Rivero, quien es periodista con Adelante, quiere promover la presencia de José Francisco Martí en las escuelas:

"Es necesario que en las enseñanzas primaria y secundaria y con el concurso de la Organización de Pioneros José Martí se profundice en la vida y obra de José Francisco para que los infantes conozcan pasajes suyos que subyacen en libros y sean traídos a nuestros días, de manera que la joven generación sepa e interprete la naturaleza humana de quien murió amando la Patria y orgulloso de su padre."

Aun no han puesto la historia del doce, del Masacre de 1912, en dichas escuelas.

En la bitácora de Enrique Atiénzar Rivero, nos habla del grupo Haitiano "Desandann". El Ejército Cubano y su Jefe de Estado Mayor, José Francisco Martí, mato a muchos Haitianos en 1912. Solamente en Guantanamo, el alcalde Pedro Agustin Pérez ordono el asesino de una cinquenta de Afrodescendientes, en su mayor parte Haitianos.

Enlaces para Enrique Atiénzar Rivero

bloguerosrevolucion.ning.com/profile/EnriqueAtienzarRivero

Eusebio Leal Spengler and Armando Hart unveil a plaque commemorating 1912 Massacre leader José Francisco Martí on the centenary of the massacre, 12/10/12

Plaque honoring the genocidalist

On February 15, 2012, 100 years after the Massacre of 1912, former Minister of Culture Armando Hart and Historian of Havana Eusebio Leal Spengler unveiled a plaque commemorating Martí's son, José Francisco Martí Zayas Bazán, at the latter's house, which is now a Centro de Estudios Martianos. Colonel José Francisco Martí played a key role as Chief of Staff ("Jefe de Estado Mayor") of the Cuban army in the field during their 1912 operations when they hunted down and exterminated thousands of members of the Independent Party of Color as well as many other black Cubans throughout Oriente in 1912. This fact has been known for some time. Silvio Castro published it in his book, La Masacre De Los Independientes De Color En 1912, in 2002. He had a difficult time getting it published precisely because it contained this fact -- until his boss, Ricardo Alarcon, then President of the National Assembly, intervened. This fact had been known to historians prior to that: Serafin Portuondo Linares cited José Francisco Martí's 1912 activities in his 1950 book, Los Independientes de Color, Historia del Partido Independientes de Color:

"El Estado Mayor que salió rumbo a Oriente estaba integrado por: el Mayor General Jesús Monteagudo; Coronel José Martí y Zayas Bazán, Jefe de Estado Mayor; Teniente Coronel José M. Guerrero Dueñas, Auditor General; Teniente Coronel José Pereda Gálvez, Jefe de Sanidad; Comandante Ijeandro Torriente Peraza, Ayudante General (Jefe de Despacho); Comandante Rigoberto Fernández Lecuona, Cuartel Maestre y Comisario General; General Rosendo Collazo y García, Pagador General; Capitanes Antonio Tonel y Mercano, Andrés R. Campiña y González, Federico Pattersson y Hermoso, que eran los ayudantes de campo."

The centenary year of 1912 was to be devoted to commemorating this massacre. Armando Hart, a stellar organizer of the movement against Batista in the cities and a former minister of culture, was, according to Eugene Godried and others, sacked as minister in 1997 for displaying excessive racism in a dispute he had with Pablo Milanes, when he terminated Milanes' foundation. He later opened the Centro de Estudios Martianos in the house that José Francisco Martí occupied until his death in Havana, 807 Calzada at the

Plaque, photo by Leonardo Calvo, CIR

Eusebio Leal Spengler's official title is Historian of Havana but in reality he is in charge of the urban renewal of Old Havana, a big budget process which has involved the usual displacement of urban poor -- many of them black Cubans. According to multiple sources in the capital, the favored tactic was to cut water and electricity to Old Havana buildings rich in African culture and offer the inhabitants homes in Alamar, a suburb of Havana. Leal is also directly responsible for restoring the statue of President José Migue Gomez, the president who ordered the 1912 Massacre, to its pre-1959 position on Avenida de los Presidentes. That statue had been torn down in 1959, after the triumph of the Revolution.

Eusebio Leal Spengler stated the following as he delivered a speech at the unveiling of the plaque honoring Francisco Marti, who was carrying out President Gomez' orders:

"Por lo tanto los historiadores y los cubanos en general, no tenemos nada que objetar, sino que honrar a quien supo venir con las armas en la mano e incorporarse a las tropas de Calixto García, y quien pudo combatir en las principales batallas de Oriente y recibir el grado de Capitán, y a quien finalmente fuera el último testigo de la verdadera historia de las horas finales de su padre el 19 de mayo de 1895.”, argumentó el doctor Spengler." 

Monument to President José Miguel Gomez

Between the two of them, Hart and Leal appear to have given some good amunition to the exiled Plantocracy in Miami in their never ending quest to recapture their holdings. The CIR (Comite de Integration Racial) is at least partially funded by USAID and allied with that Plantocracy, as has been shown time and again in their relationships with Miami organizations. And yet it is the CIR and other dissidents who have been the only ones to protest against this reprehensible commemoration:

Para no convalidar la deshonra 7/18/2012 CIR: "En primer lugar lo que fue establecido en la sede del Centro de Estudios Martianos no fue una estatua sino dos placas que de manera inexplicable tratan de enaltecer la gris memoria del capitán José Francisco Martí Zayas Bazán, exactamente un siglo después que este dirigiera la masacre de sus ex compañeros de armas y tantos cubanos inocentes. Por otra parte cualquiera que lea las valoraciones del colega Mackandal puede llevarse la idea inexacta de que la estatua de José Miguel Gómez siempre ha estado en su pedestal, donde fue erigida desde su consagración en 1926, puesto que el autor omite el dato trascendental de que ésta como tantas otras fue retirada al triunfo de la Revolución, para ser posteriormente reinstalada. Los que demandamos la retirada del ofensivo símbolo tenemos bien claro el alcance de los principios de respeto a los valores patrimoniales, razón por la cual a nadie se le ha ocurrido exigir el desmontaje de inmerecidos monumentos de otros personajes no menos admirables como el del general Alejandro Rodríguez asesino del general Quintín Banderas o el del mismísimo José de Jesús Monteagudo principal ejecutor del genocidio de 1912, simplemente porque nunca fueron retirados."

The US is slated to spend $500,000 in fiscal 2014 to "raise awareness of issues affecting Afro-Cubans and assist in the development of a network of independent Afro-Cuban groups in Cuba." (See Breakdown of the $20 million 5/22/2013 Along the Malecon.) This commemorative plaque could well help them in that task.  

The ideology behind honoring José Francisco Martí is clearly not Marxism. Rather it lies within that republicanismo which Martí elaborated based on the French republicain model born in 1789. This republicanismo is also shared by the exiled plantocracy in Miami and by elites across the Latin world, from France to Latin America. One of the salient features of French based republicanismo is that it sternly rejects any expression of ethnic identity, except of course that of the ruling elites.

Republicanismo was also the motivating ideology in another noteworthy and recent case where the PIC was disrespected, when Rolando Rodriguez wrote a book, "La conspiración de los iguales", which purported to show that the Partido Independiente de Color was annexationist and in league with the Americans against the Republic. In that case, responsible adults intervened and RR was publicly rebuked and somewhat ostracized, though he did not lose his position as professor at the University of Havana. Eusebio Leal is better defended than Rolando Rodriguez -- he controls the funds used for the development of Old Havana and has been successful in restoring the remnants of colonial Spain to their supposed former glory, thereby attracting tourists. There is another school of thought that it is Cuba's tremendous African cultures which should be the basis for attracting visitors, not the culture of the masters kicked out by the overwhelmingly black Mambi Army of Liberation and their General Maceo.

Of course, as few people are 100% good or evil, Leal also has another side, particularly with respect to his Abakwa friends, some of whom valiantly unloaded weapons from the French ship La Coubre which exploded in Havana Harbor in 1960:

Christine Ayorinde (2011: 147) wrote that during the 1991 Communist Party congress, “exemplary practitioners of all creeds were named, including Aracelio Iglesias, an Abakuá who was a militant in the first Cuban Communist Party. Eusebio Leal, the official historian of Havana asked, ‘are we to deny [party membership] to my Abakuá friends in Old Havana who still remember, ancient and venerable, how in the name of God and in silence they unloaded arms from the La Coubre?”

-- Claude Betancourt, 12/10/12

Clave a Maceo
por Sindo Garay, despues del 1912

Pobre Cuba, Señor, pobre Cuba. . .
Tus montañas y praderas, y praderas.
Qué se hicieron de los hombres
que en tus campos sucumbieron ?
Esos, nunca volverán.

Si Maceo volviera a vivir
y a su Patria otra vez contemplara,
de seguro la vergüenza lo matara,
o el cubano se arreglara
o él volviera a morir. . .

  
Links/Enlaces

www.latinamericanstudies.org/marti-1.htm

Articles/Articulos

José Martí y Zayas-Bazán y su rol en la Masacre de los Independientes de Color  1/7/2018 Negra Cubana: "Es un secreto a voces, que el segundo capítulo de 1912: Voces para un silencio, documental de la reconocida cineasta cubana Gloria Rolando, no ha sido televisado en Cuba, pues muestra irrefutablemente la participación activa de José Martí y Zayas-Bazán, el Ismaelillo, por entonces Brigadier del ejército republicano, en la masacre de los Independientes de Color."

Andanzas y pasajes del hijo de Martí en Camagüey 11/22/2013 Cubadebate: No se para la glorificación de José Francisco Martí.

La viuda del Hijo de José Martí… nunca abandonó Cuba 5/4/2013 Cuba Nuestra: "En la casa vivían, varias personas, una servidumbre de años e incluso un negro esclavo de cerca de 100 años, nacido en el seno de la familia y que en la práctica se había convertido en un pariente más."

Constant Shame / Mackandal – Manuel Aguirre 6/19/2012 Translating Cuba: "The statue is where it belongs, as is that of José Francisco Martí, the son of the Apostle, who was second in command, under General Monteagudo in the racist massacre of 1912, which was solemnly inaugurated by the Historian of the City, Eusebio Leal, at the Martí Studies Center, but without his saying that José Francisco cut off black’s and mestizo’s heads too." [The commemoration of Marti's son Francisco was a plaque, not a statue, but Mackandal got the rest of it correctly.]

Develan tarja en recordación a José Francisco Martí 2/20/2012 Radio Coco: "A la entrada de la residencia marcada con el número 807 en la calle Calzada esquina a Cuatro, en El Vedado habanero, actual sede del Centro de Estudios Martianos (CEM), fue develada una tarja en recordación al lugar donde vivió José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán, hijo de José Martí, e inspirador del poemario Ismaelillo. El Historiador de la ciudad de La Habana, el doctor Eusebio Leal Spengler, tras develar la tarja y comentar sobre la vida de Francisco Martí, recordó que fue allí donde residió junto a su esposa, María Teresa Bances Fernández-Criado, desde el 24 de febrero de 1916 hasta su muerte, el 22 de octubre de 1945."

Martí, invitación permanente a la lectura 2/17/2012 Granma: "Además, el próximo día 15, el doctor Eusebio Leal, Historiador de La Habana, presentará el Anuario 33 de la institución, lugar en el cual develará una tarja que rememora la casa donde residió José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán (Ismaelillo), hijo del Apóstol, desde el 24 de febrero de 1916, hasta su muerte el 22 de octubre de 1945."

INAUGURAN TARJA EN HONOR AL ISMAELILLO 2/16/2012 Verbi Clara: "Con la presencia del intelectual y político cubano Armando Hart Dávalos y el Historiador de La Habana Eusebio Leal Spengler, quedó inaugurada una tarja conmemorativa a la figura de José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán, Ismaelillo, hijo del Apóstol José Martí, en el Centro de Estudios Martianos (CEM), ubicado en la calle Calzada esquina a 4 en el municipio capitalino de Plaza de la Revolución… El historiador de La Habana explicó también cuán difícil había sido para José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán, llamarse José Martí, sin serlo pues todos exigían de él lo máximo poniéndolo en muchos casos en comparación o en contradicción con la figura de su padre. “En muchas ocasiones le reprocharon al Ismaelillo que fuese lo que su padre no llegó a ser en la vida pública”, expuso Eusebio."

Obras sobre José Martí en feria cubana del libro 2/11/2012 Cubarte: "En ese contexto, el Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana, Eusebio Leal, develará el día 15 la tarja que señala la casona sede del Centro de Estudios Martianos como el lugar en que vivió desde su matrimonio, en 1916, hasta su muerte, en 1945, el hijo del prócer, José Francisco Martí."

Simbolismo del Ismaelillo y Camagüey 2/6/2012 Adelante: "En honor al único hijo del Héroe Nacional de Cuba en ese sitio, actual sede del Centro de Estudios Martianos, Eusebio Leal Spengler, Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana inauguró hace pocos días una tarja en homenaje al Ismaelillo. Con ese verbo peculiar, de hombre de vasta cultura, Leal sostuvo: “Solo el amor salva. Por eso nos corresponde ser guardianes de la verdad de hombres como este, del que no tenemos nada que objetar, sino honrar, a quien supo venir con las armas en la mano, incorporarse a las tropas de Calixto García, combatir en las principales batallas de Oriente, recibir el grado de capitán; y el que conoció la verdadera historia de las últimas horas de su padre antes de morir el 19 de mayo de 1895”."
 

Centro de Estudios Martianos

Calzada # 807 entre 4 y 2 CP. 10400 Vedado Plaza de la Revolución Ciudad de La Habana
Rolando González Patricio
Tel: (537) 552297 /8309519 /8306197
Fax: (537) 333721
jmarti@cubarte.cult.cu
 

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