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José Martí: Surrealist or Seer?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2022
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A great deal has been written about José Martí as poet, patriot, and essayist. Much of his life and work has, however, remained almost completely ignored; by some, denied. Relatively little is known about his personal life except that he was Cuban, which for most has been sufficient. But recent research casts fascinating light on his little-known fondness for baccarat, his secret dream of acquiring a Caribbean monopoly of Thom McAn shoe franchises, and his tendency to walk into closed doors. Though all this information is useful and interesting, there has persisted yet another oversight in Martí scholarship, one which has led to an altogether unwarranted and almost totally inaccurate image of him as an inspired but rather inept artist of verse.
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- Copyright © 1978 by the University of Texas Press
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Notes
1. See, for example, Félix Lizaso's Martí: místico del deber, available in English under the title Martí: Martyr of Cuban Independence, trans. by Esther Elise Shuler (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1953). Like most of the biographies on Martí, this one, otherwise excellent, devotes altogether too much space to Martí's birth, his education, his extensive comings and goings, political activities, publications, and ultimately, his death.
2. The manuscript was discovered in a packing crate marked “pomegranates” (granadas) found in a large warehouse in the suburbs of Miami, Florida. On the title page are the words Versos sencillos, followed by a signature that appears to be that of José Martí, or perhaps “Julio Martín.” There is little doubt about the authenticity of the MS, since it would have been silly for Martí to have signed the document had it been false, and equally mindless for someone else to have signed his name to it, since the fame derived from the work would have gone to Martí (or Martín) at any rate.
3. The obvious Freudian configuration of this particular tobacco product lends further support to the hypothesis.
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