José Martí on the Nile
LAST MONDAY Cuban Ambassador Luis E Marisy Figueredo and Cairo Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata inaugurated a bust of celebrated Cuban writer, poet and freedom fighter José Martí Pérez (1853-1895) at the Horreya Park near the Cairo Opera House. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of José Martí 's birth, the Cuban ambassador donated the statue on behalf of the Cuban people to the city of Cairo and the Egyptian people in a gesture of friendship and solidarity.
Also present at the ceremony was prominent Cuban historian of the city of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler. "It is only fitting that Martí 's statue should find its way to Egypt because he was an ardent admirer of Ancient Egyptian civilisation," said Spengler. Referring to Martí as "the apostle of Cuban independence", Spengler contextualised his significance for the Cuban Revolution. "Although Martí died young -- he was killed in battle by the Spanish at 42 -- Martí left the Cuban people a unique legacy of hope and faith in the future," said Spengler.
Born in 1853 to a poor family of Spanish immigrants, Martí grew up in Cuba under Spanish colonial rule. A militant anti-imperialist at the age of 16, he published a pro- independence magazine called La Patria Libre. Arrested, the youth was sentenced to six years of hard labour. After having served a part of his sentence, Martí was released and deported. In exile, Martí traveled to France, Mexico and Guatemala -- making his living as a teacher and journalist. Throughout the Hispanic world he became famous as a poet, a philosopher and brilliant essayist promoting national liberation movements and the liberation of Cuba.
Martí returned home in 1878, but was again deported in 1879. He then settled in New York City and lived in the United States from 1881 to 1895. "In the US democracy has been corrupted and undermined and has given birth to menacing poverty and hatred," wrote Martí .
Living in the "belly of the beast", Martí denounced among other things the most virulent forms of American racism, the power of the military-industrial complex, and US hegemony on the Latin American continent. But most of all, he denounced US plans to annex Cuba, which the Americans began to formulate in the 1880s. In 1892 Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party, a broad-based movement which stood for Cuban and Latin American liberation from US imperialist control.
In February 1895 Martí , along with Cuban freedom fighters Maceo and Gomez, launched an invasion of Cuba east of Guantanemo. On 19 May 1895 during a confrontation with Spanish forces, Martí was shot and killed. But his struggle lives on, in Cuba and elsewhere.
