José Martí, Revolutionary Democrat is a collection of essays presented at a seminar in 1983 at the Institute of Latin American Studies in London, England. Two of the papers review the “modernity” of Martí’s works and life, a reflection of the seminar’s purpose to make the national hero of Cuban independence better known outside Latin America and Spain. Roberto Fernández Retamar examines Martí’s anti-imperialist writings, a well-mined source and popular theme with critics of the United States. Ivan Shulman’s essay on the “modernity” of Martí (1853-95) places him in the context of the modernist literary movement of his time, as well as showing through quotations from Martí’s poem Ismaelillo the motif of renewal as a “necessary” text for “today’s uncertain and chaotic universe” (p. 175).
Gerald E. Poyo studies Martí’s role as an architect of social unity in the Cuban émigré communities in the United States in order to understand the relationship between Martí’s ideals and the social and economic realities of these centers. Antoni Kapcia explores Cuban populism and the birth of the myth of Martí, noting several periods in the “rediscovery” of Martí’s political ideas—in the 1920s, in the Cuban radical student movement; the 1933 revolution; the use of Martí as a myth in the 1934-52 period; and events in the decade before the Cuban Revolution of 1959. The author concludes that Martí’s direct influence on Cuban radicalism was negligible before the late 1950s (p. 64).
Two of the essays treat Martí’s experiences in exile: Jacqueline Kaye on Martí’s 15 years in the United States, and Christopher Abel on Martí in Latin America and Spain. Kaye provides excerpts from Martí’s writings on prominent public figures. Abel compares Martí with Simón Bolívar, and seeks to reconsider Martí in the light of the changing international order at the end of the nineteenth century.
Nissa Torrents concentrates on Amistad funesta, Martí’s only novel, a genre in which he was least successful, although she finds the work a “powerful melodrama,” revealing a humanizing side of the author (p. 191). Abel writes in “Concluding Perspectives” that the enduring impact of Martí “was evident in his ideas, and not in his political organization” (p. 195). Jorge Ibarra also emphasizes the importance of Martí’s ideas, writing that Martí preceded and enriched Marxism in its understanding of imperialism. John M. Kirk’s essay evaluates Martí’s views of his own writings as a social force.
José Martí, Revolutionary Democrat succeeds in presenting Martí’s writings and actions with new interpretations of their significance. The efforts are well documented, and the book includes a select bibliography and useful chronological guide to the life of Martí. The essays should appeal especially to students of historiography and literary criticism.
