No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The New York-To-Cuba Axis of Father Varela
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
Cuba experienced during the early 19th century an intellectual explosion whose impact has reverberated into the 20th century. It was sparked by a shabby, ascetic little priest with luminous eyes and an eloquent smile, who, while laboring for 25 years as a missionary in New York, kept the lines of contact open with his forward-looking followers. He believed in dignity, social justice, and freedom, under God and His Church, for every people, and he did not consider these obtainable for Cuba under Spanish rule. A Cuban scholar in our times has designated him, “Forger of the Conscience of Cuba.”
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1964
References
1 Travieso, Antonio Hernández, El Padre Varela: biografía del forjador de la conciencia cubana (Havana, 1949)Google Scholar.
2 Havana, Diocese of,” Catholic Encyclopedia, VII, 154.
3 Travieso, A. Hernandez, Varela y la reforma filosófica en Cuba (Havana, 1942), pp. 91 ffGoogle Scholar.
4 For a list of Varela’s writings, see the account by Purcell, Richard J. in the Dictionary of American Biography, XIX, 224 fGoogle Scholar.
5 This report is given in full in a documentary volume published by the University of Havana, entitled Los Restos del Padre Varela en la Universidad de la Habana, por una comisión técnica integrada por los profesores universitarios, Julio Morales Coello, presidente . . . (Havana, 1955), pp. 189–209. Slavery was not finally abolished in Cuba until 1886.
6 In 1945 the University of Havana reissued El Habanero, including some photostatic reproductions of the original printings, and adding illuminating commentaries. Its title: El Habanero: papel político, científico y literario, redacto por el Dr. Félix Varela, Catedrático de Filosofía y de Constitución en el Seminario de San Carlos de La Habana; seguido de las apuntaciones sobre El Habanero; estudios preliminares por Enrique Gay Calbó y Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring. (References will be to this edition.)
7 “Dialog held in this city between a Spanish partizan of Cuban independence and his fellow-countryman, who was anti-independence,” El Habanero, pp. 117–118.
8 Varela’s words are: “Quiera о no quiera Fernando, sea cual fuere la opinion de sus vasallos en la isla de Cuba, la revolución de aquel pais es inevitable “; in his article, “Tranquilidad de la isla de Cuba,” Ei Habanero, p. 60.
9 The Catholic Church in New York (2 vols.; New York and Boston, 1905), I, 78.Google Scholar
10 Quoted in the original Spanish, in Los Restos, p. 62.
11 Dated New York, February 28, 1832, and addressed to the editors of Revista Bimestre Cubana; quoted in Castro, José Antonio Fernandez de, Medio siglo de historia colonial de Cuba; cartas a José Antonio Saco ordenadas y comentadas (de 1823 a 1819) (Havana, 1923), p. 37.Google Scholar
12 The Reverend Varela, Félix, The Protestante Abridger and Annotator,” number 1 (New York, 1830), p. 39.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., p. 72.
14 Shea, John Dawson Gilmary, Catholic Churches of New York City (New York, 1878), p. 689.Google Scholar
15 Souvenir History of Transfiguration Parish, Mott Street, New York, 1827–1897 (New York, 1897), p. 8.
16 Shea, , History of the Catholic Church in the United States (4 vols.; New York, 1886–1892), III, 487.Google Scholar
17 Arciniegas, Germán, Caribbean, Sea of the New World, trans. Harriet de Onís (New York, 1946), p. 356.Google Scholar
18 Rodríguez, José Ignacio, Vida del presbitero Don Félix Varela (2d ed.; Havana, 1944), p. 222.Google Scholar
19 The Catholic Church in New York, I, 78.
20 Diego González Gutiérrez, La continuidad revolucionaria de Varela en las ideas de Martí; discurso leído por el Academico de Numero en la sesión pública celebrada el 25 de febrero de 1953, para conmemorar el centenario de la muerte del Pbro. Félix Varela (Havana, 1953).
21 There is disagreement as to whether Varela died on February 18, or February 25, 1853. Cf. Valverde, Antonio L., La muerte del Padre Varela . . . (Havana, 1924)Google Scholar.
22 A second edition was published in 1944 by the Library of Cuban Studies, Havana, under the title of Vida del presbitero Don Félix Varela, cited supra, n. 18.
23 Cf. supra, n. 1.
24 Conclusion of the report (in Spanish) of the University’s investigating commission. Los Restos, p. 62.
25 Wyatt MacGaffey, Clifford R. Barnett, in collaboration with Haiken, Jean and Vreeland, Mildred, Cuba, Its People, Its Society, Its Culture (New Haven, 1962), p. xx Google Scholar.
26 In addition to the references mentioned in the previous footnotes, the following sources were most useful for the purposes of this study: Catholic Expositor and Literary Magazine, eds. Félix Varela and Charles Constantine Pise (New York, 1814 ff.)Google Scholar. New York Weekly Register and Catholic Diary, ed. Félix Varela (New York, 1833 ff.). The Truth Teller, eds. William Denman and George Pardow (New York, 182S ff.). El Mensagero Seminal, ed. Félix Varela (New York, Philadelphia, 1825–1831)Google Scholar. Blakeslee, William, P., C. S., “Félix Varela, 1788–1853,” in American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Records, XXXVIII (1927), 15–46 Google Scholar. Rodríguez, José Ignacio, “Father Félix Varela, Vicar-General of New York from 1837 to 1853,” in American Catholic Quarterly Review, VIII (1883), 463–476 Google Scholar. Minutes and other documents found in the rectory of Transfiguration Church, Mott and Park Streets, New York City.