Homeland was José Martí’s newspaper. The newspaper of the Cuban Revolution. It was a platform to socialize the efforts of a necessary war. It was a space for the analysis of a moment and to set the priorities of that moment. It was the voice of an emigration committed to the nation’s independence. It was a means to promote mobilization. And brought together dissimilar stances in a solid, coherent discourse, with an eye on the main goal: to free Cuba from the colonial rule while envisioning the dreamed Republic. Homeland was the newspaper of unity.
Every Revolution needs a press. And not just to write chronicles and leaves testimony of a heroic deed, but as a generator of ideas, as a useful laboratory. The revolutionary press also has the mission of consolidating a symbolic body, and constantly subjecting it to scrutiny. Because a stagnated Revolution ceases to be a Revolution. The press has to be a watchtower.
And the revolutionary press (and this is how José Martí understood it) must have a profoundly cultural vocation, taking the daily work to a transcendental dimension: the building of a consensus, with all its implications, considering the nuances and establishing hierarchies.
the Homeland newspaper continues to be a reference. It is not a coincidence that Cuba celebrates the Press Day the same day the founding of this newspaper is celebrated. Relatively speaking, today’s media share tasks and challenges with the newspaper Martí founded. The first: the defense of the right to exist of a Revolution, which is based on its necessity and its ability to represent the aspirations of a people.
The vocation of service, foreign to vanities and individualistic interests, must characterize revolutionary journalism. With our feet firmly on the ground, attentive ear, clear and precise voice. Depth in thought, grace in style.
Revolutionary journalism cannot be a beacon of elites, it has to be a popular tool. That journalism has to sprout out of the people. The people must serve. And it is their responsibility to open the widest possible thematic spectrum, so that all demands are met.
There are articles published in Homeland that retain singular validity, some of them written by Martí himself. They are the ones who identify the pillars of a Revolution that has definitely been one. It would be convenient to dwell on these concepts, in these particularly complex hours for the nation.
The press has to be reference and defense. And at a time when the democratization of technologies has multiplied the range of public opinion, professional journalism must consolidate itself as a benchmark of veracity and rigor. as was Homeland in times of libels.
Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / Cuba Si Translation Staff
