Dos Rios Camp,
May 18, 1895
Mr Manuel Mercado
My dearest brother:
Now I can write, now I can tell you how tenderly and gratefully
and respectfully I love you and that home which I consider
my pride and responsibility. I am in daily danger of giving
my life for my country and duty for I understand that duty
and have the courage to carry it out-the duty of preventing
the United States from spreading through the Antilles as
Cuba gains its independence, and from empowering with that
additional strength our lands of America. All I have done
so far, and all I will do, is for this purpose. I have had
to work quietly and somewhat indirectly, because to achieve
certain objectives, they must be kept under cover; to proclaim
them for what they are would raise such difficulties that
the objectives could not be attained.
The same general
and lesser duties of these nations-nations such as yours
and mine that are most vitally concerned with preventing
the opening in Cuba(by annexation on the part of the imperialist
from there and the Spaniards) of the road that is to be
closed, and is being closed with our blood, annexing our
American nations to be brutal and turbulent North which
despises them-prevented their apparent adherence and obvious
assistance to this sacrifice made for their immediate benefit.
I have lived
in the monster and I know its entrails; my sling is David's.
At this very moment-well, some days ago-amid the cheers
of victory with which the Cuban saluted our free departure
from the mountains where the six men of our expedition walked
for fourteen days, a correspondent from the Herald, who
tore me out the hammock in my hut, told me about the annexationist
movement. He claimed it was less to be feared because of
the unrealistic approach of its aspirants, undisciplined
or uncreative men of a legalistic turn of mind, who in the
comfortable disguise of their complacency or their submission
to Spain, half-heartedly ask it for Cuba's autonomy. They
are satisfied merely that there be a master- Yankee or Spanish-
to support them or reward their services as go-betweens
with positions of power, enabling them to scorn the hardworking
masses-the country's half-breeds, skilled and pathetic,
the intelligent and creative hordes of Negroes and white
men.
And that Herald
correspondent, Eugene Bryson, told me more: about a Yankee
syndicate, endorsed by the customs authority who are too
closely associated with the rapacious Spanish banks to be
involved with those of the North, a syndicate fortunately
unable, because of its sinewy and complex political structure,
to undertake or support the idea as a government project.
And Bryson continue talking, although the truth of his reports
could be understood only by a person with firsthand knowledge
of the determination with which we have mustered the revolution,
of the disorganization, indifference, and poor pay of the
untried Spanish army, and of Spain´s inability to
gather, in or out of Cuba, the resources to be used against
the war, resources which it had obtained the time before
from Cuba alone. Bryson recounted his conversation with
Martinez Campos at the end of which Martinez Campos gave
to understand that at the proper time, Spain would doubtless
prefer to come to terms with the United States than hand
the island to the Cubans. And Bryson had still more to tell
me: about an acquaintance of ours whom the North is grooming
as a candidate from the United States for the presidency
of Mexico when the term of the president now in office expires.
I am doing my
duty here. The Cuban war, a reality of higher priority than
the vague and scattered desires of the Cuban and Spanish
annexationists, whose alliance with the Spanish government
would only give them the relative power, has come to America
in time to prevent Cuba's annexation to the United States,
even against all those freely used forces. The United States
will never accept from a country at war, nor can it occur,
the hateful and absurd commitment of discouraging, on its
account and with its weapons, an American war of independence,
for the war will not accept annexation.
And Mexico, will
it not find a wise, effective, and immediate way of helping,
in due time, its own defender? It will indeed, or I shall
find one for it. This is a life-and death matter, and there
is no room for error. The prudent way is the only way to
worth considering. I would have founded and proposed it.
But I must have more authority placed in me, or know who
has it, before acting or advising. I have just arrived.
The formation of our utilitarian yet simple government can
still take two more months, if it is to be stable and realistic.
Our spirit is one, the will of the country, and I know it.
But these things are always a matter of communication, influence
and accommodation. In my capacity as representative, I do
not want to do anything that my appear to be a capricious
extension of it. I arrived in a boat with General Máximo
Gómez and four others. I was in charge of the lead
oar during a storm and we landed at an unknown quarry on
one of our beaches. For fourteen days I carried my rifle
and knapsack, marching through bramble patches and over
hills. We gather people along the way. In the benevolence
men's souls I feel the root of my affection for their suffering,
and my just desire to eliminate it. The countryside is unquestionably
ours to the extent that in a single month I could hear but
one blast of gunfire. And at the gates cities we either
won a victory, or reviewed 3 000 troops in the face of enthusiasm
resembling religious fervour. We continue on our way to
the center of the island where, in the presence of the revolution
which I instigated, I laid aside the authority given me
by the settlements abroad and acknowledged by the island,
and which an assembly of delegates form the Cuban people-revolutionaries
in arms-must replace in accord with the new conditions.
The revolution desires complete freedom in the army, without
the obstacles previously raised by a Chamber without real
sanction, without the distrust of its republicanism by a
suspicious faction of the young, and without the jealousy
and fears, which could become too great a threat in the
future, of a punctilious or prophetic leader. But at the
same time the revolution is eager for a concise and respectable
republican representation-the same decent spirit of humanity,
filled with a desire for individual dignity in representing
the republic, as that which encourages and maintains the
revolutionaries in this war. As for me, I realise that a
nation can not be led counter to or without the spirit that
motivates it; I know how human hearts are inspired, and
how to make use of a confident and impassionate state of
mind to keep enthusiasm at a constant pitch and ready for
the attack. But with respect to forms, many ideas are possible,
and in matters of men, there are men to carry them out.
You know me. In my case, I defend only what I consider a
guarantee of, or a service to, the revolution. I know how
to disappear. But my thoughts will never disappear, nor
will my obscurity leave me embittered. The moment we take
shape, we will proceed; trust this to me and the others.
And now, having
dealt with national interests, I will talk about myself,
since only the emotion of this duty could raise from a much-desired
death the man who, now that Nájera does not live
where you can see him better and cherishes as his heart's
delight that friendship with which you fill him with pride.
I know his silent
gestures of annoyance, after my voyage. And however much
we told him, from the bottom of our hearts, there was no
response! What a fraud he is, and how callous that soul
of his, that the honor and tribute of our affection has
not moved him to write one more letter on the paper of the
maps or newspapers that fill our day!
There are affections
of such fragile honesty.
