"Patria" and the militant journalism that inspires us

It still admires the immensity of the objective and how effectively it was achieved when one looks, as one does these days, at the newspaper Patria, founded by Jose Marti and whose first edition was published in New York on March 14, 1892, when the Apostle was already involved in the preparations for the Necessary War.

"Trenches of ideas are worth more than trenches of stones", defined the thinking of that patriot, who was a renowned writer and journalist of recognized prestige in several countries of the continent, gained in Latin American places and as a correspondent in the aforementioned northern city.

When the time came to assume with greater intensity the path he considered a priority to achieve Cuba's freedom, a final, quick and efficient war, Marti proved that he would not give up or choose one thing over another, as it has sometimes been believed, but rather a summation, a broadening of his work.

Of course, some issues had to yield time and priority to others.

Indeed, complexity was part of his brilliant intelligence, his ideological and political maturity, and his principles, not to mention the extra of feelings, the immense love for his country with which he seemed to have been born.

With the help and sacrifices of Cuban cigar makers who emigrated to Tampa, United States, where the Apostle of Independence lived for about 15 years, "Patria" had the sacred mission, among others, of influencing and strengthening the unity that would help forge consciences and seek resources from the patriots of the Island and the exile, from everyone, to achieve the sovereignty of the Island.

According to scholars, the Maestro never explicitly defined "Patria" as the official newspaper of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, and it even preceded the political organization he founded on April 10 of that same year.

But it is evident that both were part of the same project and had similar objectives, so there was no need for any statement in this regard, since their coherence was an undeniable fact.

And "Patria" deployed a summoning, mobilizing and agglutinating work in favor of the independence of Cuba and also of Puerto Rico.

The enduring values of that publication are not only political or ideological, since the opinion of experts who consider it the best exponent of Marti's creativity within journalism, in which the author is also credited with the outstanding contribution of having opened a new writing with his chronicles and essays, is gaining consensus.

This corresponds to the zeal for objectivity and the depth of the analyses poured by its director and founder, always superior to the patriotic feelings or emotions that the fact of being so deeply involved could impose on him.

There was a total agreement between the ideals of the pro-independence cause, the aspirations of the new free republic to be forged, with truth, constructive criticism, brotherhood, and the unity to be advocated to achieve victory, above human miseries.

All the deep-rooted values of freedom, justice and human betterment in which Martí always believed, even in the midst of the hardships of exile, were expressed in "Patria".

One could not expect anything different from the man who, in his adolescence, had made his first steps in journalism by founding in 1869 El Diablo Cojuelo and La Patria Libre; from 1881 onwards he had also been Correspondent with capital letters of the newspapers of La Nacion, of Buenos Aires; La Opinion Nacional, of Caracas; El Partido Liberal, of Mexico; as well as of Chilean and Uruguayan journals.

When he founded the aforementioned newspaper in 1892, we are in the presence of a mature and progressively advanced Marti, as he had promised since his early years.

He then fulfilled his functions in that newspaper that came out every Saturday, distributed among the revolutionaries in exile and was sent to Cuba in a clandestine manner.

The Apostle assumed this self-imposed commitment to death. And although writing was not his main mission with respect to the preparation and organization of the Necessary War, which was at the center of his existence at that time, he always found time for his newspaper.

In doing so, he put into practice a journalism that was not linked to the mercantilism of the majority or, rather, all the others of the time, but which was neither stuffy nor pamphleteering, because it spoke with truth and reason, and appealed to feelings at the right moment.

It was categorical in not accepting funds of suspicious origin or issued by persons or entities not in sympathy with the Cuban cause at the time of its creation. The cigar makers of Tampa and Key West donated 10 % of their salaries to cover the costs of this publication, a sign of love and sacrifice.
As for the presentation style, it had the format of what is known today as a tabloid, with four pages in four columns, and an unusual size nowadays (52 x 36 cm). It was distributed mainly by mail.

From its first issue, it published the Bases of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and an article by Marti: Our ideas, in which he enunciated that "Homeland" was born to gather and love, and to live in the passion of truth. In the text he also proclaims the unpostponable need to achieve independence and freedom through war.
Among the closest collaborators in its writing was Gonzalo de Quesada, Marti's friend, and the Puerto Rican Sotero Figueroa, typographer and good writer, highly esteemed by the Master for his incisive style, whom he admired for the sharpness of his pen.

In addition, Manuel Sanguily, Francisco de Paula Coronado, Diego Vicente Tejera and Bonifacio Byrne.

Those who study the thinking and actions of Cuba's National Hero know of the enormous faith he placed in "Patria", because he believed it was essential for the mobilization and education of Cuban patriots.

He wanted to decisively influence and so he did, in the forging of a way of thinking that would establish unity as a concept to be preserved in their daily life by all, as a sacred principle, in order to avoid a repetition of the disastrous experience of the War of 1968.

Also, secretly as it was later known, he used it to alert or not to allow possible influences or interferences from the powerful northern nation where he resided, which he knew perfectly well "the insides".

That is why on March 14, since 1992, the workers of the national press celebrate their day, as the best way to honor the torch lit in multiple senses by "Patria". The challenge is enormous, but the current successors assume it with similar values to those raised by the Master.