“The conceited villager believes the entire world is his village.” In another paragraph taken from Our America he wrote, “The presumptuous man believes that the earth was made to serve as his pedestal, because he happens to have a facile pen or colorful speech.”
Writer, philosopher, poet, politician, organizer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, Freemason. Recognized and venerated as an Apostle of Independence, by the majority of Cubans.
Also organizer of the necessary war (1895), he fell in Dos Ríos, shot down by the Spanish army under the command of Colonel Jiménez Sandoval. His companion succeeded in fleeing and informing Máximo Gómez of the fall in combat of Martí.
His death in Dos Ríos, left everyone with some mysteries that were lost until our time. Had Martí been more useful alive than dead? The mystery of the lost pages of his Dairy of the Haitian Cape of Dos Ríos has never been disclosed.
It was almost an act of suicide to have faced the Spanish troops alone, without any previous military experience. A thing of fate, or perhaps he felt obligated to do it. This will never be known with certainty.
Translated by: BW
May 18 2011
