For José Martí our first thoughts this May 19

HAVANA, Cuba, May 19 (ACN) “Our first thoughts go to José Martí this May 19, 126 years after his fall in combat and his political testament,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez wrote on Twitter today.

The Cuban leader also emphasized Marti's ideology, particularly quoting his efforts to “prevent on time, by the independence of Cuba, the United States from spreading over the lands of Our America”.

An article in today's Granma daily holds that Martí put all his genius at the service of his ideals, and those who outlived him did not hesitate to label him with the most grandiloquent titles, from the best known, Apostle, to others such as Rubén Darío’s choice, who called him the true superman, great and virile.

The text goes on to say that Martí’s death in combat on May 19, 1895 is still the great tragedy of Cuban history; we Cubans let the man die, and his corpse gave birth to the Apostle.

“That accursed genius who was a hero, a poet and a politician; that man that we let die in Dos Rios, became immortal and revived in the courage and intelligence of a handful of young people who decided to take the sky by storm. And there he was, there is Martí, always, in every fight waged for Cuba,” reads the article.