Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Jose Marti: Mentor of the Cuban Nation.

1984; Duke University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2514543

1527-1900

Gerald E. Poyo, John M. Kirk,

Cuban History and Society

Venerated as creator of Cuba's first republic, declared by Fidel Castro to be intellectual author of second revolution, revered by Cuban exiles as premier visionary of democratic Cuban state, Jose Marti (1853-95) was a prolific and eclectic writer and a practical philosopher. In Jose Marti: Mentor of Cuban Nation, John M. Kirk leads us to a better understanding of the purest man of Latin race and one of most underrated political thinkers of modern times. As a scholarly statement, Kirk's work contributes to a necessary reappraisal of Marti; it is a quest after true esencia martiana--the essence of Marti's sociopolitical thought. Kirk deliberately departs from a strictly theoretical viewpoint in his well-documented synthesis of Marti's theories. The result is partially an explanation for Cuban leader's continued exaltation as apostle of modern political movements of both right and left. Kirk reviews formative experiences of Marti's youth through his letters and early literary endeavors to his deportation to Spain before age of eighteen. Marti's observations from his travels on realities of North American democracy and struggles of Latin American nations to emerge from colonialism are used by Kirk to trace Marti's sociopolitical development, culminating in his aspirations for Cuba following its independence from Spain. Kirk clarifies Marti's visionary but quite specific designs for moral foundation, social, political, and economic structures and policies of liberated republic--concepts that Marti would have attempted to implement had he not been killed by Spanish forces. Marti's own words, here translated by Kirk, show a wise and compassionate leader dedicated to welfare of all peoples.