José Martí: If a NY Statue Could Talk
A short reflection by the Cuban hero, whose statue sits in Central Park.
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Have you ever heard the famous song “Guantánamera” about my country, Cuba? The song is based on my poems. I wrote them here in New York where I lived for fifteen years when I was exiled from Cuba because I wanted my country to be independent from Spain.
When I was just sixteen, I founded a newspaper called “La Patria Libre,” or “The Free Fatherland.” The Spanish government wasn’t exactly a big fan of mine so eventually I had to leave Cuba. But that didn’t stop me. I founded another newspaper in New York. That one was called “Patria.”
I have to confess I was pretty homesick in New York. For someone from a tropical island “where the palm trees grow,” as the song goes, the winters were really tough. I could never get warm enough. I couldn’t get a decent cup of coffee, let alone a plate of ropa vieja, Cuba’s spicy meat stew.
But, I did find other people who wanted the Spanish out of Cuba. In 1895, a bunch of us sailed to the island to drive them out once and for all. The trip didn’t turn out too well for me. I died on the battlefield soon after we landed. What can I say? I was a better poet than a soldier.
