MIAMI, United States. — The figure of Jose Marti It is extremely well known by Cubans. However, those born on the island tend to associate the Apostle with the status of a highly gifted civil leader, journalist, intellectual and organizer, unaware in many cases that, before he died, he was also promoted to the rank of major general of the Liberation Army.
The event occurred on April 15, 1895. The promotion to the rank of major general occurred at the proposal of Máximo Gómez, aware of the decisive role that Martí had to play for the success of the contest.
On that day, Martí himself would write in his Campaign Diary: “Gómez, at the foot of the mountain, on the sidewalk shaded by plane trees, with the ravine below, tells me, handsome and moved, that, apart from recognizing in me the Delegate , the Liberation Army, by him its chief elected in council of chiefs, names me Major General. I hug him. They all hug me. “At night, pork with coconut oil, and it’s good.”
The appointment of Martí as Major General, took place in the intricate place of the Imías mountain ranges known as Vega Batea, next to the Tavera Ranch, today marked among the camps of the so-called Martí Route, distinguished as a National Monument.
The Apostle would fall several weeks later, on May 19, 1895, in the first combat in which he participated, near the town of Dos Ríos.
Although Martí had not participated in combat, he did master the principles of military art and politics associated with conflicts, for which he studied the Napoleonic wars, the civil war in the United States, as well as the Ten Years’ War and the causes of its failure.
