Apostle of Cuba's Freedom, National Hero and Martyr
Apostle of Cuba's Freedom, National Hero and Martyr
PREFACE: Although there are web page publishers who would have us believe the content of their pages (including those in the Public Domain), is their sole posession and property, not only it is a ridiculous assumption but a rather preposterous and ridiculous premise. I was contacted by one such "author" two weeks ago claiming ownership to the Cuban apostle's Literary Works. She was told in no uncertain terms where to go, who to go there with, and what to do once they were "there". ALL of José Martí's Literary Works and Poetry are Public Domain and belong first and foremost to the Cuban People, not the Castro government or others who may wish to claim ownership to them. After that, José Martí's "Thoughts" belong to the Human Race at large. The "Thoughts" by José Martí with which I pre-amble the article that follows them have been arranged in an order of importance strictly dictated by this writer's strictly conservative and independent convictions. This will be obvious as you read on. The first "Quote" listed here is considered to be of paramount importance to this writer as it dispels communist movements and Castro's long propagated myth about José Martí having leftist leanings and or having a communist streak in him. Nothing could be further from the truth. His "Quote" on socialism is very clear and to the point regarding his feelings for that oppressive system of government. Every Cuban proud of his and or her heritage has known this fact since childhood. Those who claim ownership to Martí's works demonstrate their utter ignorance by so doing. On Government and or Politics
1- Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand.
2- After seeing it rise, quake, sleep, prostitute itself, make mistakes, be abused, sold and corrupted; after seeing the voters turn into animals, the voting booths besieged, the ballot boxes overturned, the results falsified, the highest offices stolen, one still must acknowledge, because it is true, that the vote is an awesome, invincible and solemn weapon; the vote is the most effective and merciful instrument that man has devised to manage his affairs.
3- Peoples are made of hate and of love, and more of hate than love. But love, like the sun that it is, sets afire and melts everything. what greed and privilege to build up over whole centuries the indignation of a pious spirit, with its natural following of oppressed souls, will cast down with a single shove.
4- He who receives money in trust to administer for the benefit of its owner, and uses it either for his own interest or against the wishes of its rightful owner, is a thief. The vote is a trust more delicate than any other, for it involves not just the interests of the voter, but his life, honor and future as well. He who uses the office he owes to the voters wrongfully and against them is a thief.
5- Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men. The force of passion is balanced by the force of interest. An insatiable appetite for glory leads to sacrifice and death, but innate instinct leads to self-preservation and life. A nation that neglects either of these forces perishes. They must be steered together, like a pair of carriage horses.
6- The merit and strength of a people are measured by their enthusiasm for freedom when the only rewards from it are anguish and martyrdom, the blood and ashes of exile, the sorrow of a house driven by the waves, and the shame of a useless life that lacks the foundation and peace of mind needed to do one's share of the common task. José Martí's Quotes on Liberty
1- Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist.
2- Like bones to the human body, the axle to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.
3- Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy....A man who obeys a bad government is not an honest man.
4- We are free, but not to be evil, not to be indifferent to human suffering, not to profit from the people, from the work created and sustained through their spirit of political association, while refusing to contribute to the political state that we profit from. We must say no once more. Man is not free to watch impassively the enslavement and dishonor of men, nor their struggles for liberty and honor.
5- Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice. If they knew its charms, the dignity that accompanies it, how much a free man feels like a king, the perpetual inner light that is produced by decorous self-awareness and realization, perhaps there would be no greater friends of freedom than those who are its worst enemies.
6- Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together. You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all.
7- It is terrible to speak of you, Liberty, for one who lives without you. A wild beast does not bend its knee before its tamer with greater fury. One discovers the depths of hell, and from there looks up at freemen with their sun-like arrogance. One bites the air, like a hyena biting the bars of its cage. One's spirit writhes inside the body, like a man who has been poisoned. The wretch who lives without freedom feels like dressing in the mud from the streets Those who have you, o Liberty, do not know you. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you.
1- Man is not an image engraved on a silver dollar, with covetous eyes, licking lips and a diamond pin on a silver dickey. Man is a living duty, a depository of powers that he must not leave in a brute state. Man is a wing.
2- It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.
3- One just principle from the depths of a cave is more powerful than an army.
4- We light the oven so that everyone may bake bread in it. If I survive, I will spend my whole life at the oven door seeing that no one is denied bread and, so as to give a lesson of charity, especially those who did not bring flour.
5- Just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life. To give one's life is a right only when one gives it unselfishly.
6- Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity. He who seeks it elsewhere will not find it for, having drunk from all the glasses of life, he will find satisfaction only in those.
7- There are men who live contented through they live without decorum. Others suffer as if in agony when they see around them people living without decorum. There must be a certain amount of decorum in the world, just as there must be a certain amount of light. When there are many men without decorum, there are always others who themselves possess the decorum of many men. These are the ones who rebel with terrible strength against those who rob nations of their liberty, which is to rob men of their decorum. Embodied in those men are thousands of men, a whole people, human dignity.
8- Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world, and not ourselves, for it is not of our making. To use for our exclusive benefit what is not ours is theft. Culture, which makes talent shine, is not completely ours either, nor can we place it solely at our disposal. Rather, it belongs mainly to our country, which gave it to us, and to humanity, from which we receive it as a birthright. A selfish man is a thief.
9- A child, from the time he can think, should think about all he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty, should work so that all men can be honest, and should be honest himself. A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.
10- He who could have been a torch and stoops to being a pair of jaws is a deserter.
11- Every human being has within him an ideal man, just as every piece of marble contains in a rough state a statue as beautiful as the one that Praxiteles the Greek made of the god Apollo.
12- It is the duty of man to raise up man. One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity.
13- Through a marvelous law of natural compensation, he who gives of himself grows, and he who turns inward and lives from small pleasures, is afraid to share them with others, and only thinks avariciously of cultivating his appetites loses his humanity and becomes loneliness itself. He carries in his breast all the dreariness of winter. He becomes in fact and appearance an insect.
14- A genuine man goes to the roots. To be a radical is no more than that: to go to the roots. He who does not see things in their depth should not call himself a radical.
15- To busy oneself with what is futile when one can do something useful, to attend to what is simple when one has the mettle to attempt what is difficult, is to strip talent of its dignity. It is a sin not to do what one is capable of doing.
16- Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever. Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness.
17- There is happiness in duty, although it may not seem so. To fulfill one's duty elevates the soul to a state of constant sweetness. Love is the bond between men, the way to teach and the center of the world.
18- In truth, men speak too much of danger. Let others be terrified by the natural and healthy risks of life! We shall not be frightened! Poison sumac grows in a hard-working man's field, the serpent hisses from its hidden den, and the owl's eye shines in the belfry, but the sun goes on lighting the sky, and truth continues marching across the earth unscathed.
Quotes by José Martí
José Martí's Quotes on Morality and Human Behavior
After reading these carefully selected Quotes by José Martí, it should be fairly obvious to everyone why we, Cuban-Americans are so bitterly opposed to having any U.S. government "negotiate" Cuba's destiny with Castro and or his thugs. Every previous instance in which the U.S. has gotten involved in our internal affairs, the only beneficiaries have always been the governments involved and U.S. Big Business Interests. The Cuban people have always come out of these "negotiations" holding the short end of the stick. It has made absolutely no difference in the past whether the U.S. Government has been in the hands of the Democrats or the Republicans, we have always been treated like "second class citizens" in our own Country by our corrupt "leaders" and the U.S. Corporations that have supported them while "profiting" from their mutual "cooperation" at our expense. I am neither a left leaning bleeding heart democrat demagogue nor a rabid, reactionary right wing republican; I am and have always been a conservative leaning independent thinker and as such I think and vote. I can see fault where there has been fault in the past, I can see faults in the present and I hope I will still be able to do so in the future. North American Big Business Interests in the island have exploited the noble Cuban people and helped Cuba's "rulers" oppress us. Once again they are up to their same old tricks. Once again, Cuban History is repeating itself. North American Big Business is now "brown nosing" Castro and his thugs. They do so because they stand to reap the benefits of slave labor in Cuba. Not much different than what they have been doing in China. The time has come for someone to stand up and tell the truth. It's about time the North American Nation be made aware of the shenanigans North American Big Money are perpetrating abroad. These "policies" are hurting more than helping the North American people's image abroad, it is causing oppressed peoples overseas to erroneously despise & hate North Americans and everything that North America stands for.
We Cubans are being portrayed as "criminals" by both Castro & the "yellow" liberal U.S. press. We should not be surprised by this fact since both Castro and Big Business stand to profit from the suffering of the Cuban people. Before closing these comments I wish to clear the air about another erroneous assumption by many North Americans. Many of you have asked Cubans why is it that we "fly" Castro's Flag; in answer to that I must say that first and foremost this is the Cuban Flag, it was created back in 1849. It is not Castro's Flag, never was and it never will be "his" Flag. We fly it with pride, in order to honor the brave Cuban patriots who fought against the Spaniards, those who have been ignored for so long. It was the Mambi Fighter, who by a war of attrition had the Spaniards close to give up and leave Cuba for good. The Maine "shenanigan" was an excuse the U.S. used to "acquire" Cuba as another possession, to exploit its natural resources as well as its people. We Fly the Cuban Flag in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle for the Freedom of Cuba. Castro and his thugs have never had any respect for the Cuban Flag or what it means to the noble Cuban people, they do not care. I am convinced that in the end Cuba and the Cuban people will achieve the dreams of Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo, Calixto Garcia, Maximo Gomez, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes and countless others who followed in their footsteps to Martyrdom: "A Free Cuba for the Cubans". FREE from the "foreign" interventionists whose only interests are to exploit Cuba's citizens and its resources.
As long as Big Business is making money abroad, they will stop at nothing, even if it means helping dictators to stay in power while the liberal North American "press" reports what it sees fit to broadcast and or print. They never had nor will they ever care about the sufering their greed is causing people overseas. The only thing they are concerned with is the almighty dollar, period.
All that we Cubans, as well as the rest of Latin Americans and Haitians desire is to be treated with decency, dignity and honesty, nothing more. Are we asking too much? I would think not.
A Cuba for the Cubans, not for repressive tyrants that will betray their fellow men in order to further their perverse goals and that of their native as well as foreign cohorts. I do thank you for your time.-
Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo
Cardos ni ortigas cultivo
Cultivo una Rosa Blanca
And for the cruel person who tears out
The heart with which I live,
Neither nettles nor thorns I cultivate
I cultivate a White Rose
"LONG LIVE A FREE AND SOVEREIGN CUBA"
A CUBA FREE OF ALL INTERVENTIONIST INTERESTS
A CUBA FREE OF TYRANTS WHO ARE SUPPORTED BY SAID INTERESTS
AND INDIVIDUALS WHO ONLY DESIRE TO EXPLOIT HER AND ITS NOBLE CITIZENS