This was one of the works that were damaged by the shock wave of the explosion that occurred on May 6 at the Hotel Saratoga.

The piece, by Cuban painter Miguel Díaz Salinero (1874-1944), is an appropriation of a photograph taken in 1892 of José Martí, in Kingston, Jamaica. The artist, a student of Leopoldo Romañach (1862-1951), dedicated a large part of his work to developing this type of iconographic work, especially of the National Hero, about whom he made more than a dozen pieces, some of which are part of the collection of the José Martí Birthplace Museum.

According to Juan Carlos Bermejo, director of the easel painting restoration workshop, the painting received several impacts and inlays of crystals and solid materials. “The most serious damage was in the head area, but there were scattered damage throughout the surface and the frame.”

The piece had been restored in 2013 in the workshop itself, when it was ready to be exhibited at the Martí Theater from its reopening on February 24, 2014: “On that occasion we put some patches on the canvas, we touched up the painting and we varnish”.

The piece had been restored in 2013 in the workshop itself, when it was ready to be exhibited at the Martí Theater from its reopening on February 24, 2104. Photo: Workers.

“Now it was necessary to reline it —explains the expert restorer and also a photographer— because there were numerous breakages and this structurally compromised the work. The relining was done with high quality linen and as an adhesive we used wax-resin, which is the most recommended due to the relative humidity and other peculiarities of Cuba. We changed the reinforcement brackets to the frame. The frame also suffered from the impacts, we reconstructed the damage of the molding, and applied a patina of aging”.

“Upon receiving the piece, the first thing was to relax the support, says Bermejo. Then, we remove the canvas from the frame to proceed with the relining, a process that takes heat so that both fabrics adhere. Once the ironing is finished, we clean the excess wax-resin, return the work to the frame and start the stucco, whose function is to reconstruct, with a mixture of wax and calcium carbonate, the surface of the lost fabric and the damaged pictorial layer, imitating the original texture. Then we varnish and touch up with the appropriate pigment. As a closure, the finishing varnish”.

This restoration is the result of the collective work of specialists such as the veteran Leandro Grillo, Antonio Torrens, Juan Carlos Bermejo and Alejandro Mato, the latter still a student at the University of the Arts.

-On what album does this song appear?

-The song “Todo el mundo cuenta” is on Pi 3,14, born in the context of some very particular years. Buena Fe’s work cannot be interpreted in a comprehensive manner without understanding the context in which our songs were written. This is an album from 2011 that addresses the social reality of that time. Those were the years when the convocation was made for the 6th Party Congress, which was held in April of that year, after 14 years without a Congress being held, and Raul called for debate, for people to say what they thought, to go deeper in changing a number of things.

This is one of the albums we have made that most reflects Martí, given the very Cuban character it has. It is no accident that we had Eliades Ochoa on “Mamífero nacional;” “Despedida” with Pablo Milanés, and Los aldeanos for “Miedos.” We brought in guest artists because it was a year that needed consensus, needed for everyone to see themselves reflected in the country that was to be constructed, and to chart the guidelines we needed to move forward. That song is a summary of everything we wanted to express in the album, of the need to build a nation with everyone and for the good of everyone, but also emphasizing the need to understand all the parts. We could no longer think of Martí in stock phrases, but of another Martí who can be a father, a teacher, who accompanies us as a brother, blood of the poor, in doing our duty; a Martí who leaves us wondering how he could do so much without the Internet. I tell you that song is the one I am most proud of, since, apart from the context in which it emerged, it is a song that can still accompany us.”

-What value do you give the dimension of Marti’s thought in setting an ethical course for us, as a referent for conduct in the 21st century, addressing issues ranging from morality to altruism, goodness and beauty, to mention only a few?

-Martí cannot be understood if one does not comprehend his great school. It was not only the pro-independence, revolutionary environment in which he was born. I think that to have punished such a young boy, with his sensitivity, a boy who took to poetry, literature, to have condemned him to such a horrible prison in which, incredibly, the boy did not die, was the bomb. This is what forged his moral universe, his ethical universe. What horrors could that boy have seen, what pain he must have faced, making all other sacrifices seem like mere trifles? God knows how many horrible things that young boy witnessed, a boy who came from an intellectual environment, suddenly finding himself surrounded by delinquents, where some even younger than him died. This is what broadened his vision of the world, of human nature, in terms of the perverse and sends him running toward the light of beauty, toward valuing everything beautiful as if it were the last of the day. This is why when we open ourselves to Martí, his enormous moral stature shines through, his enormous vocation for service, his tireless capacity for work, his dedication and love for others.

How lucky this country has been to have a man like this, to have an example like this! Everything great and everything good is summarized in Martí, because he hoped for nothing more than that his thought survive him. If Marxists define human beings as actors and thinkers, Martí adds feeling. Martí always makes clear to us that, if ideas do not first pass through the heart, they are sterile. This is almost a revelation, a revealed truth. For me, Martí is someone to whom I always return, not to quote him by heart, but to try to understand his formula for triumphant love. Martí’s way of understanding the character of human nature, the prism through which he sees life and attempts to make thinking, doing and feeling go hand in hand. This is admirable and I try to get closer to it every day.

-Do you think that Martí’s indomitable will to fight on the battlefield against the enemy represents an eloquent example for those of us who are willing to give our lives for the welfare of our people?

There are small men, the homeland’s shrimp, who attempt at all costs to make Martí look like a conciliator, a man incapable of being radical, incapable of being intransigent. They have tried many times to sell us a faint-hearted Martí, a soft Martí. This is totally false. Martí was as radical and as intransigent as Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez. He was always very clear that it was impossible to build a republic, to win Cuba’s independence, trying to get along with everyone. He understood that all work was done for the good of all, he understood willpower, effort and dedication, attempting to summon all on the basis of their best side, the side that illuminates. He was very clear about human nature, about the beast that dwells inside every man and, of course, he spoke of the need for good to prevail over that beast. But he was not calling for tigers and rabbits to live in the same cage. Whoever attempts to say that does not understand Martí. This is why I have more respect for those who do know that Martí was a radical and attack him today. It is clear to them that Martí’s stature is so great that they do not have the courage to emulate him. They prefer to deny it. They prefer to judge him on the basis of their own smallness. Those who are not capable of understanding insult him. Those who prefer to fabricate a fifth column Martí and know very well that’s not the way it is, are an offense to his greatness. Martí was capable of signing in blood everything he dreamed, everything he loved. Martí was for real.

(Quelle: Granma)

February 24 of 1895 was once again celebrated yesterday, the date the Necessary War summoned by José Martí was launched, with all and for the good of all, with a shouts of Homeland or Death resounding alongside the mausoleum where the remains of Cuba’s national hero rest.

With this refrain ended the tribute that included the delivery of floral wreaths on behalf of the first secretary of the Party Central Committee, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, and President of the Republic, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, placed next to the tomb covered by a Cuban flag.
2. A commemoration also took place in Baire, in the municipality of Contramaestre, the site of one of the more than 30 uprisings against the Spanish colonial yoke which took place that day. Photo: Yuzdanis Vicet

Earlier in the day, Diaz-Canel tweeted: “It is February 24, a day to retell and sing history. Martí said, “By loving past glories we draw strength to win new glories.” Homeland or Death, beloved Cuba. Only those who cast aside your light and essences can deny the honorable sacrifice of devoting their lives to you. What an honor to serve you in difficult times!”

Flowers on behalf of the president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Esteban Lazo Hernandez, and the people of Cuba, were also placed alongside the monument graves of Fidel, Cespedes and Mariana, in Santiago de Cuba’s patrimonial Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, where a representative group of the city’s citizens, with fists raised, shouted Homeland or Death, reaffirming the determination of Cubans to defend our homeland against aggressive mercenaries of all stripes.

A commemoration of the resumption of the independence struggle also took place in Baire, in the municipality of Contramaestre, the site of one of the more than 30 coordinated uprisings which took place that day to challenge the Spanish colonial yoke.

Another important commemoration took place at the University of Havana, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the public emergence of the Revolutionary Directorate, led by student leader José Antonio Echeverría, in the Aula Magna, where the insurrectional organization of Cuban students was born.

February 24, 2021, culminated with multiple cultural initiatives – in appropriate small group events and via social networks – honoring Martí, Cuba´s independence struggle, and the defense of the homeland through theater, song, poetry, exhibitions, and music.

(Taken from Granma)

Through his Twitter account, he emphasized that the island will insist on this path to respond ‘to the peoples’ demand for peace, sustainable development and justice’.

On November 26, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly declared that, as of its sixty-third session, February 20 of each year will be celebrated as the World Day of Social Justice.

According to the official United Nations website, the celebration promotes the international community’s efforts to achieve sustainable development, eradicate poverty, promote full employment and decent work, universal social protection, gender equality and access to social welfare and justice for all.

Given the current epidemiological situation and the progress of information and communication technologies, the UN decided that the 2021 theme for celebrating the date would be ‘A Call for Social Justice in the Digital Economy.’

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

Cuba needs self-employment (private) because it is a complement to the economy, generates quality jobs and allows for productive linkages, Gil, who is also the minister of Economy and Planning, argued.

The government is boosting this policy despite the negative impact of Covid-19, which has caused a global economic crisis, and the tightening of the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States, in addition to restrictions of access to hard currencies.

The deputy prime minister explained that this is a major program that entails redesigning all the country’s economic operation to boost sustainable development with social guarantees.

The Council of Ministers has recently approved the expansion of the number of activities that self-employed workers can exercise from 127 to over 2,000, 124 of which have total or partial limitations.

According to official statistics, there are more than 600,000 self-employed workers, that is, 13 percent of jobs on the island, 30 percent of which are young people and 35 percent, women.

Minister of Labor and Social Security Marta Elena Feito pointed out that to expand the private sector, the Government took into account opinions and suggestions of the population.

For his part, First Deputy Minister of Finance and Prices Vladimir Regueiro noted that there are no tax increases for MSMEs, which contribute 30-34 percent to territorial budgets, an income that will be allocated to investments for local development.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

Just as he is, in his authentic dimensions, José Martí is of no use to their cause. This would require suppressing a good many texts, no longer publishing them, condemning them to oblivion to such an extent that they become obscure, a topic of study for experts only. Anti-Cuban mercenaries were obliged to quote only certain phrases in their most recent farce, which taken out of context, could serve them very well.

They were looking for a decaffeinated hero, a ‘lite’ patriot, but they found it uncomfortable to actually come face to face with his words, especially with his last, dedicated to Manuel Mercado, with his devastating definition of a monster, a country that boasted of being an eagle. The clairvoyance of a man who portrayed them with his pen hurts them, but without him, without presenting him as their ally, they could do little to subjugate Cuba.

If he were alive, they would not even have tried; he was much too loyal and honest to switch sides. But now, believing he had become nothing more than a statue, a bust or poster, they perceived him as an appropriate figure to incorporate into their manipulative games. They calculated that there would be no repeat of what happened in 1953, when a generation of young rebels made sure that Martí did not die in the year of his centenary.

Again and again they have attempted to misrepresent him in radio and television appearances that are never seen or heard, stories about the improbable intrigues of Gomez and Maceo, slogans and photos on Calle 8, ridiculous events every May 20th, badly translated quotes from the mouths of imperialist Presidents, the unreal Martí who they pretend to honor acting like pigs, perhaps inspired by the disgraceful behavior of drunken Marines, in the Havana of the1950s.

But their pitiful attempts will be reduced to ashes; the people ignite their torches and keep Martí’s light alive. He has long since come down from pedestals and walks among his people, who care for him, because he continues to be the Teacher who guides us.

(Taken from Granma)

The CD consists of 13 tracks with a wide-ranging panorama of sounds, and, for many, remains largely unknown, while the DVD unfortunately includes only five tracks from the album. Thus, only a part of the album could be promoted, the part featuring the biggest hit, without a doubt, “Me dicen Cuba,” by Alexander Abreu and Habana D’ Primera, with a videoclip directed by Pablo Massip, who would assume several productions within the project.

The album’s creators, however, sought musical balance, and included other important works that deserved – and deserve – better diffusion, beyond a video clip, which does not detract from the importance of the project or a specific track, a factor that must be considered when thinking about a harmonious communion of so much collective effort and talent. Among these jewels that Motivos… also contains, and are still little known, is the song Dicha grande, composed by Juan Formell and Israel Rojas, and performed by Los Van Van, inspired by what Martí wrote when he landed in Cuba at Playita de Cajobabo: “We arrive at a pebble beach, the little beach at the foot of Cajobabo, I stay in the boat as the last to get out. I jump. Great delight.”

Within the arcane and capricious aspects of the story, is that this is perhaps the only direct reference by Formell to a quote of Marti’s, in a song dedicated precisely to the Maestro. To add emphasis, or as a public declaration and commitment to his admiration of Martí, it is Formell who performs this song to assume, with his greatness and talent, the historic challenge of leaving us his voice in what he perhaps imagined would be his last collaborative production and recording. He died in May 2014, the same year the album was released.

In Dicha grande (Great delight), Martí is reinterpreted with a beautiful text that begins: “I have before me my land, my people, my childhood, my truth, my pains, my roots, my reason, my essences: the entire Cuba of my loves.” The text continues with the complicity of the band’s particular musical language, without renouncing the well-known Van Van cadence, thanks to the arrangement conceived by Formell, who also invited guitarist Dairon Lobaina, from Buena Fe (who unfortunately also passed away shortly thereafter). The sonority achieved pleased Juan, who had previously shared a similar experience with Elmer Ferrer in several of the band’s collaborations.

It would be worthwhile to revisit the album, and make it more visible, and to disseminate the other songs included, especially this one by Los Van Van, a precious gift left by the great Formell honoring Martí and moreover, producing an audiovisual to accompany the track would perhaps be valuable as well, a genuine tribute of profound human and musical relevance.

(Taken from Granma)

Cuba’s dignified resistance defeated the 240 measures imposed by Trump, intended to asphyxiate our economy and undermine the people’s support for the Revolution. As President Díaz-Canel said, “They threw us to our death, and we are alive.”

The subversive projects implemented with the use of mercenaries, “independent media” and social networks, only managed to fleetingly confuse a few people and add a new cartoonish chapter to the anti-Cuban campaign.

In the face of aggression by a frantic, rabid Goliath, sick with hatred and impotence, David appears as Martí always evoked him: a moral giant.

The small, besieged and slandered island has confronted covid-19 with scientific rigor, a spirit of solidarity and unquestionably positive results, both within its borders and in another 40 countries and territories. Ours is also among the very few nations that are making progress in the development of their own vaccines.

The Northern Empire, on the other hand, the world’s greatest superpower, responded to the epidemic in a negligent, inhumane manner, focusing on the electoral and economic repercussions of the virus and not on those it had, and has, on the health of its citizens. The U.S. population is paying for the insensitivity of its rulers with the loss of many lives, particularly among the poorest.

At the same time, manipulations meant to discredit our doctors serving abroad failed in the face of the exemplary professionalism and generosity they leave wherever they are.

Martí was also obliged to respond to defamations launched in the U.S. press against his cause and his compatriots, and to defend, with passion and sound arguments, the capacity of Cubans to govern themselves and build a Republic free from the evils he saw and suffered in several Latin American countries and, above all, within the United States. A free, sovereign, just Cuba, capable of putting a brake on the imperial drive, along with Puerto Rico and other Antilles, and thus contribute to creating “the equilibrium” still lacking in the world.

The “stillborn who have no faith in their land” called him “crazy” for his convictions, integrity and patriotic fervor. Many years later, other cynical stillborns, the ideologues of neo-annexation, likewise lashed out at him and harshly dismissed his “delusions” about the destiny of an island they believed doomed to submission to the powerful neighbor.

Of course, they have similarly attacked his best disciple, Fidel, heir to this noble “madness,” who founded a socialist, internationalist homeland, faithful to Martí’s ideas, and made transcendental contributions to equilibrium in the world.

On the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle, Fidel returned to Martí’s influence on the protagonists of the assault on the Moncada:

“(…) from him we had received, above all, the ethical principles without which a revolution cannot even be conceived. From him we also received inspiring patriotism and such a superior concept of honor and human dignity that no one else in the world could have taught us.”

This legacy that nurtured the Centennial Generation has, since 1959, become the patrimony of the great majority of the Cuban people and continues to be essential.

The struggle waged by the Apostle to counteract the advance among Latin American politicians and intellectuals of the Yankee “model” as an idealized paradigm, synonymous with “modernity”, “development” and “freedom,” has not lost its validity. That is why he endeavored so tirelessly to dismantle the myth. He denounced, among many other humiliating features of the supposed “model,” the arrogance and hegemonic ambitions of “the American Rome,” the obsessive cult of money as a cancer that gnaws at the foundations of that society and the control exercised by “colossal, opulent companies” in the elections.

He wrote these concise words about U.S. “democracy,” “I do not want the people of my land to be like this one, an ignorant mass ruled by passions, who go where they are led, with noises they do not understand by those who play their passions as a pianist plays the keys.”

Cultural decolonization is another basic component of Marti’s thought. Although the pandemic revealed categorically the cruelty of neoliberalism and accelerated the empire’s decadence and declining credibility, the colonizing machinery of the advertising, information and entertainment industry maintains its effectiveness.

The decolonizing projects designed by Martí – from the Edad de Oro to his dazzling journalism – contain instruments of enormous value for the development of a cultured, free human being who cannot be manipulated, which is at the core of our educational project. In this field, he left unique lessons for his era and for the future, for Cuba, the Latin American and Caribbean region, and all humanity.

This is why Fidel asked so forcefully on one anniversary of Martí’s birth: “Why not erect a living monument to the beautiful, profound truth contained in Marti’s apothegm: “To be educated is the only way to be free?”

Fidel was not proposing a sculpture or an obelisk. He was most likely thinking of the deep, full, continuous exercise of one of the key elements of his concept of Revolution, the one summoning us to “emancipate ourselves on our own and with our own efforts.”

(Taken from Granma)

“This demonstration is not the largest, but it is one of the most moving,” stated the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, who, along with the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, at the historic Havana intersection of Hospital and Príncipe Streets, received the group who reenacted that first march held January 27, 1953, led by a young Fidel Castro Ruz. This year, given the precautions demanded by the pandemic, the tribute was smaller and the route customarily illuminated by thousands of torches was walked by some 20.

Also present were José Ramón Machado Ventura, Party second secretary, the Comadante de la Revolución Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, and José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, who 68 years ago, along with Raúl, also marched these streets, to denounce the Batista dictatorship, and ensure that Marti’s legacy was not forgotten on his centenary.

The important thing is that the ceremony took place, no matter the number of participants, Raul told the group, before sharing a fist bump with each of them, as required by the new codes of behavior imposed by COVID-19 in Cuba and around the world.

This January 27 was different. The University of Havana’s Grand Stairway did not resound with the footsteps of thousands advancing toward the prison quarry where Martí’s spirit was tested at an early age. But the tribute, on the eve of the 168th anniversary of his birth, was not forgotten.

“Today there will be fewer torches, but this does not mean that all of Cuba is not alit with the flame of dignity in healthcare centers, workplaces, schools, art studios, defense , and everywhere the battle against the pandemic is fought,” stated José Ángel Fernández Castañeda, president of the Federation of University Students.

(Taken from Granma)

Just as the sun touched the tomb covered by a Cuban flag that holds the Apostle’s remains, in the city’s Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, floral wreaths to honor our national hero were deposited, in the names of Raúl and Díaz-Canel, by Lázaro Expósito Canto and Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, president and vice-president of the Provincial Defense Council, respectively.

Two other wreaths, with carnations, lilies and white roses, were delivered from the President of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State, Esteban Lazo Hernández, and the people of Cuba.

To highlight the continuing relevance of Martí’s thought, on this May 19, President Díaz-Canel tweeted: “125 years ago, upon his death, Martí entered eternity. He had said: I know how to disappear, but my thought will not disappear. Fidel brought him to our days and his followers will not let him disappear.”

In another message, he pointed out: “Martí lives in every one of the Cuban Revolution’s works of resistance and creation, and in every act of dedication and sacrifice of those who go around the world saving lives under the principle of Homeland is Humanity.”

In addition, Martí’s warning of the danger posed by the United States to Cuba’s independence was also recalled by Díaz-Canel on the occasion: “The Apostle falls in combat, and in an unfinished letter, he warns of the dangerous plans of the empire against Cuba and Our America. History confirms his prediction and affirms our rebellion.”

White flowers in young hands, and a few individuals carrying the love of a country, also paid tribute to Cuba’s national hero in Dos Ríos, the exact site of his death in combat, which is today within the municipality of Jiguaní, in Granma province.

ACN reported that, although the traditional gathering here was not possible given the COVID-19 heath emergency, the commemoration led by Party and government authorities reaffirmed the continuing validity of the Apostle’s thought, kept alive by Fidel, who identified José Martí as the “intellectual author” of our victorious struggles.

(Source: Granma)